Elden Ring is more than four years old – so why are over 40,000 Steam players still returning?

Few games arrive with expectations as high as Elden Ring did in February 2022.

FromSoftware already had Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice behind it. However, Elden Ring represented something much bigger.

The studio took many of the ideas that defined its previous action RPGs and placed them inside a vast open world called the Lands Between.

Hidetaka Miyazaki directed the game, while A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin contributed to its world-building.

The result became enormous.

Elden Ring has now sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Moreover, Bandai Namco says the game received more than 400 Game of the Year nominations.

Yet sales tell only part of the story.

More than four years after release, Elden Ring remains remarkably active on PC. SteamDB recently recorded more than 37,000 concurrent players, with a 24-hour peak above 43,000. Its all-time Steam peak remains 953,426 concurrent players.

Meanwhile, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco are still giving players reasons to return.

On 28 August 2026, Elden Ring arrived on Nintendo Switch 2 through the new Tarnished Edition. At the same time, players on existing platforms received access to new classes, armour and Torrent customisation through the Tarnished Pack.

So why does Elden Ring remain this active in 2026?

Elden Ring turned the Souls formula into an open world

Elden Ring did not abandon the design philosophy that made FromSoftware famous.

Combat remained dangerous.

Bosses could destroy an unprepared character within seconds.

Death carried consequences, while checkpoints remained important.

Players still had to observe enemy attacks, learn patterns and decide when to attack, dodge or retreat.

However, Elden Ring changed one fundamental part of that structure.

Players could leave.

If a boss proved too difficult, there was usually another direction to explore.

That changed the rhythm dramatically.

Instead of repeatedly confronting the same obstacle, players could explore another region, discover equipment, improve their character and eventually return stronger.

As a result, difficulty remained central without always becoming a wall.

The Lands Between made getting lost worthwhile

Elden Ring’s open world rarely explains everything.

A distant castle appears on the horizon.

Something unusual sits beside a road.

Ruins emerge from the landscape.

A cave entrance appears unexpectedly.

Meanwhile, a strange character may provide only a vague indication of what to do next.

That uncertainty encourages curiosity.

Rather than filling the map with endless objective markers, Elden Ring frequently asks players to investigate because something simply looks interesting.

Sometimes the reward is equipment.

Elsewhere, it might be a boss, spell, dungeon or NPC.

Occasionally, an apparently insignificant path leads towards an entirely new area.

Therefore, exploration becomes more than travelling between objectives.

It becomes one of the game’s primary systems.

Elden Ring trusts the player to figure things out

Modern games often explain their systems repeatedly.

Elden Ring takes a different approach.

The game provides tutorials and essential information. However, it also leaves an enormous amount unexplained.

Questlines can be cryptic.

NPCs move.

Important objects may have vague descriptions.

Entire areas can remain hidden.

Even major game systems may take time to understand fully.

That approach can be frustrating.

However, it also creates discovery.

Players talk to each other.

Guides appear.

Communities investigate mysteries.

Videos explain obscure mechanics.

As a result, knowledge becomes part of the Elden Ring experience.

Character builds give Elden Ring enormous replay value

Elden Ring does not force every Tarnished into the same fighting style.

Players can build around strength.

Dexterity offers another route.

Intelligence supports sorcery, while Faith opens different forms of magic.

Arcane creates further possibilities.

Hybrid builds can combine several approaches.

Weapons also behave very differently.

A massive greatsword creates one type of character.

Katanas create another.

Spears, bows, colossal weapons, twinblades, daggers and magical weapons can completely change combat.

Furthermore, Ashes of War allow players to alter weapon abilities and, in many cases, their scaling.

Consequently, starting another character does not necessarily mean repeating exactly the same experience.

Elden Ring allows players to create their own difficulty

FromSoftware games have a reputation for being difficult.

Elden Ring certainly deserves part of that reputation.

However, the game provides far more tools than the stereotype sometimes suggests.

Players can summon Spirit Ashes.

They can use multiplayer assistance.

Magic can create distance.

Status effects can weaken difficult enemies.

Powerful weapons can transform encounters.

Exploration can also provide additional levels and equipment.

Therefore, players have considerable influence over how they approach difficult encounters.

Someone seeking a brutal solo challenge can create one.

Another player can use every system available.

Both approaches are legitimate.

Boss fights became some of Elden Ring’s defining moments

FromSoftware has always placed enormous emphasis on bosses.

Elden Ring expanded that tradition.

Margit immediately tests new players approaching Stormveil Castle.

Godrick demonstrates the grotesque nature of the Lands Between.

Starscourge Radahn turns a boss encounter into something approaching a battlefield.

Malenia became one of the game’s most famous challenges.

Later encounters push players even further.

The spectacle matters.

However, the strongest fights are memorable because players gradually learn them.

An attack that initially appears impossible becomes recognisable.

Timing improves.

Panic disappears.

Eventually, the boss falls.

That progression from frustration to understanding remains one of FromSoftware’s most effective design tools.

Elden Ring made failure part of progress

Death happens frequently.

However, dying does not necessarily mean nothing was achieved.

Perhaps the player discovered a shortcut.

Maybe they learned where an ambush occurs.

A boss attack that seemed unpredictable may now make sense.

Another attempt might reveal when healing is safe.

Therefore, knowledge becomes a form of progression.

Your character may have exactly the same statistics after dying.

You do not.

That principle sits at the centre of the Souls design philosophy.

Elden Ring simply gives players a much larger world in which to learn it.

The story exists beneath the surface

Elden Ring tells a story, but it rarely presents that story in a conventional way.

Queen Marika the Eternal once ruled the Lands Between.

The Elden Ring was shattered.

Her demigod offspring claimed its Great Runes.

Their resulting conflict became known as the Shattering.

The Tarnished then return to the Lands Between, guided by Grace and ultimately seeking to become Elden Lord.

That sounds relatively straightforward.

It is not.

The deeper mythology extends through characters, factions, locations, item descriptions and environmental details.

Players therefore build their understanding gradually.

Different interpretations remain possible, which has helped support years of lore discussions.

George R. R. Martin helped build Elden Ring’s mythology

One reason Elden Ring attracted attention before launch was the involvement of George R. R. Martin.

Bandai Namco describes the game as being created under Miyazaki’s direction and based on a mythological story written by Martin.

However, Elden Ring does not suddenly become Game of Thrones with boss fights.

FromSoftware’s storytelling style remains unmistakable.

Martin’s contribution helped establish the underlying mythology, while FromSoftware built the game and narrative around that foundation.

The result feels consistent with the studio’s earlier work while still establishing a distinct universe.

Elden Ring rewards players for paying attention

Many details can easily be missed.

Item descriptions contain lore.

Architecture reveals history.

Enemy placement can suggest what happened in a location.

NPC dialogue may change after an event.

Meanwhile, apparently unrelated characters can eventually become connected.

That gives dedicated players something to investigate long after finishing the main journey.

A first playthrough can focus largely on survival.

Later playthroughs can become archaeological expeditions through the game’s mythology.

As a result, familiarity can make the world more interesting rather than less.

Shadow of the Erdtree made Elden Ring much larger

Elden Ring’s biggest expansion arrived in 2024.

Shadow of the Erdtree takes players into the Land of Shadow, following the path of Miquella.

FromSoftware describes it as its largest Elden Ring expansion.

The DLC introduced another substantial world to explore, alongside new weapons, equipment, weapon skills, magic, enemies, bosses and storylines.

More importantly, it expanded parts of Elden Ring’s mythology that had generated questions since the original game.

For returning players, Shadow of the Erdtree provided a major reason to rebuild characters and enter the Lands Between again.

The Land of Shadow feels familiar without simply repeating the base game

Shadow of the Erdtree retains Elden Ring’s fundamental structure.

Explore.

Fight.

Discover.

Die.

Learn.

Return.

However, its world has a different identity.

The Land of Shadow is tied closely to Marika, Miquella and events that sit beneath the history of the original adventure.

Consequently, the expansion does more than provide another collection of bosses.

It adds context to a world players had already spent years investigating.

That makes it particularly valuable for players interested in Elden Ring’s lore.

Elden Ring reached more than 30 million sales

By 2026, Elden Ring had moved far beyond being merely a successful FromSoftware title.

The base game has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

That number matters because Souls-style games were once treated as relatively specialised experiences.

Elden Ring demonstrated that demanding action RPG design could reach an enormous mainstream audience without removing the principles that made FromSoftware’s earlier games distinctive.

The studio did not make Elden Ring easy.

Instead, it gave players more ways to deal with difficulty.

That distinction helped broaden the audience without completely changing the underlying philosophy.

Elden Ring still reaches more than 40,000 players during recent Steam peaks

Perhaps the clearest indication of Elden Ring’s longevity comes from Steam.

The game launched on PC in February 2022.

Its all-time Steam concurrency peak reached 953,426 players on 5 March 2022.

More than four years later, SteamDB recently showed a 24-hour concurrent peak above 43,000 players.

The exact live number naturally changes throughout the day.

Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Steam users are still entering the Lands Between simultaneously.

That is before counting PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2.

Therefore, Steam should be treated as one measurable part of the audience rather than Elden Ring’s complete player population.

Elden Ring received another update in August 2026

The original game is not frozen in its 2022 state.

FromSoftware released Patch 1.17 on 27 August 2026.

The update added support for the new Tarnished Pack while also implementing gameplay balance adjustments.

That timing is significant.

Elden Ring is more than four years old, yet its original game is still receiving new content and balance work.

Moreover, the update arrived alongside another major expansion of the game’s platform reach.

Elden Ring Tarnished Edition has brought the game to Nintendo Switch 2

On 28 August 2026, Elden Ring officially arrived on Nintendo Switch 2 through Elden Ring Tarnished Edition.

The package includes the base game and Shadow of the Erdtree.

It also contains additional content, including two new starting classes.

They are the Heavy Knight and Idus Knight.

Four new armour sets are included as well.

For the first time, players can also customise Torrent’s appearance using three new options.

This is also the first time Elden Ring has been available on a Nintendo platform.

Existing Elden Ring players can access the new content too

The new material is not entirely locked to Nintendo Switch 2.

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco released the Tarnished Pack for existing versions of Elden Ring.

It is available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC via Steam.

The pack contains the two new starting classes, three Torrent customisation options and four armour sets.

Therefore, even players who have owned Elden Ring for years have something new to experiment with.

That may also help explain the game’s renewed Steam activity.

Two new classes create another excuse to start again

Starting classes matter most during Elden Ring’s early hours.

Eventually, players can develop characters in almost any direction.

Even so, a new class creates a different starting point.

The Heavy Knight and Idus Knight introduce new equipment configurations for players creating fresh characters. Their equipment can also be obtained elsewhere in the Lands Between after purchasing the Tarnished Pack.

For a game built around experimentation, that matters.

Elden Ring does not necessarily need another enormous expansion to encourage another playthrough.

Sometimes a new build is enough.

Torrent can finally look different

Torrent has been with players since Elden Ring launched.

Until now, however, customising the Spectral Steed’s appearance was not part of the normal game.

The Tarnished Pack changes that.

Players receive three Spectral Steed Attire options for Torrent.

It is a relatively small addition compared with Shadow of the Erdtree.

Nevertheless, it demonstrates that FromSoftware is still willing to change elements of the original game more than four years after release.

Bandai Namco is actively encouraging players to return

The renewed Elden Ring activity does not end with the Tarnished Edition.

On 31 August 2026, Bandai Namco launched a series of Elden Ring Community Quests.

The first runs from 1 September to 28 September 2026.

Players collectively need to summon Sorcerer Rogier 300,000 times, obtain two million Stonesword Keys, collect 1.5 million Cookbooks and obtain one million Sacred Tears.

More questlines are scheduled afterwards.

The second runs in October.

Further community challenges continue later in the year.

So, as of September 2026, Bandai Namco is actively trying to bring Tarnished back into the Lands Between.

Elden Ring now exists beyond the original game

Elden Ring is also becoming something larger than one RPG.

Elden Ring Nightreign launched in May 2025 as a standalone adventure within the Elden Ring universe.

Rather than recreating the original game’s structure, Nightreign focuses on shorter sessions, changing environments and three-player cooperative action.

SteamDB recently showed Nightreign reaching more than 30,000 players during a 24-hour peak of its own.

That means FromSoftware now has two different active games drawing players into the Elden Ring universe.

However, Nightreign should not be mistaken for an Elden Ring sequel.

It is a standalone game built around a different structure.

An Elden Ring movie is now coming

The franchise is expanding beyond games as well.

Bandai Namco and A24 have announced a live-action Elden Ring film.

Alex Garland is writing and directing the adaptation.

Furthermore, the movie is being filmed for IMAX and is scheduled for theatrical release on 3 March 2028.

The announced cast includes Kit Connor, Ben Whishaw, Cailee Spaeny, Tom Burke, Nick Offerman, Jonathan Pryce and several others.

For a game universe that only debuted in 2022, that expansion is significant.

Elden Ring is becoming a broader entertainment property.

Elden Ring’s multiplayer gives the world another life

Although Elden Ring can be played as a single-player adventure, online systems add another layer.

Players can summon others for cooperative play.

They can invade other worlds.

Messages left on the ground can provide useful information.

Sometimes they provide terrible information.

Bloodstains reveal how other players died.

Phantoms briefly show strangers moving through their own worlds.

These systems create the impression that the Lands Between is being explored by countless Tarnished at the same time.

However, the game never becomes a traditional MMO.

The player’s own journey remains central.

Messages became part of Elden Ring culture

Few systems demonstrate FromSoftware’s community design better than player messages.

A message can warn about an ambush.

It might reveal a hidden path.

Alternatively, it might encourage you to jump from a cliff.

Players use a restricted vocabulary to assemble phrases.

That limitation somehow makes the system funnier.

“Try finger, but hole” became practically unavoidable.

So did messages claiming that perfectly ordinary walls hide secret passages.

The system combines cooperation, deception and comedy without requiring players to speak directly to one another.

As a result, even solo exploration can feel strangely social.

Elden Ring works without making multiplayer mandatory

For South African players, there is another practical advantage.

The core Elden Ring experience remains playable as a single-player game.

Online functionality enhances it, but the primary adventure does not require a permanent competitive multiplayer environment.

Therefore, players who simply want to explore the Lands Between can do so without depending on a local matchmaking population.

Of course, online co-op and PvP are different matters because network conditions affect those features.

However, the fundamental RPG remains available independently of them.

That makes Elden Ring easier to return to years later than a game built entirely around active multiplayer servers.

Elden Ring’s visual identity remains exceptional

Technical graphics are only one part of visual design.

Elden Ring demonstrates the difference.

Individual textures may eventually age.

However, the composition of the world remains striking.

The Erdtree dominates the horizon.

Liurnia feels almost dreamlike.

Caelid looks diseased.

Leyndell communicates enormous scale.

The Mountaintops of the Giants feel isolated and hostile.

Meanwhile, underground regions completely change the atmosphere.

Players frequently discover views that seem deliberately framed.

That art direction gives the Lands Between a strong identity even as graphics technology continues moving forward.

Music turns boss fights into events

Elden Ring’s soundtrack also plays a major role.

Boss music escalates encounters.

Quiet exploration creates contrast.

Major locations have their own atmosphere.

As a result, important battles feel larger than the mechanical encounter alone.

FromSoftware understands that a boss is not simply an enemy with a large health bar.

Presentation matters.

Arena design matters.

Music matters.

Animation matters.

The reveal matters.

Together, those elements turn difficult fights into memorable events.

Elden Ring respects unusual character builds

Another reason players return is experimentation.

What happens if you build entirely around one strange weapon?

Can a spell normally ignored become extremely powerful?

How far can status effects be pushed?

Could a character rely primarily on shields?

What about bows?

Or enormous weapons?

The game contains enough equipment and statistics for players to keep testing possibilities.

Meanwhile, patches can alter balance and encourage another look at previously ignored equipment.

Therefore, build experimentation extends the game’s life even after the map becomes familiar.

Elden Ring became bigger than the Souls audience

Before Elden Ring, FromSoftware already had a passionate audience.

However, Elden Ring reached a different scale.

More than 30 million sales demonstrate that clearly.

The game introduced many players to FromSoftware’s design philosophy for the first time.

Some had never played Dark Souls.

Others had avoided the studio’s games because of their reputation for difficulty.

The open-world structure gave those players another option.

Stuck?

Explore.

Find something.

Improve.

Come back.

That simple change made FromSoftware’s philosophy more approachable without removing the challenge that existing fans expected.

Elden Ring is still one of Steam’s most active Souls-like games

SteamDB’s Souls-like activity chart currently places Elden Ring among the most actively played games carrying the tag.

That is notable because the game is no longer new.

Its original launch happened in February 2022.

Shadow of the Erdtree arrived years later.

Nightreign now exists as a separate game.

Yet players continue returning to the original Lands Between.

The August 2026 content has provided another reason.

However, the underlying game had already demonstrated unusually strong staying power before the Tarnished Pack arrived.

Elden Ring has become a game people return to rather than simply finish

Technically, Elden Ring has endings.

Players can complete the adventure.

They can become Elden Lord.

They can then move on.

In practice, many do not.

Another character begins.

A different build gets tested.

A missed questline becomes the next objective.

New Game Plus offers another route.

Shadow of the Erdtree provides another world.

Multiplayer creates further challenges.

Then new content arrives.

That cycle turns Elden Ring from a game you complete into a game you revisit.

Should you play Elden Ring in 2026?

For someone who has never entered the Lands Between, 2026 may actually be an excellent point to start.

The base game remains enormous.

Shadow of the Erdtree adds another major adventure.

Years of patches have accumulated.

The new Tarnished Pack adds further options.

Nintendo Switch 2 owners can now play the game through Tarnished Edition.

Meanwhile, the Steam community remains highly active.

The difficulty will not appeal to everyone.

Elden Ring expects patience.

It expects observation.

Sometimes it expects you to accept that the enormous monster ahead is currently stronger than you.

However, the open world provides enough freedom to respond to that challenge in your own way.

Why Elden Ring still matters in 2026

Elden Ring could have become another enormously successful game that gradually faded after its launch cycle.

Instead, the Lands Between continue attracting tens of thousands of simultaneous Steam players more than four years later.

More than 30 million copies have been sold.

Shadow of the Erdtree expanded the world.

Nightreign expanded the universe in another direction.

The Tarnished Edition has now taken Elden Ring to Nintendo Switch 2.

Existing players received new classes, armour and Torrent customisation.

Community quests are running during September 2026.

Meanwhile, a live-action movie is scheduled for 2028.

Yet none of those additions fully explains Elden Ring’s longevity.

The stronger explanation is the game itself.

The Lands Between remain dangerous enough to demand attention, mysterious enough to encourage exploration and flexible enough to support completely different characters.

Four years later, players are still discovering reasons to return.

And judging by the recent Steam numbers, Grace is still guiding plenty of Tarnished back.