Elden Ring sells twice as many copies on PS4 as PS5, with performance issues and supply shortage being possible reasons

Elden Ring has enjoyed a massively successful launch, irrespective of the platform or region, and has reinvigorated the Soulslike genre.

FromSoftware's latest title hit the stories on February 25, 2022, and as per a report by Famitsu, not only do the numbers from Japan indicate massive sales (on PlayStation), the reported number of PS4 copies sold is more than double that of the PS5 version. While this is quite surprising, there could be some strong reasons behind this.

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Elden Ring on PS4 outsells PS5 version in Japan

Based on the Famitsu report, 188,490 copies of Elden Ring's PS4 version have been sold in the opening week, compared to just 90,017 PS5 copies. The combined total comes to 278,507 units, which might be the best opening week performance of any FromSoftware game.

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Despite Elden Ring's performance issues, the game's reception was positive, with many players being new to the genre altogether.

However, it is interesting that the PS4 is going strong even a year-and-a-half after the release of its more powerful next-generation console. One possible reason for this could be the global chip shortage that has affected the supply of PlayStation 5 units worldwide.

While there is no concrete evidence in this regard, a higher supply of Sony's latest console could have seen a higher number of purchases for the PS5 variant of Elden Ring.

Elden Ring's performance on PS5 may also have been another reason, as Digital Foundry recently pointed out. While the game suffered from performance issues on all three platforms on launch day, the solution offered by the publication for PlayStation 5 was to play the PS4 version, as it ran better on the PS5, as per their tests.

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While Xbox uses VRR to stabilize the framerate, Digital Foundry advised readers to run the PS4 version on the PS5. Using the superior hardware of the PS5, players can run the game more smoothly at the cost of graphical fidelity.

This decision may also have played a role in such curious sales figures. Whatever the actual reason might be, fans still clutching on to the older console will be pleased that contemporary titles such as Elden Ring are still able to run respectably on it.