Crimson Desert sails past four million sales, and I'm thrilled to watch its comeback arc

Hating on games is seemingly more en vogue than ever, which makes for pretty miserable viewing when your career is predicated on writing about them. While much of the discourse surrounding Highguard was merited, plenty of it was horrific. I’ll never understand the weird obsession people have with praying on Marathon’s downfall, despite Bungie’s extraction shooter being one of the best I’ve played. Pearl Abyss certainly stepped on more than a few rakes when it came to Crimson Desert‘s launch cycle, but, thankfully, these jitters appear to have subsided. Today, the studio announced that, just over a week post-release, the mammoth open-world game has shipped four million copies.

“Crimson Desert has sold through four million copies worldwide,” the announcement post on X reads. “Thank you to all the Greymanes who have been a part of this journey with us and for all of your incredible love and support.” We may only be a short way into Crimson Desert’s post-launch period, but it’s already been an absolute rollercoaster. I can imagine that, for the devs, this only makes reaching this critical milestone all the sweeter.

The chips were certainly stacked against Crimson Desert. Between recent reports pertaining to a more-than-messy development environment, a gen AI gaff, a lack of Intel Arc GPU support, and the late announcement that it was adding the ever-unpopular Denuvo DRM just one week before its arrival, it felt like Crimson Desert wouldn’t live up to its lofty potential. Reviews were mixed across the board, as critics and creators struggled to decide if it was actually good. Our very own PK awarded a very well-reasoned 6/10 in his Crimson Desert review, for example, so it was looking very hit and miss.

Shortly after the scores on the doors were revealed, Pearl Abyss stock plummeted an eye-watering 30%, with investors clearly not pleased that it had not dazzled in the way it was expected to. We’d long known that Crimson Desert’s control scheme was more than a little obtuse, and this continued to be a major pain point with players who did delve into Pywel at launch.

Keen to make amends for its shortcomings, Pearl Abyss got straight to work fixing up Crimson Desert’s bug bears. Each patch has brought with it a host of improvements, including smoother controls, reduced stamina costs, and a better minimap. When an unintended movement tech involving the Aerial Stab skill was found, rather than outright removing it, the studio reworked it into a proper, balanced mechanic. It’s been a rapid turnaround, and it looks to have paid dividends.

Even now, Crimson Desert’s Steam charts are looking incredibly healthy. Cresting 200k peak concurrent players during weekdays, and a new all-time peak record set on Sunday, players clearly aren’t finding their journeys cumbersome. After shipping over three million copies within its first week, Pearl Abyss stock rebounded by almost 30%, so investor confidence has clearly been restored.

Now, nearly two weeks after Klif and Co. reached our screens, Crimson Desert’s redemption arc feels complete. It’s been more of a hurricane than a whirlwind for Pearl Abyss, I’m sure, and I’m ecstatic to see more and more people picking it up. I’ve been watching my friends play a ton, and, honestly, Crimson Desert looks progressively better the further they’ve gotten. At a time where gaming has found itself in a bit of a rut, it’s more important than ever that we celebrate comeback moments like these.