Summary

  • Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has earned universal acclaim with a top critic average score of 94 and a 98% recommendation rate from 59 reviews on OpenCritic.
  • Anticipation for the DLC has led to an increase in the base game's sales and player base, solidifying Elden Ring's position as FromSoftware's top-earning title.
  • Shadow of the Erdtree is praised as a worthy conclusion to Elden Ring, offering more challenging boss fights, unique areas, and hidden secrets.

Early reviews for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree are showering the DLC with praise, cementing its status as a worthy expansion of developer FromSoftware's hit open-world Soulslike. Many fans were likely disappointed when FromSoftware boss Hidetaka Miyazaki announced that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree would be the first and only DLC. Fortunately for fans, all signs indicate that Shadow of the Erdtree will deliver all that they could have ever wished for from an expansion.

Though the launch of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is still a few days off, the excitement surrounding the DLC has sparked an influx of new and old fans of the open-world Soulslike. Notably, this led to a spike in the base game's sales and player base. Developer FromSoftware announced that it had sold over 25 million copies of Elden Ring as of June 12, further cementing its place as the highest-earning FromSoftware title to date. A third-party Steam database additionally revealed Elden Ring had reached nearly 175,000 concurrent users on June 16, which was notably comparable to the game's headcount in the months following its release.

Many fans expect those numbers will only rise once Shadow of the Erdtree drops on June 21, and the scores gathered by the review aggregator site OpenCritic also support their speculations. At the time of writing, the one and only Elden Ring DLC boasts a top critic average score of 94 and a recommendation rate of 98 percent from a total of 59 critic reviews. This notably also earned Shadow of the Erdtree the "Mighty" OpenCritic rating, which placed it in the top 10 percent of all game ratings and signified universal critical acclaim.

Shadow of the Erdtree Is A Worthy Conclusion For Elden Ring

Many of the reviews for Shadow of the Erdtree claimed the DLC was a respectable final chapter for what fans believe is one of the best games of the decade. Critics stated the expansion delivered more of what made Elden Ring such a massive hit, with enough grueling boss fights, unique explorable areas, and hidden secrets to satisfy even the most hardcore fan. Several additionally praised the DLC for the sheer depth of its content and its subtle evolution of FromSoftware's Soulslike formula.

With Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree scheduled for release on June 21, fans won't have to wait much longer before they can experience the expansion for themselves. However, new players ought to know that the Elden Ring DLC can only be accessed by defeating the optional bosses Mohg, Lord of Blood and Starscourge Radahn, meaning they'll have to clear quite a bit of the base game before entering the Land of Shadow.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Tag Page Cover Art
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Display card tags widget Display card system widget
Display card community and brand rating widget
Display card open critics widget Display card main info widget
Released
June 21, 2024
Display card main info widget end Display card media widget start Display card media widget end

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info

Shadow of the Erdtree is the first and only DLC expansion for FromSoftware's groundbreaking Elden Ring. It takes players to a whole new region, the Land of Shadow, where a new story awaits the Tarnished.

ESRB
M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Base Game
Elden Ring
Developer(s)
FromSoftware
Multiplayer
Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer