Dark Souls sales top 8 million worldwide

From Software’s Dark Souls franchise has passed the eight million global sales mark.

As reported by Famitsu (via NeoGaf), these sales were achieved by the four core Dark Souls SKUs – Dark Souls, Dark Souls with the Artorias of the Abyss expansion, Dark Souls II and the remastered Dark Souls II release, Scholar of the First Sin.

PS3-exclusive predecessor Demon’s Souls and PS4-exclusive spiritual successor Bloodborne were not counted as part of the total (despite Demon’s widely being considered part of the ‘Souls’ series).

However, given that Bloodborne’s sales were previously revealed to be over one million less than two weeks after its release in March and Demon’s Souls outsold US expectations alone by more than three times, its likely that the entire run of titles has now sold in excess of 10 million units.

The first Dark Souls (inclusing sales of the Artorias of the Abyss bundle) has shifted more than five million copies, around a tenth of these in Japan.

Meanwhile, Dark Souls II sold just shy of two million, helped over the line by 530,000 sales of the revamped Scholar of the First Sin SKU for PS4 and Xbox One.

The franchise has fared particularly well on PC, with more than 3.25 million units sold on the platform.

Interestingly, the West appear to have warmed to the Japanese series more than its native players; Japanese sales sit just under one million.

The third, and supposedly final, entry in the Dark Souls trilogy was revealed at E3, with series creatorHidetaka Miyazaki returning to helm the game after departing for Dark Souls II to focus on spin-off Bloodborne.

Dark Souls III is currently slated for release next Spring.