Crimson Desert got off to a rather rocky start, but that narrative has long since been overwritten thanks to a laundry list of quality-of-life fixups and bug squashing. It’s gone from strength to strength—hitting two million sales in the first couple days, then up to three million a few after that, and then to four million at the beginning of the month.
And now, just a few weeks later, Pearl Abyss has revealed that the game has officially hit the big five million milestone, just under four weeks after its initial release. “Crimson Desert has sold through over 5 million copies worldwide!” a post on the game’s official X account reads. “Thank you to every Greymane who has joined us on this journey, experienced the world of Pywel, and supported the game. Reaching this milestone would not have been possible without your support and we are truly grateful.”
#CrimsonDesert has sold through over 5 million copies worldwide!Thank you to every Greymane who has joined us on this journey, experienced the world of Pywel, and supported the game. Reaching this milestone would not have been possible without your support and we are truly… pic.twitter.com/xcdbCvHLSoApril 15, 2026
It’s not bad numbers for a developer whose only other work is a relatively divisive, unforgiving MMO mostly known to non-players for having bangin’ character customisation. They’re numbers I feared we wouldn’t see when Crimson Desert first hit the ground running—it launched to mixed reviews in its first few hours out to the masses as folks struggled to mesh with just how abrasive and cryptic the whole thing was.
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It was a valid sentiment, one which Pearl Abyss has spent the month since its launch trying to rectify. From things like tweaking boss difficulty (and now giving people the option to do it themselves), to adding private storage (seriously, a game with that many systems and no way to offload inventory items you’ll probably want to use later? Insanity!) and finally fixing up how diabolically awful it was to teleport if you were doing anything other than standing perfectly still.
That’s just the tiniest snippet of everything else that has been tweaked, nipped, tucked, contorted, whatever word you want to use. It’s become an entirely different beast to the frustratingly obtuse game I reviewed, and even to the one that people played on the very first day of launch. That’s mostly good, though I also think it’s maybe a little bit bad.
It’s clearly working, though, as copies continue to steadily shift and positive feelings towards Crimson Desert rise. And as it continues to patch and prune in response to player feedback, I’m sure it’ll only encourage more folk on the fence to finally jump off it and give the game a try.
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