Crimson Desert Hits 3 Million Sales in Five Days as Steam Reviews Turn Very Positive

Five days. That's all it took for Pearl Abyss' open world action game Crimson Desert to move 3 million copies worldwide.

The game launched on March 19 and hit 2 million sales within its first 24 hours, adding a further million over the four days that followed. Pearl Abyss confirmed the milestone in a statement, saying: "We are grateful to share Crimson Desert has sold through 3 million copies worldwide. To everyone who has stepped into Pywel and shared this journey with us, thank you. Your feedback continues to help shape the experience, and we will keep working to make the journey ahead even more enjoyable for our players."

Not bad for a game that launched to a "Mixed" reception on Steam.

A rocky start

Nearly 250,000 players were in-game concurrently on launch day, but a wave of criticism hit fast. Controls were the biggest flashpoint. Players called them clunky, overly complicated, and some PC users had no key-binding options at all. Performance complaints weren't far behind. PS5 owners were comparing notes to figure out why visuals looked blurry, a problem that turned out to affect the PC version too. The PlayStation Store even began offering selective refunds after critics labelled the PS5 release as broken, with a map crash bug making the game unplayable for some.

Within the first 12 hours, Crimson Desert had racked up close to 5,000 negative reviews on Steam, leaving it sitting at 66% positive. The "Mixed" tag stuck. Then Pearl Abyss' stock dropped nearly 30%, widely attributed to the critical reception. A day later, shares fell a further 9.78%, which stung all the more given the strong launch sales. For context, the Korean business press reported the studio spent seven years and roughly 200 billion won (around £80 million / $133 million) developing the game.

Turning the tide

Things look quite different now. Pearl Abyss moved quickly with updates, and the results show. A recent patch tackled the keyboard and mouse control complaints head-on, improved responsiveness, nerfed a lot of the game's steeper difficulty spikes, added an actual storage box, and dropped in more fast travel points. More improvements are reportedly on the way.

The community responded. Steam reviews climbed from Mixed to Mostly Positive over the first weekend, and as of today, English-language reviews have pushed all the way to Very Positive. The Metascore sits at 78, with a user score of 8.1.

It's a trajectory that tells its own story. Players who stuck with it, as many reviews suggested was worthwhile, found a game that opens up significantly once the controls click. A common thread in the turnaround reviews points to the importance of treating it as a slow burn rather than expecting everything upfront.

Pearl Abyss' stock was still down 2.51% today, so the financial pressure hasn't fully eased. But 3 million units sold in five days, alongside a meaningful shift in player sentiment, is about as solid a foundation as you'd want for a game still finding its feet post-launch.

If you're heading into Pywel yourself, it's worth taking your time with it.