ZA/UM

How many copies did Disco Elysium sell? — 2024 statistics

In the rhythm of crime-solving revelations.

Fact-checked
Release Date
October 15, 2019
Genre
Role-playing
Developer
ZA/UM
Publisher
ZA/UM

Many long-standing gamers were introduced to gaming through classic RPG titles because they are easy to get into and they pack a lot of content into a single game. Games today sometimes lack the charm and appeal of old RPGs. Still, one title that seems to get everything right is Disco Elysium — an RPG developed by ZA/UM which places you in the fictional place of Martinaise, in the role of a detective that has to investigate a lynching. From there, you go on an adventure of epic proportions filled with deception, mature themes, and much more. Another adventure we’re going on is going to be Disco Elysium statistics to examine how popular the game is and where it is going in the future. This is one of the best RPGs to come out in recent years and we can’t wait to tell you everything about it! Should you find yourself interested in more similar topics, we can also tell you how big the esports industry is.

Disco Elysium key stats

Like in many things, it is best to start from the beginning. For this section, we’re going to examine the sales of Disco Elysium since its release, as well as any revenue statistics we can find. Other than that, expect to see news postings and the latest updates on the game and if there will be any new releases in the future.

Disco Elysium has sold 2.6 million units on Steam.

(Source: VG Insights)

  • The game’s 24-hour peak player count at the time of writing was 1,170.
  • 94% of the game’s reviews were positive.
  • Its gross revenue was $67.6 million.
  • The average playtime for the game is 40.3 hours.
  • The median playtime for the game is 32.9 hours.

While we don’t have all of the accurate information for the game’s total sales across all platforms and iterations, 2.6 million is a relatively good estimate of the total number of sales expressed as a ballpark. This is still good because it paints a good picture of how popular the game was and still is, especially considering that the game most definitely sold more than 2.6 million copies.

Disco Elysium made almost $7.4 million in its first six months.

(Source: ERR)

  • ZA/UM reported that Disco Elysium was a massive success and supposedly broke even on its release day.
  • The company saw profits of $13.9 million from May 2019 to April 2020.
  • Sixteen months before Disco Elysium’s release, ZA/UM noted losses of $640,000.

Moving on to some revenue statistics, we can see that the popularity of Disco Elysium was a driving factor in the game’s success, which helped it cruise right along to $7.4 million in profit within its first six months. The game went on to gross dozens of millions of dollars in revenue across its lifetime.

An Estonian firm took over ZA/UM by reselling Disco Elysium sketches to it for $5 million.

(Source: Game World Observer, PC Gamer)

  • Margus Linnamäe, ZA/UM’s largest shareholder decided to sell his majority share in the studio.
  • He chose to sell his stake to an Estonian businessman instead of dividing it among the other shareholders.
  • Kompus’ firm, Tütreke, bought some Disco Elysium sketches meant to be used on the game’s sequel for one pound sterling.
  • Through fraud, Tütreke sold the sketches back to ZA/UM for $5 million.
  • The creators of the game did not know this, and when they found out, they were demoted to simple writers and artists.
  • Later, they were kicked out of the studio.
  • More issues ensued, but Kurvitz and Rostov ended up suing ZA/UM on many grounds.

This is the biggest controversy surrounding the game by far since it is insanely complicated and raises more questions regarding the internal integrity of ZA/UM and the people working there. It was more than apparent that Kurvitz and Rostov are very invested in Disco Elysium and to see them cheated out of the game they developed from nothing was horrible.

Life is Strange and Disco Elysium will get TV adaptations at Amazon Studios.

(Source: Collider)

  • Amazon Studios is looking to adapt more games into TV shows by striking a deal with dj2 Entertainment.
  • This deal would allow Amazon to stream any of dj2 Entertainment’s shows to stream exclusively on Prime Video.
  • The Disco Elysium adaptation project has been in development since 2020.
  • This is because it is quite difficult to adapt a game with so many branching storylines into one cohesive story.

Here we go with another video game adaptation. These usually never turn out well since some of the companies that develop these adaptations tend to stray from the source material in favor of sticking to industry trends like inclusivity and many other things. This is by no means a bad thing as it reaches more people and includes everyone, but there is a balance that needs to be struck in such cases so it is apparent that you’re showing a game adaptation and not an agenda masked as entertainment. We’ll just have to see how the Disco Elysium adaptation turns out before we can judge it.

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut has over 1 million words of dialogue.

(Source: IGN, Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

  • The Final Cut version of the game features complete voice acting that will use all 1 million words.
  • This version of the game is also available on PlayStation and Xbox.
  • The game’s lead writer said that adding more lines and voicing them brings much more accessibility to the game.
  • The Final Cut also added dyslexia-friendly fonts for even more accessibility.
  • This feature includes multiple languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish.
  • Some have stated that it is a bit difficult to follow the font since it looks like the font in Team Fortress 2.

Moving on, now we have something sure to appeal to gamers with dyslexia that want to enjoy games as much as anyone else. Bionic reading and adaptive fonts for games are already present in the industry, and they have been proven to improve the overall experience by miles. The implementation of dyslexia-friendly fonts in a game with such expansive dialogue as Disco Elysium is a great step in the right direction.

Disco Elysium considered Twitter its competition.

(Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

  • Robert Kurvitz stated that young people like to read, be it on Twitter, chat channels, Reddit, or anything else you can think of.
  • The format of text channels is what makes them addictive to read, which is why the developers of the game decided to differ from the standard way of presenting text.
  • Instead of the middle of the screen, they chose to display the text in the bottom right as a snappy column.

The developers of Disco Elysium were quite aware of the challenges of producing a game that will hook players and get them to play more of the game more often. Of course, they did not consider Twitter their actual “competition”, but rather just a reference to the modernity and propensity for young people to read things more when they are projected in a more appealing, snappy way.

Disco Elysium can take more than 90 hours to complete.

(Source: PC Gamer)

  • Disco Elysium is a very expansive game with tons of content to enjoy.
  • It takes more than 60 hours of continuous playtime to get through the game if you’re a completionist.
  • It can take you 90 hours to finish the game if you take in every detail.
  • If you rush your way through the game, it can take you about 30 hours.

And for the final line of stats, we have some time stamps for general completion rates for the game depending on the type of gamer you are. Completionists will find that Disco Elysium packs a ton of content and might prove to be quite challenging to 100%, but casual gamers can still enjoy the game without the pressure of completing it as much as possible. This caters to the extremes of both worlds and appeals to a wider audience of gamers in general.

To sum up

Alright, folks, that’s all we have to say about Disco Elysium! As you can see, even though the game is insanely good and popular in the community, it does not come without its downsides. The corporate turbulence concerning ZA/UM and the developers of Disco Elysium was unfortunate, to say the least, but this happens when you do not check each person you work with and trust them too much to see past your current obligations and to see the wider picture. Nevertheless, Disco Elysium is still a wholly unique experience that every fan of classic RPG games should go through, and we’re happy to be able to display all of this information as we did. We sincerely hope that you have enjoyed what we have sad to say about this fantastic game and that your questions have been answered.

Sources

  • “Disco Elysium – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/632470
  • “‘Life Is Strange’ and ‘Disco Elysium’ Getting TV Adaptations at Amazon Studios”. Collider, 2022, https://collider.com/life-is-strange-disco-elysium-tv-series-amazon-studios/
  • “‘Disco Elysium’ video game made nearly €7 million profit in first 6 months”. ERR, 2022, https://news.err.ee/1608494075/disco-elysium-video-game-made-nearly-7-million-profit-in-first-6-months
  • “How Estonian firm took over ZA/UM by reselling Disco Elysium sketches to it for €4.8 million”. Game World Observer, 2022, https://gameworldobserver.com/2022/11/23/disco-elysium-za-um-takeover-4-8-million-sketches-resold
  • “Disco Elysium: Bringing a Million Words to Life for The Final Cut”. IGN, 2021, https://www.ign.com/articles/disco-elysium-the-final-cut-voice-acting-console-release
  • “Disco Elysium has added dyslexia-friendly fonts for those million words”. Rock, Paper, Shotgun, 2022, https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/disco-elysium-has-added-dyslexia-friendly-fonts-for-those-million-words
  • “The legal war over Disco Elysium reaches Disco Elysium levels of complexity”. PC Gamer, 2022, https://www.pcgamer.com/the-legal-war-over-disco-elysium-reaches-disco-elysium-levels-of-complexity/
  • “Disco Elysium considered Twitter its competition for players’ attention”. Rock, Paper, Shotgun, 2020, https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/disco-elysium-considered-twitter-its-competition-for-players-attention
  • “Disco Elysium is a ‘colossal’ game that can take 90 hours to finish”. PC Gamer, 2019, https://www.pcgamer.com/disco-elysium-is-a-colossal-game-that-can-take-90-hours-to-finish/