Bethesda

How many copies did Doom sell? — 2024 statistics

Blasting through Hell's hierarchy with a BFG of analysis.

Fact-checked
First Released
December 10, 1993
Genre
First-person shooter
Developer
id Software
Publisher
Bethesda Softworks

Have you ever felt the urge to jump into a game and just demolish everything in front of you? To feel like the main character (because you are) and to go ham on some enemies. The theory that violent video games make people violent might not be true, but we can see why some people might think that when it comes to the Doom series. Many of you know the Doom series in its most recent iterations, them being Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal (2020), but the series’ roots date back to 1993 when the first game was released. It started as a brutal arcade game that evolved over time into what we have today, and in honor of that, we’re presenting some Doom statistics and facts for you to enjoy! This series was a very important addition to the gaming industry, and if you want to know how many people play video games in the world, we’ve got you covered!

Doom key stats

The first Doom game was released in 1993 by id Software and the series has spawned seven games, with the most recent one coming out in 2020. These games have had a massive impact on the gaming industry over the years, so this section is going to include everything from sales and revenue statistics to fun facts and news about where the series is going in the future.

The original Doom sold 3.5 million copies.

(Source: VG Chartz, VG Insights)

  • Doom II sold 2 million copies.
  • Doom 3 sold 3.5 million copies.
  • Doom 3 sold 1 million copies for PC.
  • Doom 3 BFG Edition sold 600,000 million copies for PC.
  • Doom (2016) sold 5.5 million copies on Steam.
  • Doom Eternal Sold 5.1 million units on Steam.

There’s no getting around this one — the sales behind the entirety of the series have not been documented as well as they should have, so we have to use numbers for some of the older games as well as Doom 3, which did not perform as well as it should have. The total sales numbers for Doom (2016) and Eternal are not available in full, but we do have some first-month sales numbers for Doom Eternal, which we’ll touch up on now.

Doom Eternal crushed Doom (2016)’s launch sales 3-fold.

(Source: PureXbox)

  • The game sold 3 million copies during its launch month.
  • Doom (2016) sold 957,000 digital copies in its first month.
  • Doom Eternal was the fourth best-selling game in March 2020, and the fifth best-selling PC game on PC at the time.
  • Nearly one-third of those sales were for Steam.

Doom Eternal could only have been considered a total overhaul of the newly-implemented features of Doom (2016), as it tried to improve on everything Doom (2016) did so well, and it was a major success, as the sales numbers will show. Holding multiple best-selling spots on sales lists is impressive, and the fact that the game brought in 3 million sales in its first month was amazing for id Software.

The Doom series has grossed $350 million on Steam.

(Source: VG Insights)

  • DOOM (1993) grossed $2.7 million.
  • DOOM 64 grossed $544,000.
  • DOOM VFR grossed $1.4 million.
  • DOOM II grossed $1.6 million.
  • DOOM 3 grossed $1.4 million.
  • DOOM 3: BFG Edition grossed $13.6 million.
  • DOOM grossed $133.5 million.
  • DOOM Eternal grossed $190.2 million.
  • Doom Eternal – The Ancient Gods – Part One Cosmic DLC grossed $2.2 million.

While the entire Doom series has not been on Steam since their releases, for obvious reasons, we can see the wide range and distribution of the games that are available on the platform, with the last three games in the series raking in the most revenue. Of course, since it is arguably the best game, Doom Eternal has the most revenue at $190 million.

Doom Eternal generated over $450 million within 9 months of its release.

(Source: ResetEra, VG247)

  • This information was acquired through an id Software employee’s LinkedIn profile.
  • The employee responded to the statement and said that information was from SuperData.
  • Doom Eternal came in 10th place for best-selling premium game titles in 2020.

The fact that Doom Eternal was the most popular Doom game to ever come out is no surprise, but the sheer amount of money that the game generated in less than a year is outright amazing. $450 million is nothing to scoff at and it really stands as a testament to how popular the game is and how good of a job id Software did with the game to make it as good as it is.

The original DOOM has been ported to over 15 different devices.

(Source: VICE, ReviewGeek, RockPaperShotgun, IGN)

  • The game has been ported to various game consoles, but the interesting thing is how many different miscellaneous devices it is available on.
  • The game has been run on the following devices:
  • A camera from the 2000s.
  • A billboard truck.
  • An old Nokia phone.
  • A Clip Zip.
  • A Zune.
  • A printer.
  • The SNES.
  • A toaster.
  • An old piano.
  • In-flight entertainment systems.
  • An old iPod.
  • A stolen ATM.
  • A pregnancy test.
  • A jailbroken tractor.
  • The Windows notepad.
  • The Raspberry Pi Pico.
  • The game was theorized to be possible to run on 16 billion crabs (yes).
  • A man named Rick runs a blog called It Runs Doom! where he catalogs all of the different devices that can run Doom.

The number of devices that can run Doom is simply phenomenal, with some of these examples looking like they shouldn’t be physically possible. The best example of this is a digital pregnancy test, which barely shows any information, yet people have played Doom on one.

Doom and Doom Eternal had a combined number of 24.7 million hours watched on Twitch in their best years.

(Source: SullyGnome)

  • Doom had 6.9 million hours watched in 2016.
  • Doom had 400,531 broadcasting hours in 2016.
  • It had 785 viewers on average.
  • 45 channels were streaming the game on average.
  • It had a viewer ratio of 17.2.
  • Its peak viewer count was 93,713.
  • 88,175 broadcasters streamed the game.
  • Doom Eternal had 17.8 million hours watched in 2020.
  • Doom Eternal had 912,274 broadcasting hours in 2020.
  • It had 2,030 viewers on average.
  • 103 channels were streaming the game on average.
  • It had a viewer ratio of 19.6.
  • Its peak viewer count of 140,962.
  • 104,131 broadcasters streamed the game.

The reason so many people enjoy watching the gameplay of both of these games is that their gameplay is very appealing and it bypasses the need for viewers to engage in the game themselves and the gameplay is extremely fast-paced. Just like the sales and revenue statistics, Doom Eternal had many more hours watched than its predecessor.

To sum up

Alright, that would be all of the Doom statistics we have to show for now. As you can see, the Doom series has had quite an impact on pop culture, as its lore and gameplay across all of the games have defined their own subgenre of gaming, even considering the abysmal performance of Doom 3, which tried to shift the gameplay dynamic from action FPS to survival horror, which really did not work too well, but the games after it made steady improvements to get the series back on track. We hope that you have enjoyed the information that we have presented here and that you’ve learned something new!

Sources

  • “Doom”. VG Chartz, 2023, https://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/games.php?name=doom
  • “DOOM”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/379720
  • “DOOM Eternal”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/782330
  • “DOOM Eternal Sold 3x More Digital Copies Than DOOM (2016) At Launch”. PureXbox, 2020, https://www.purexbox.com/news/2020/04/doom_eternal_sold_3x_more_digital_copies_than_doom_2016_at_launch
  • “Doom Eternal’s digital launch sales triple Doom 2016’s at 3 million”. TweakTown, 2020, https://www.tweaktown.com/news/71992/doom-eternals-digital-launch-sales-triple-2016s-at-3-million/index.html
  • “DOOM (1993) – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/2280
  • “DOOM 64 – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/1148590
  • “DOOM VFR – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/650000
  • “DOOM II – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/2300
  • “DOOM 3 – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/9050
  • “DOOM 3: BFG Edition – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/208200
  • “DOOM – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/379720
  • “DOOM Eternal – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/782330
  • “Doom Eternal – The Ancient Gods – Part One Cosmic DLC – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/1098292
  • “DOOM Eternal generated over $450 Million in revenue in the first 9 months of release”. Resetera, 2021, https://www.resetera.com/threads/doom-eternal-generated-over-450-million-in-revenue-in-the-first-9-months-of-release.386018/
  • “SuperData: Digital games revenue grew 12% in 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 made $609M”. VG247, 2021, https://www.vg247.com/superdata-digital-games-revenue-cyberpunk-2077
  • “A Catalogue of All the Devices That Can Somehow Run ‘Doom'”. VICE, 2016, https://www.vice.com/en/article/qkjv9x/a-catalogue-of-all-the-devices-that-can-somehow-run-doom
  • “Doom can now run on a jailbroken tractor”. Rock, Paper, Shotgun, 2022, https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/doom-can-now-run-on-a-jailbroken-tractor
  • “Doom is out now for Windows Notepad, sort of”. Rock, Paper, Shotgun, 2022, https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/doom-is-out-now-for-windows-notepad-sort-of
  • “Multiplayer ‘DOOM’ Arrives On the Raspberry Pi Pico, a $4 Computer”. ReviewGeek, 2022, https://www.reviewgeek.com/112777/multiplayer-doom-arrives-on-the-raspberry-pi-pico-a-4-computer/
  • “Classic video game Doom ‘could run on 16 billion crabs’ say researchers”. DailyStar, 2021, https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/classic-video-game-doom-could-23793517
  • “Programmer Has Made 1993’s Doom Playable on a Pregnancy Test”. IGN, 2020, https://www.ign.com/articles/programmer-has-made-1993s-doom-playable-on-a-pregnancy-test
  • “DOOM”. SullyGnome, 2016, https://sullygnome.com/game/Doom/2016
  • “DOOM Eternal”. SullyGnome, 2020, https://sullygnome.com/game/Doom_Eternal/2020