Kai Cenat had died more than 430 times and was ready to die again when one of the toughest opponents in video game history, Malenia, Goddess of Rot, finally succumbed to her sword after a marathon battle in the Elden Ring.
“I don’t think you understand what this means,” Cenat said on his live stream after last month’s 24-hour fight, which included some of his 10.8 million Twitch followers. One of the most popular gamers on the internet was panting. He’d lost his breath while playing a two-year-old game that spawned a cottage industry of influencers capitalizing on its notorious difficulty.
The Elden Ring became a phenomenon after it was released in February 2022. It was a breakout hit for FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki, who brought in Game of Thrones author George RR Martin to sketch out the deep mythology of the gothic fantasy of feuding families and troubled gods. The game also benefited from social media users sharing delightfully disturbing videos of their avatars being slashed, staggered and stabbed by terrifying monsters.
A similar advertising cycle, which helped publisher Bandai Namco sell more than 24 million copies of the original game, is being used to build anticipation for Elden Ring’s next chapter, Shadow of the Erdtree, which releases June 21 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
This month, influencers were drawn to elaborately designed events.
In Los Angeles, a band played outside an exhibition hall where red curtains and fancy chandeliers hung above dozens of computer monitors. In Paris, officials cleared the pews of the Chapelle Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc to install gaming stations under the church’s stained glass; a statue of the expansion’s villain, Mesmer Tepes, towered over the altar. (Organizers told some attendees that the event was an homage to the game’s Gothic church and castle designs.)
Most game designers try to ease players into their worlds through tutorials and progressively harder chapters. Miyazaki – who describes himself in interviews as a masochist – began Elden Ring with a surprise attack by a monster that kills almost everyone in its path. The game’s opening hours evoke a state of nature summed up by Enlightenment philosopher Thomas Hobbes: “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and base.”
Many lore theorists who have spent years dissecting the symbolism of the Elden Ring say there is considerable evidence that the developers explored the relationship between human nature and religion.
“Both George RR Martin and Miyazaki are big men of historical fiction,” said Rachel Cherry, a YouTuber who creates erudition videos under the name Quelaag. Her study of the game found references to Mesopotamian and Greek architecture. There is a statue of Charlemagne based on a sculpture in the Palace of Versailles.
Miyazaki became a cult figure for his crime trilogy Dark Souls, which twisted the iconography of medieval Europe into gory parables about man’s doomed quest for immortality and power.
He and other FromSoftware designers could not be reached for comment about Elden Ring, a studio representative said. Martin, creator of HBO’s “Dragon House,” declined to comment through his publisher; the second season of the series premieres on Sunday.
There are many YouTubers like Cherry who have subsidized their income by creating Elden Ring videos. A young baker from Texas who goes by the name LetMeSoloHer has amassed more than 400,000 subscribers by doing one thing: fighting Small, the game’s hardest boss, on behalf of other players.
“People love a good underdog story,” said the gamer, who estimates he’s battled a boss with a katana more than 6,000 times. “I’m pretty shocked I made it this far making meme videos.”
Maliyah Corridon, a model and livestreamer based in Toronto, broke down in tears when she finally defeated one of the game’s first bosses, whose relentless attacks include a horde of sword-wielding minions.
“I poked my eyes out,” she said in an interview. “The game is so punishing that it really changed the way I think about life. I was the type of person who would give up if something was difficult. The Elden Ring forced me to keep trying something until I could overcome it.
The creators, who spent two years mining the Elden Ring for content, are hoping that Shadow of the Erdtree will bring new energy to the year with several big game releases on the calendar. The expansion invites players to a new area called the Land of Shadows to follow in the footsteps of a deity named Michela, whose seemingly lifeless body was last seen encased in a womb-like shell. It will feature new weapons, enemies and lore.
Michael Curry’s popular YouTube guides for Elden Ring have helped players navigate through the many challenges, and he plans to continue with Shadow of the Erdtree.
“Failure is not a stopping point, it’s where you have to start changing your mindset,” said Curry, whose children now play Elden Ring.
“The 14-year-old does a good job of approaching challenges in a different way,” he said. “He learns when to block or strike and then he faces the challenges of challenging. He wants to fail and work for his achievements.
