Beyond The Base Game: Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Marketing Case Study

You've just crushed the final boss, and a thrill of victory washes over you. Yet with the final cut scenes rolling, a sense of emptiness sets in: the 60-hour epic journey is over. That’s where game expansions come to the rescue. New storylines and locations, additional characters, and gameplay mechanics — these and other sweet perks promise to extend the adventure. Fans can’t wait to get their hands on the expansions of their favorite games, which certainly makes the promotion task easier. But it’s not as simple as it seems, as new challenges may arise instead, such as meeting fans’ expectations, maintaining cohesion, and attracting new audiences.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree: Vision and Outcome

Expansion of the 2022 action RPG hit by Bandai Namco, Shadow of the Erdtree is the developer’s largest expansion to date that brings into play a brand-new map of massive size and a new storyline to explore the lore more deeply, let alone new weapon categories, plenty of new armor, spells, Ashes of War, and other types of gear. Bandai Namco Europe's chief marketing and sales officer Anthony Macare said the company's anticipation has been "sky high".

“It’s not merely an expansion; it’s the largest [one] FromSoftware ever crafted, transcending the traditional scope of downloadable content. Recognizing the significance of this release, we’ve approached the marketing of this expansion with the same vigor and commitment as we would for a brand-new title” — Anthony Macare

The marketing campaign was as ambitious as it was well-funded: it had to match the expansion’s quality and reflect its scale as a major expansion rather than a commonplace DLC. Bandai Namco spared no expense in promoting the product, investing heavily in both digital and physical editions.

The results were off the charts. More than a week before the launch they sold 25 million copies worldwide, while in only three days after the release another 5 million copies found their happy owners. Besides, the developers hoped to not only promote the expansion but to see a wave of new players falling for the original game. And this is exactly what they did: __a 200% surge in player count following the expansion launch speaks for itself. Some numbers are utterly striking: __according to the quarterly report, Shadow of the Erdtree boosted Bandai Namco's profits by a massive 553%.

Marketing Campaign Timeline

Before diving into the specific means of how the company achieved such a roaring success, let’s walk through the chronology of the campaign’s major milestones.

Pre-launch

• February 28, 2023. The first announcement was posted via social media and generated lots of heat in the next year of no updates: almost one thousand comments and two thousand shares.
• February 21, 2024. Four months before the release, the company announced the release date and published the Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer, which immediately sparked a whirlwind of interest in the gaming community.
• April 26, 2024. Start of active social media posting marked by a post with a beautiful snapshot and intriguing inscription.
• May 21, 2024. The company dropped another breathtaking trailer that allows the viewers to take a sneak peek deeper into the story.
• June 4-20, 2024. The company provided early access to a list of streamers and gaming bloggers resulting in dozens of reviews in gaming media and streamer videos, both playing the actual game and announcing the streaming marathons.
• June 12, 2024. Another trailer came out, further explaining the upcoming adventures to the gamers.
• June 14, 2024. Speaking about the strategic bundling: a few days before the release the company published a quiz that tests fans’ Elden Ring lore knowledge.
• June 15, 2024. Red Bull x Elden Ring Event — a special live-streaming event featuring a dozen of popular mid-tier and macro influencers and hitting 80.8K peak viewers in nearly 5 hours.
• June 18-21, 2024. The official social media posted a series of short motion videos that further built anticipation.
• June 19, 2024. The official website posted a comprehensive article packed with guides and other useful information.
• June 20, 2024. On the last day before the release, yet another trailer came out that celebrated the official launch.

Release day: June 21

• Their social media announced the release with a short yet concise motion video, while the official website published a guide that explains how to enter the expansion of the game.

Post campaign

• June 25, 2024. The company published a comprehensive guide on how to strengthen the character.
• June 27, 2024. A video to highlight the positive reviews, praise by critics and other achievements was published a week after the release.
• July 10, 2024. A beautiful orchestral performance of the game’s main theme came out on YouTube.
• July 11, 2024. An in-depth article geared with high-quality pics came out to explain the origins of some of the characters.

Tools of Promotion

Trailers

Five captivating sneak-peeks celebrating the game’s top-notch graphics and intriguing storyline were released in the campaign. The Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer signaled the start of pre-orders of the game and generated lots of buzz in the community, with Twitch chat mentions of “Erdtree” jumping by a staggering 863% in just one day. The trailer sparked lots of speculation: for example, a die-hard Elden Ring fan created a whole map based on a four-minute trailer. Stunning Story and The Journey So Far trailers further built anticipation, the first one scoring more than 5 million views and over 14 thousand comments on YouTube. The final touch in the pre-launch trailer series was the Launch Trailer that invited the viewers to share the excitement in the comments. Trailers continued to crown the marketing campaign after the release too, with the Accolades coming out five days later to give a creative data visualization of the game’s success. Trailers highlight different features of the expansion, leverage the game’s stunning visuals, create narrative intrigue and, perhaps most importantly, are a breeding ground for discussions among influencers, fans, and gaming media.

Guides

Helpful articles with gameplay mechanics tips or storyline deep-dives were used throughout all stages of the campaign. These include a gameplay perks article two days before the launch, a detailed guide on how to enter the expansion’s map dropped on the release date, and two lengthy articles following the launch, one with tips on building your character, the other delves deeper into the lore and tells the characters’ stories. Practically useful, well-crafted guides are a perfect tool to enhance player experience, boost search engine rankings, and spark post-launch interest.

Social media

Heart and soul of community engagement, wisely-managed social media are key to success. That’s why the game’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter were the primary sources of updates. Not only did they publish all the news — from the game’s release date to the launch alert on day X — but they also appealed directly to the audience, showing gratitude for their support and care for the community. Retaining the spirit of the game, their social media Tone of Voice and overall communication style deserve special praise, with charming snapshots and enigmatic fairytale-like quotes still bringing joy to their audience two months post-release.

Gaming media

A strong push through digital gaming media platforms helped further drive the game’s visibility. Suffice it to say that on the day before launch, a good half of the articles by all major gaming media were about the upcoming release, yet Shadow of the Erdtree materials appeared throughout the whole pre-launch period and beyond. These include lots of FAQ articles, deep dives into the lore, mere speculations, and game reviews. While the game's hype was so strong it naturally drew the attention of gaming media, the developer did have a hand in the game’s coverage too: first and foremost, by providing gaming journalists with early access to the game. This way, several weeks before the release, gaming media boomed with early reviews and exclusive peeks behind the curtain. While early access granted by the company to the community-based Fextralife allowed them to publish __a full interactive map__of the new location three days before the launch — a sign of the developer's appreciation for the power of their community.

Other

The campaign pulled out all the stops using a list of other promotional tactics too. A pre-order bonus was offered to fuel the fire of impatience and bring fans to secure their copies early: the Blade of Miquella gesture was already in stock for all the early birds, while everyone else had to unlock it down the path. Physical editions were made available to maximize the game’s visibility through physical stores and by catering to the needs of tangible items lovers: the Collector’s edition with a hardcover artbook and a figurine, as well as multiple physical items coming in the fall, such as books and accessories. A week before the release, a quiz came out to test the knowledge of the base game among fans, a move towards interactivity that breathed new life into the community.

Influencer marketing

While the above-discussed techniques worked independently as well, they offered a fertile ground for influencer content that is well-known for its ability to build hype in the gaming community. For example, in just five days after the first trailer dropped, the game became one of the most-watched games across three streaming platforms — YouTube, Kick and Twitch — hitting 4.5M hours, with Elden Ring airtime hours rising by 40%. Streamers came up with trailer reactions and analysis of the pre-launch game updates, living through these milestone moments with their viewers and both sharing the excitement with the Elden Ring fans and introducing the game to the new audience.

While a list of influencers Bandai Namco collaborated with was not made public, such partnerships did play a key role. The most widely used strategy was granting early access to the streamers, which is one of the powerful formats of blogger collaborations. Let us walk through some of the names that had a large impact on the game’s promotion.

Kai Cenat

On May 10, Kai Cenat started a week-long Elden Ring marathon __that garnered 13.1 million hours __watched and pushed the game far up the charts. Having made a viral sensation, he basically became the game’s ambassador, and his words of praise for the game appeared all over the gaming media.

Marathon trailer

“Kai Cenat’s marathon playthrough of Elden Ring helped propel it into the top 10 and highlighted the significant influence and power that individual streamers can have on a game’s popularity.”— Or Perry, cofounder of StreamElements.

One day before the game's release, Kai Cenat announced his Shadow of the Erdtree marathon that continued to build hype around the game, with 1.3 million views for the trailer alone, which is more views than for some of the game’s official videos. The marathon again drove millions of hours of watch time, with an average viewership of around 100,000 from start to finish, and with over 200,000 filing in for the epic finale on June 25.

Both his marathons were recognized by the developers: for the first one he received a life-size statue of Elden Ring’s toughest boss, while for the second event he was gifted a wearable replica of a boss's helmet.

VaatiVidya

Known for his lengthy in-depth videos exploring the lore in a most scrupulous manner, VaatiVidya started covering Shadow of the Erdtree by making videos based on the trailers. He eagerly dove into every pixel of the official videos and any other public information about the upcoming expansion, providing the viewers with a much sought-after explanation of the mysterious video clips released by the company. His videos amassed multiple million views and sparked the liveliest debates in the comments.

• Video 1

•  Video 2

  
  

Being a long-term collaborator with Bandai Namco through the Souls series, VaatiVidya did get early access to the game: he released a video where he shared his experience playing the game 3 weeks before the release. This once again generated lots of buzz in the community.

So I've played 3 hours of Elden Ring's DLC…

Asmongold

Another streamer to have acquired early access to the expansion is Asmongold, who was incredibly consistent in building interest around it. A year ago, when the first announcement came and there was not so much hype around it coming from other influencers yet, he posted multiple videos discussing the news. A few days before the release, he published a video playing the base game to keep the audience’s interest in the series.

• __Video 1 __

• Video 2

  
  

His loyalty was rewarded, as he got early access along with his colleagues from OTK influencer network, Emiru and Esfand: a few days before the release, three of them streamed 1,5 hours of playing the exclusive demo.

We Actually Got To Play Elden Ring's DLC

LetMeSoloHer

LetMeSoloHer is known as a “community legend” for being incredibly apt at beating the toughest Elden Ring bosses, for which he received __the special recognition from the developers. The influencer has a YouTube channel with more than half a million viewers __dedicated solely to Elden Rin__g where he mostly posts short Elden Ring-themed funny videos and boss fights. For instance, he celebrated the expansion’s announcement with a meme, and less than a week after the release the YouTuber posted a video where he beautifully crushes one of the main bosses __of the expansion.

Red Bull Event

One of the peak moments of Bandai Namco’s collaboration with influencers was the highly-anticipated Elden Ring x Red Bull Levels event on June 15.

“Red Bull Levels, the series peeling back the curtain behind video game development, will host a live event on June 15th in which selected content creators will experience an exclusive first playthrough of the highly anticipated ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.” — Bandai Namco’s official website.

Featuring ten popular streamers, the event was a non-stop thrill ride, with gamer influencers playing live for over four hours, taking on boss challenges and exploring the map’s secret areas. It was a major success, generating 324K hours watched, 80.8K peak viewers, and a post-release in the form of an in-depth article about the game.

A partnership of this sort came as no surprise to me, as Red Bull has been one of the driving forces of esports ever since it first entered the scene way back in 2008. While other industries were hesitant about such collaborations, Red Bull was a visionary in the esports industry, pioneering its growth and organizing some of the biggest gaming events.

Lessons learned

The Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree marketing campaign was a masterclass in promotion, utilizing a wide range of strategies to capture the attention of millions: from well-known non-influencer strategies to successful influencer campaigns that generated buzz and pulled in a massive audience. The company's commitment to influencer marketing is evident in its early access programs and exclusive influencer events. Their capacity to cultivate a loyal network of influencers leaves no doubt either: they collaborate with a list of influencers on a regular basis, offering them exclusive perks and gifts. In large part, this is a blueprint for success for other game influencers.