With Dark Souls 3 Coming, Entire Franchise Reaches 8.5 Million Units Shipped

Ahead of Dark Souls III's release in 2016, developer From Software has announced that the entire franchise has now shipped around 8.5 million copies across its previous installments.

The new figure comes by way of a recent presentation attended by Japanese video game publication Famitsu. According to the slide you can see below, the 2011 original Dark Souls (including sales of the Artorias of the Abyss version) have reached more than 5.6 million units sold.

Meanwhile, Dark Souls II sales, also counting the 2014 Scholar of the First Sin version, have combined for more than 2.9 million worldwide sales.

Add it all up and the entire Dark Souls franchise has shifted more than 8.5 million units globally. This figure, of course, does not include sales of From Software's other popular games, Demon's Souls and Bloodborne.

The next entry in the Dark Souls series is Dark Souls III, which will launch for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC in 2016. The game is directed by Souls mastermind Hidetaka Miyazaki and we were excited by what we saw at E3 last month. For a closer look at it, check out some images in the gallery below.