--- description: Elite Dangerous, a hardcore space simulator, can now boast 1.4 million copies sold since it rolled out of dry dock in December 2014. title: A Game You've Never Heard of Sold Over a Million Copies image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bd571082798db69/6988792c0b72e348876e7ab4/elite-dangerous-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # You Won't Believe How Many Copies _Elite Dangerous_ Has Sold by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 14, 2016 4:38 PM CUT  Frontier Developments by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 14, 2016 4:38 PM CUT Games like _Minecraft_ or _Grand Theft Auto V_, you’ve probably heard, move tens of millions of copies with ease. They’re the olympic idols of interactive entertainment. Most games are lucky to snag much humbler totals. Clearing a mere million copies worldwide if your name isn’t _Call of Duty_ or _Battlefield_ or _Mortal Kombat_ remains a laudable feat. So it’s kind of a big deal that _Elite Dangerous_, a hardcore space simulator for PC, Mac, and Xbox One, can now boast 1.4 million copies sold since it rolled out of dry dock in December 2014\. That’s [according to studio Frontier Developments](http://www.frontier.co.uk/news/latest/?artid=561&pageNum=0&blk=12 "undefined"), whose CEO and industry vet David Braben notes the average player spends 60 hours with the game. Space sims haven’t been mainstream for decades. The studio carrying the torch until recently was Egosoft, with its impenetrable-to-casual-players _X_ series. Yes, there’s Chris Roberts’ _Star Citizen_, crowdfunding’s belated Moby Dick, with an over $102 million purse — a world record so far ahead of the next-biggest project it boggles the mind! But it’s still in development, with a release date nowhere in sight, only for Windows and Linux PCs, and who knows if it’ll be worth the wait or all its well-wishers’ pallets of gold when it finally arrives.  Frontier Developments To see _Elite Dangerous_ move north of a million units takes me back to the 1990s, when we naively split video games into rote genres: “action,” “adventure,” “strategy,” “roleplaying,” “wargame” and such. “Simulation” used to have its own silo, into which we placed stuff like _Microsoft Flight Simulator_, _Microsoft Space Simulator_, _Red Baron_, the _Jane_‘s games, _IL-2 Sturmovik_, and the original _Elite_. That silo’s still out there, if you follow studios like Eagle Dynamics (the _Digital Combat Simulator_ series) or Laminar Research (_X-Plane_). But simulations are complex, and vast, and often require boutique peripherals to fully appreciate. ### 10\. _Prune_  Polyculture As its name suggests, _Prune_ is a game about removing things to nurture other things, where you swipe your finger to sever restrictive limbs and free others to grow. But it’s also about basking in a minimalist garden of forking paths as you work out the spatial logistics of coaxing a tree to blossom. It’s both an arboricultural exercise and a meditation–on light, darkness, color, sound and perhaps most of all, the things we’re forced to leave behind. _\[iOS, Android, Windows Phone, PC\]_ ### 9\. _Rise of the Tomb Raider_  Lara warms herself in front of a campfire as she looks outward into the cold, Siberian night. Crystal Dynamics/Microsoft The antithesis of Sony’s linear, shoot-heavy _Uncharted_ games, [_Rise of the Tomb Raider_](http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Tomb-Raider-Xbox-One/dp/B00KVRNIQU/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1448303708&sr=1-1&keywords=Rise+of+the+Tomb+Raider?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") moves at comparably ruminative speeds, embedding you in its bleakly beautiful and broad wintry landscapes with only your wits and scant weapons. It’s both a study in how to craft a relatable protagonist whose every fight is tooth and nail, and the best puzzle-exploration-survivalism odyssey since Crystal Dynamics’ 2013 series relaunch. _\[Xbox One, Xbox 360\]_ ### 8\. _Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain_  Kojima Productions [_Metal Gear Solid_](http://www.amazon.com/Metal-Gear-Solid-Phantom-Pain-PlayStation/dp/B00JKM06HG/ref=sr%5F1%5F3?ie=UTF8&qid=1448303628&sr=8-3&keywords=Metal+Gear+Solid+V%3A+The+Phantom+Pain?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") creator Hideo Kojima’s series swan song turns out to be his finest work yet, a tactical stealth simulation wrapped in a colossal resource management puzzle inside a love letter to theatrical inscrutability. It’s a clandestine feast of open-world prowling, a tactical toybox staged in sprawling bulwarks bristling with eerily sentient enemies–the new pinnacle of stealth gaming, and a triumphant final act from one of our luminaries. _\[PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One\]_ ### 7\. _Her Story_  Sam Barlow A whodunit subjectively pieced together by scanning full-motion video clips that require you to spill real-world ink turns out to be a superlative example of how to rivet employing the sparest techniques. It’s complexity from simplicity, a mesmerizing, hybrid investigative-voyeuristic experience where you observe a woman interviewed by detectives about a 1994 murder, unraveling (or deepening) the mystery by lighting on terms or phrases used to ply a vast but fragmented database, trying to puzzle out what happened — and why. _\[iOS, Mac, PC\]_ ### 6\. _The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt_  CD Projekt RED One way of talking about studio CD Projekt Red’s open-world magnum opus _The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt_ might be “the game that made me like _Fallout 4_ less.” It’s that near roleplaying perfection, assuming you like slow-burn fantasy games about potion-chugging mutants and ethical courses of action with inexorably bleak outcomes. [_The Witcher 3_](http://www.amazon.com/Witcher-Wild-Prima-Official-Guide/dp/0804161593/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1448303519&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Witcher+3%3A+Wild+Hunt?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") is to the rest of the video game roleplaying genre as George R.R. Martin to J.R.R. Tolkien. _\[PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One\]_ ### 5\. _Super Mario Maker_  Nintendo It’s _Super Mario Bros._, _Super Mario Bros. 3_, _Super Mario World_ and _New Super Mario Bros. U_ rolled into a rich but accessible toolbox, letting players create and share whatever bizarre level ideas they can dream up. Why it took Nintendo this long to release a [Super Mario level maker](http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Maker-Tricks-Secrets/dp/151732176X/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1448303450&sr=1-1&keywords=super+mario+maker+game?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") is anyone’s guess, but if one game sells the two-screen idea of the Wii U–the stylus is essential here–it’s this one. _\[Wii U\]_ ### 4\. Ryan North’s _To Be or Not to Be_  Tin Man Games [Ryan North’s _To Be or Not to Be_](http://gamebookadventures.com/gamebooks/to-be-or-not-to-be/ "undefined") is the digi-fied version of a crowdfunded 768 page choose-your-own-adventure that came out a few years ago in book form. Studio Tin Man Games’ digital version is the quirkiest, funniest, most insightful retelling of Shakespeare’s _Hamlet_ I’ve experienced in any medium. Multiply by a gazillion possible narrative routes, cultural takedowns and goofy cameos by everything from ghostly aliens to undead presidents. Like Inkle Studios’ _80 Days_ last year, it’s the smartest bit of interactive fiction you’ll flick through all year. _\[PC, Android, iOS\]_ ### 3\. _Batman: Arkham Knight_  Warner Bros. Rocksteady reversed the curse of the shoddy superhero tie-in when it surprised with _Batman: Arkham Asylum_ six years ago. [_Arkham Knight_](http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Arkham-Knight-PlayStation-4/dp/B00IQCRKT8/ref=sr%5F1%5F3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1448303292&sr=1-3&keywords=batman+Arkham+Knight?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") is everything the company’s learned since cranked to 11 with a side of 12\. And it’s not just a fitting fireworks finale that banks on past design glories rubbed in next-gen gloss: the studio took big risks by turning _Arkham Knight_ into a buddy game, pairing Batman with the Batmobile, managing to make its inclusion both essential and exhilarating. _\[PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One\]_ ### 2\. _Undertale_  tobyfox In the guise of a Japanese roleplaying game, _Undertale_ is an investigation of what may really be happening when we play so-called Japanese roleplaying games. It’s a fantasy odyssey that deconstructs itself as you wander. It invites replays, winking at us like a smarter, subtler version of a “Let’s Play” YouTuber shouting insults at the screen. And it’s relentlessly, fastidiously obsessed with helping us see the consequences of the choices so often flippantly made, and the implicit violence we’re wont to do in the name of freedom. _\[PC\]_ ### 1\. _Splatoon_  Nintendo Nintendo’s best idea in years, [_Splatoon_](http://www.amazon.com/Splatoon-Wii-U/dp/B00KWFCV32/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1448303149&sr=1-1&keywords=Splatoon?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") sees two squads of four players battling in skatepark-inspired arenas, outfitted with ink-spewing gadgetry and one imperative: to paint as much of their team’s color on the ground as possible before time runs out. There’s nothing else quite like it, nor the cathartic dopamine jolt to be had when you sail up a paint-smeared quarter pipe, an Inkzooka at the ready, leap over the edge, take aim with your weapon, and reduce a startled opponent to goo. _\[Wii U\]_ Less so _Elite Dangerous_. It’s definitely complex, and with its ridiculous boasts of “hundreds of billions” of visitable star systems, vast beyond playable calculation. But you can wing around all that emptiness with a gamepad. It has tutorials (you’d be surprised how many simulations don’t). And it’s as comfortable experienced on a console like the Xbox One as a PC. And with SteamVR virtual reality support confirmed (HTC’s Vive and Oculus Rift rival arrives in April), it’ll soon let us wrap all that star-flecked interstellar vacuum around our faces, a full 360 degrees. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4180448/elite-dangerous-sales/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4180448/elite-dangerous-sales/"},"headline":"You Won't Believe How Many Copies Elite Dangerous Has Sold","datePublished":"2016-01-14T16:38:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:44:11.490Z","description":"Space sims may never be as popular as they were decades ago, but this one's done rather well for itself","url":"https://time.com/4180448/elite-dangerous-sales/","keywords":["Tech","Video Games","xbox One","Virtual Reality","Windows","PC","HTC Vive"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bd571082798db69/6988792c0b72e348876e7ab4/elite-dangerous-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bd571082798db69/6988792c0b72e348876e7ab4/elite-dangerous-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"elite-dangerous-1","caption":"","creditText":"Frontier Developments","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4180448/elite-dangerous-sales/","name":"You Won't Believe How Many Copies Elite Dangerous Has Sold"}}]}] ```