'Fallout 4' Might Eventually Surpass 'Elder Scrolls VI: Skyrim' Records

Bethesda has become known for its successful releases "Elder Scrolls" and "Fallout." Latest data shows that Bethesda's fantasy RPG "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" may still be the company's cream of the crop. But now that "Fallout 4" is out, will "The Elder Scrolls V" retain its lead?

According to Polygon, the data obtained from game industry market research group EEDAR suggests that "Fallout 4" might outperform "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" in terms of sales. Polygon quotes what Sartori Bernbeck, the company's manager of insights and analytics, said about the methodology utilized to come up with such data.

He said, "The sales numbers I provided are an internal estimate built off known numbers we have access to through certain data partners and extrapolating the numbers into the fuller picture utilizing known trends. We have access to a lot of hard numbers, but we aren't allowed to directly share them so we use them as foundation for total market extrapolations."

The data suggests that "The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion" in 2006 was able to sell a whopping 9.5 million units and its sequel "The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim" in 2011 sold an overwhelming 22.7 million copies worldwide to date. Bethesda released two "Fallout" games as of 2011 but "Fallout 3" in 2008 and "Fallout: New Vegas" in 2010 combined only sold more or less 23 million copies to date. This shows that "The Elder Scrolls" is still Bethesda's biggest title.

Now that "Fallout 4" is out, how does it fare? According to Steam Charts, on the day of release, Bethesda's "Fallout 4" was able to assemble more than 290,000 concurrent players by midnight surpassing any other game being played on steam and that includes "Skyrim" which at that moment was not even on the chart.

If "Fallout 4" continues at this pace, it might eventually become Bethesda's biggest title surpassing "Elder Scroll's" records.