Elden Ring players surprised by official boss battle stats from game’s first year

Since they finally received the massive DLC announcement they’d all been craving, Elden Ring players have all been basking in the warm glow of knowing that work on the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is definitely underway.

Naturally, this has sparked many to do some detective work to try and unearth clues as to what the DLC might involve, while others have already begun gearing up for the intense training regimen they need to refresh and hone their skills in time for the expansion’s arrival.

If you’re one of those who’ll be looking for ways to improve your boss battling acumen, some stats released by Bandai Namco to celebrate the game’s one-year anniversary, which have been causing a bit of a stir on Reddit, might be of interest.

Which Elden Ring boss has killed you most often since you first delved into the Lands Between?

The website post containing this partially death-based data split it into several infographics, which covered the game’s most attempted boss fights, most common causes of death and most regular summoning scenarios, as well as the most popular spells and incantations.

Of these, the list of bosses players have spent countless hours throwing themselves at threw up a couple of surprises to the hardened FromSoft veterans in a Reddit thread about the numbers.

Despite her infamy, user ApollyonDS was shocked to learn that Malenia makes up the largest individual portion of the 5.9 billion boss battles attempted, sitting at 329 million, saying: “Considering how many players probably didn't even reach Malenia, (this) goes to show how tough she really is. Just the players who managed to reach her racked up these numbers.”

Backing this sentiment up is the fact that both of the bosses trailing just behind the blade of Miquella in the rankings, Margit and the Limgrave Tree Sentinel, who sit at 281 million and 277 million attempts respectively, are encountered much earlier on in the game, with a number of users declaring their joy that both have taught so many new players valuable lessons.

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Of the other stats, the fact that 14% of player deaths have been caused by falling aroused a bit of curiosity, with user 79792348978 saying: “I desperately want to know how high it is in some of the earlier souls games now. Some of them almost certainly have even higher gravity death rates.”

Meanwhile, the list of most popular spells also ruffled some feathers, with user Dreadskull1790 declaring: “Crystal Torrent in top five spells cast, that’s honestly surprising.”, DaftFunky adding: “I would have sworn up and down that Glintstone Pebble would be (number one) by a (wide margin).” and younghandshake musing: “I'm surprised Carian Slicer doesn't make an appearance due to it basically just being the same as swinging a sword.”

Regardless of whether any of these rankings didn’t match up with your personal experience in the Lands Between, make sure to follow us for coverage of some interesting streamers and guides to Shadow of the Erdtree as soon as it arrives.