More people saw the secret Elden Ring ending where you have to do loads of weird stuff than the 'normal' ending

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

While browsing Elden Ring's Steam listing the other day, PCG's eagle-eyed Ted Litchfield spotted something interesting about the game's General Grievous-armed snow witch wife. The page includes a breakdown of what percentage of the playerbase has garnered a given achievement, and when it comes to the endgame trophies it turns out we all love a witch.

Ranni's the name, and introducing endless chill to the world of Elden Ring is the game. I'm not going to get into the deepest lore specifics but Ranni's questline is a long and involved one where it's easy to miss steps, and takes you to some of the most secret locations in The Lands Between and through some hidden bosses. I'd say it's one of the game's best-kept secrets, but clearly I'm wrong.

25.9% of players have The Age of the Stars achievement, which is the ending unlocked by Ranni's questline, while 19.6% have the Elden Lord achievement. Obviously there are some caveats here as well as the fact this is just Steam players, the main one being that some players will have been through the game twice and achieved both: But given Elden Ring's absolutely enormous scale, I imagine that a majority of players who've beaten the game have only completed it once.

Still, spare a thought for the poor Tarnished who haven't got the Margit the Fell Omen achievement. This boss is the game's first real test of player skill and a tough nut to crack, but even so I was surprised that 'only' 73.8% of players have the achievement for beating him. Over a quarter of everyone who bought it on Steam has barely seen what Elden Ring has to offer, while we're all out here merrily running around after witches: Ted tells me that "Ranni is 100% the good ending", but he's married to her.

This year should see DLC for Elden Ring, though Bandai Namco knows it won't have to work very hard to sell it and is keeping mostly quiet. That hasn't stopped some engaging in a rather unhinged act of devotion, by which they vow to keep killing FromSoft bosses until the DLC is announced. They need to relax, kick back, maybe take out Margit with an acoustic guitar for a change.

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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."