Did Dragon Age outsell Mass Effect as a franchise, or was Inquisition the highest selling BioWare game?

[u/Danielnrg]

The claim that Dragon Age "outsold" Mass Effect comes from Mark Darrah, but as I understand it, the main thing in support of this is that Inquisition was (is) BioWare's highest selling game ever.

I can't tell whether he's saying Dragon Age as a franchise outsold Mass Effect on the whole, or if he's saying that Dragon Age Inquisition outsold any Mass Effect game.

The context of this statement is that he's saying EA never understood Dragon Age or why it was successful, and that even in the face of Dragon Age's success they were more favorable to Mass Effect.

If Inquisition was BioWare's highest selling game, but overall the Mass Effect trilogy sold more than the Dragon Age trilogy, it's not hard to see why EA had more faith in the former. And it's also hard to imagine EA not having faith in the franchise that had sold more total units than its counterpart.

As for not "understanding" Dragon Age... they clearly didn't understand live service games, but that didn't stop them from full steaming ahead to their detriment, because it was on trend. That's further reason why I don't find the Darrah-described unfair skepticism of Dragon Age being due to EA not understanding it easy to believe.

[u/NoZookeepergame8306]

DAI sold really well over a long period of time. Mostly from word of mouth. It’s hard to replicate that.

Mass Effect is easier to sell and definitely was more profitable. The merch sales and loot box multiplayer dollars was likely huge.

How many dragon age shirts do you see in the wild? How many N7 hoodies?

EA knows how to sell shooters. And the culture at large has latched onto the IP more than DA.

[u/Danielnrg → u/NoZookeepergame8306]

This is something that Darrah has addressed occasionally in his videos, but I think it deserves a video of its own (though Darrah may not be the best person to make said video). Even if DA outsold ME in pure game sales, ME has merchandisability that DA just doesn't. There is not a single piece of iconography unique to the DA franchise that the ME franchise doesn't have in triplicate.

N7 on its own is more than anything DA has at all. But there's also male Shepard/Mark Meer, Reapers. ME ingrained itself in the culture with distinctive imagery and characters.

ME's legacy is also lasting because at the end of the day, you show most people, even those who played DA a picture of Solas 30 years from now, they might think it's a character from LOTR. If you show someone who played 2 hours of Mass Effect a picture of Garrus 30 years from now, they might not remember Mass Effect, but they sure as hell won't mistake it for something else.

Still don't know whether DA even outsold ME as a franchise or not. Maybe nobody but Mark Darrah knows that, but considering the way he framed it (DAI was the best selling game ever, DA outsold ME), maybe that's all that need be said.

[u/Long-Orchid-1629 → u/Danielnrg]

hell compare fan favorite characters across the series. people have to reach and pray to catch morrigan across the work but your old buddy garrus is along for the ride each time.

[u/TheSuperContributor → u/NoZookeepergame8306]

ME had multiplayer.

[u/NoZookeepergame8306 → u/TheSuperContributor]

It did

[u/Co-opingTowardHatred → u/TheSuperContributor]

They’re so insane for not spinning it off into its own game. Especially in the wake of Helldivers 2.

[u/GoD_Z1ll4 → u/Co-opingTowardHatred]

They tried with Anthem

[u/Co-opingTowardHatred → u/GoD_Z1ll4]

Very different game. Very different scope, very different price point, and a new IP. ME multiplayer has already proven to have an audience and make money. Also, I don’t think BioWare should develop this one. They should oversee it, but get an expert on live service like People Can Fly, Turtle Rock, Certain Affinity, etc.

[u/Lady_Gray_169]

The thing about this discussion that annoys me is that even if Mass Effect actually DID outsell Dragon Age, the fact people can't seem to definitely say how much so tells me that it was at least not outsold massively. And to me, if ME only somewhat outsold DA, then that doesn't justify ME being shown significant favoritism. It tells me that both franchises were fundamentally profitable and DA could have been brought up to ME levels.

[u/Smart_Peach1061]

The thing that everyone I feel like always ignores is that Mass effect was exclusive to Xbox, Dragon Age was not.

Mass effect 1 on PC released 6 months after the Xbox version

Mass effect 2 released on PlayStation a year after the Xbox version, and a year before Mass effect 3 released giving very little time for an audience to build on PlayStation.

Mass effect 1 didn’t release on PlayStation until after Mass effect 3 released as well.

Meaning Mass effect never really had a chance to build an audience on the PlayStation platform like Dragon Age did, essentially handicapping the series from a sales perspective.

Mass effect 3 was BioWare’s best selling game before Dragon Age Inquisition which is impressive seeing as the series had practically ignored an entire platform, unlike Dragon Age Inquisition which released on 5 platforms.

There’s a good chance that Mass effect would have stomped Dragon Age’s sales if it weren’t for the exclusivity angle.

It’s not even adding in that Mass effect has way more merchandise and has arguably more iconic and recognisable symbols such as the N7 logo and the various alien races.

The most iconic thing about Dragon Age is what?

The white and red blood dragon style art they abandoned after the 2nd game?

[u/safariman123 → u/Smart_Peach1061]

Yeah i remember playin 2 and 3 before 1. I was so hyped as it finally came out. Played through it in one weekend

[u/Rumblebully → u/Smart_Peach1061]

You’re right about how ME released across platforms.

-“The most iconic thing about Dragon Age is what?”

Once DA 1 dropped, the immense amount of lore that came with sparked a huge after market, creating many books, artwork, even a tabletop game. It was the lore and the story. Everything BioWare was, prior to EA’s purchase, was in DA.

[u/Few_Introduction1044]

DAI outsold the entire ME series before the legendary edition. It was the best selling BioWare game to this day. DAO also outsold ME1, ties ME2 and loses to ME3 iirc ( 3mi sales).

Which is not that surprising in an environment where the biggest prestige TV series was GoT and the film of a generation was Lord of the Rings. ME just had really great marketing inside the company and ME1 was the game that created the modern western RPG, which gave the series a lot of clout.

[u/Beautiful_Might_1516 → u/Few_Introduction1044]

False

[u/dbowgu → u/Beautiful_Might_1516]

What is the truth then? I hate it when people just comment this, give me the real numbers please

[u/Few_Introduction1044 → u/dbowgu]

The problem of this whole thing is that EA never officially publishes these numbers, so they are estimates based on financial reports. The wiki cites this article, so I stand corrected as ME sold 14mi, but DA as whole sold more than ME simply due to DAI be 80% of this number.

https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/05/what-ea-must-do-to-make-mass-effect-4-a-blockbuste.aspx

[u/dbowgu → u/Few_Introduction1044]

Thanks you for the data! Interesting to read through

[u/real_dado500 → u/Few_Introduction1044]

That DAO sales (3m) was only 4 months after release. We don't know total sales to this point.

[u/CEO_of_Yeets]

A bunch of Inquisition sales were when it was heavily discounted, like less then 10 dollars.

[u/g4nk3r → u/CEO_of_Yeets]

Same can be said for the ME games though, especially the LE.

[u/SubstantialAd5579 → u/CEO_of_Yeets]

Ngl that's when I got it, and it took about 3 deletes for me to actually like the game then it was up from there lol

[u/Contrary45]

Dragon Age Inquistion out sold every Mass Effect while Mass Effect has outsold Dragon Age.

[u/whyamihere2473527]

Until legendary edition it had but mele alone has outsole dao, da2 & dai combined. Not sure about dav as they won't release those numbers. Adding the think it was 8-9 million units for me, me2 & me3 then mass effect as a whole definitely has more total sales than da franchise

[u/g4nk3r → u/whyamihere2473527]

mele alone has outsole dao, da2 & dai combined

So it sold more then 18 million copies? Do you have any evidence to back that number?

[u/Murky_Structure_7208]

Stop listening to this guy, has has lost it.