Shadow of the Erdtree is the highest rated DLC ever, according to Metacritic

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is the highest-rated DLC of all time, according to Metacritic.

Reviews for the expansion, which will be released on Friday, were published on Tuesday. At the time of writing, the expansion has a Metacritic score of 95 based on 56 reviews. This puts Elden Ring Shaow of the Erdtree at 36th place in Metacritic’s overall list of the highest-rated games of all time.

The base game has a score of 96, based on 93 critic reviews. 

Shadow of the Erdtree is also by far the highest-rated FromSoftware DLC release. Dark Souls‘ DLC, Astorias of the Abyss, holds an 89 on Metacritic.

Dark Souls 2’s three expansions, Crown of the Sunken King, Crown of the Old Iron King, and Crown of the Ivory King have a rating of 82, 79, and 82 respectively on the site.

Dark Souls 3’s Ashes of Ariandel earned a 71, and The Ringed City managed an 82. Bloodborne’s only expansion, The Old Hunters, earned an 87 on the platform.

VGC’s Shadow of the Erdtree review called it a “sequel-sized sensation.”

“Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is an incredible expansion and a worthy follow-up to the generation’s best game,” we wrote.

“In some ways, it’s better than the original by providing an experience that’s both tighter, but also more than double the length we expected.”

Before the reviews went live, VGC’s Jordan Middler sat down with Hamish Black from WritingOnGames, Jade King from TheGamer, and David Carcasole from PlayStation Universe to discuss FromSoftware’s latest expansion in our Review Roundtable podcast series.