The Elder Scrolls Online: Imperial Edition is selling 5X better than standard, according to deal site

Publishers love selling expensive special editions of their games because you love buying them.

The Elder Scrolls Online is a good example. At least one online retailer is finding that players are heavily favoring that upcoming massively multiplayer online title’s $80 Imperial Edition. Preorders for that version are about five times higher than they are for standard version of The Elder Scrolls Online.

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The MMO role-playing game is due out April 4 for PC and Mac. It will follow in June for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Dealzon, a deal-aggregation site (full disclosure: Dealzon is a GamesBeat sponsor), has informed GamesBeat that it has helped facilitate the sales of around 1,500 digital copies of The Elder Scrolls Online from Jan. 29 through Feb. 2. Of that total, more than 1,250 were the Imperial Edition while only 275 were the standard. That’s a 4.6-to-1 ratio.

Here’s an infographic that illustrates the difference in sales between the two versions of The Elder Scrolls Online through Dealzon:

We’ve reached out to The Elder Scrolls Online publisher Bethesda to see if this is a far-reaching trend. We’ll update this story with any new information.

Dealzon’s numbers only cover the digital PC copies. Bethesda is also selling standard and deluxe editions in physical forms for PC as well as Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It’s possible that those versions aren’t following the same trajectory as the digital PC releases.

As for the direct comparison of the digital Imperial Edition and the digital standard release for PC, the limited package is pulling in a lot more cash for Bethesda.

Players that purchase the Imperial Edition get a number of benefits compared to the basic game. For example, Imperial Edition owners can start playing the game on March 30. Other players that preorder The Elder Scrolls Online must wait until April 1. The Imperial Edition also includes the playable Imperial race as an exclusive.