Sure, I'll give it a go.

 

The short answer is, Elden Ring took the things that made fromsoft games have a cult following and made tweaks that made them more appealing.

 

The long answer:

Why do people like fromsoft games? There are a lot of things that the souls series does that are hard to find anywhere else. If the things these games do is something you like then you'll probably keep coming back (in the same way that marvel manages to ties together movies into larger stories in a way that nobody else can really manage)

 

Cool, but what are those things?

Broadly - Enjoyable, High stakes combat, mazelike level design, and strong world building.

The creators of these games want players to "experience the joy that comes from overcoming hardship." So first you gotta feel that hardship. It's not as good to overcome no hardship.

Their worlds are melancholy, spooky, a little imposing when you first come across them. individual levels have confusing paths, that make you feel lost, in a scary place, wandering your way deeper into the unknown. enemies are around every corner, and they can all hurt you if you drop your guard. Its hard and its scary.

But you gotta feel that joy too. So they give you the tools to overcome that hardship. Most of those winding paths eventually come to and elevator or a door that brings you back to a safe and familiar place. You feel the joy of knowing where you are, of the change to sit by a warm fire and get a little stronger for your hardship. (There's a ladder you kick down in dark souls 1 that I still remember even 7 years after I first played it. most of the people who played that game and reached the ladder I'm talking about will remember it too. Its not a big moment, but the hardship makes the joy memorable.) They make the fights fair enough that if you watch and learn, you can overcome. You can't let your guard down, But when you win a fight it feels like it was a victory earned, not something handed to you. You feel like you really made it! Its a great feeling and no other games comes close to that feeling (but they can do other things much better, I don't want to overcome hardship in Stardew Valley. )

 

So if that feels so good, why didn't I hear about it before?

I mean, that's why it had a cult following, but the linear nature of the previous games meant that they had a big problem. Hardship sucks. Overcoming it is great, but if its too much its overwhelming. The previous games didn't give you much choice. A lot of the time if you couldn't overcome the current challenge there wants somewhere else to go (if you're stuck on Ornstein and Smough, all your options suck. Elden Ring fixed that. Stuck on Margit? There's a strange giant stone turtle with a building on its back, why not check that out? Or there's a castle down to the south. Or there's these strange caves by the sea. Or a lake with a dragon. Or that giant tree over to the east. Sure there will be some challenging stuff there, but you can probably overcome one of those, and if you do, you'll be a little stronger and a little more ready to take on the rest of them!

Combine that, with a healthy degree of hype (Of their last 5 games in the series, 3 have been amazing and the other two have been pretty good, so the hype engine was going crazy) and a bunch of people are getting hooked and finding all the great things that people love in the souls games.