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Phantom Blade Zero Gets Off to a Flyer on Steam, Behind Only Counter-Strike 2 as the Most-Played Game
Phantom Blade Zero surged to the top of Steam’s best-selling games chart within hours of release, with a peak of 448,000 concurrent players. It ranked behind only Counter-Strike 2 by peak player count on the platform, making its launch a major early success for Chinese studio S-Game.
The game had been estimated to sell more than one million copies before launch across Steam, PS5 and China’s WeGame, with nearly two thirds of those sales in China, Taiwan or Hong Kong. Its creative director, Soulframe Liang, said the team expanded production after an early trailer drew strong interest, travelling across China for research and extensively rebuilding parts of the game. The game also launched on PS5, where player numbers are not public.
In short
- Phantom Blade Zero reached 448,000 concurrent Steam players.
- It topped Steam’s best-selling chart by revenue.
- Nearly two thirds of pre-launch sales came from China, Taiwan or Hong Kong.
Explained simply
Phantom Blade Zero is an action role-playing game from S-Game, a Chinese studio. Players control a warrior in a fictional world inspired by Chinese history and martial arts, fighting enemies with weapons and fast-paced combat.
Steam is a major online shop and playing service for computer games. Its charts track sales and how many people are playing at the same time, while figures for PlayStation 5 games are not publicly reported in the same way. S-Game’s creative director, Soulframe Liang, has said strong interest in an early trailer led the team to expand production and revisit parts of the game.
The game’s launch drew particular attention because Chinese-made games have increasingly reached large audiences at home and abroad. Estimates before release suggested many early sales would come from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, alongside sales on Steam and PlayStation.
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