Phantom Blade Zero Player Count Peaks at 823,000 on Steam as Sales Pass 4 Million
Phantom Blade Zero's Steam player count peaked at 823,104 on 2 November, and S-GAME says it sold 4 million in 72 hours. How it compares.
Image: S-GAME, via GamingBoltPhantom Blade Zero's player count is still going up. S-GAME's action RPG reached a new all-time peak of 775,647 people playing at once on Steam over its first weekend, according to SteamCharts, beating the 731,026 Game World Observer reported on 30 October. On Sunday morning, 1 November, Valve's own Steam API still counted 686,652 players in the game at the same moment.
Update, 10 November: the peak kept climbing after this story ran. SteamCharts now lists an all-time high of 823,104 players, reached on Monday 2 November, and S-GAME says the game sold more than 4 million copies on PS5 and PC in its first 72 hours. The second weekend was quieter, peaking at 557,260 on Saturday 7 November.
Most launches peak on day one and fade. A higher number on the first weekend usually means word of mouth is working, and the reviews back that up.
Phantom Blade Zero player count at a glance
- Steam all-time peak: 823,104 concurrent players on 2 November (SteamCharts)
- First-weekend peak: 775,647 on 31 October (SteamCharts)
- Second-weekend peak: 557,260 on 7 November (SteamCharts)
- Official sales: more than 4 million copies in 72 hours on PS5 and PC (S-GAME)
- Launch-week peak: 731,026 on 30 October (Game World Observer)
- Players on Sunday morning (1 November, 11:43 UTC): 686,652 (Steam API)
- Steam reviews: more than 100,000, with 92% of English-language reviews positive (Very Positive)
- Metascore: 88 on PC
- Price: $59.99, £49.99 or €59.99 on Steam
How it compares with other big Steam launches
At 731,026 players, Game World Observer counted Phantom Blade Zero as the 15th highest peak in Steam history, already ahead of Hollow Knight: Silksong (587,000), Marvel Rivals (644,000) and Goose Goose Duck (703,000). The new weekend peak puts it closer to the next tier up, though it's still short of Baldur's Gate 3 (875,000), Hogwarts Legacy (879,000) and Elden Ring (953,000).
The obvious comparison is Black Myth: Wukong, the last Chinese action game to take over Steam. Wukong peaked at around 2.4 million players after its August 2024 launch, according to SteamCharts, so Phantom Blade Zero is at roughly a third of that.
What's behind the numbers
China is a big part of it. Analyst firm Alinea Analytics estimated that Phantom Blade Zero sold around 850,000 copies on Steam and PS5 before release, with 62.5% of those pre-sales from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Counting sales through Tencent's WeGame as well, Alinea's Rhys Elliott estimated the total was "well past" one million before launch, GamingBolt reported.
Reviews have helped too. Alinea estimated about 80,000 of those sales came after reviews went live, and 92% of the English-language reviews on Steam are now positive. New to it? Our look at how its boss weapons shape combat explains the game's big idea. You can also stream it through GeForce NOW.
What we don't know
S-GAME hasn't split its sales by platform or shared revenue, and Sony doesn't publish player counts for PS5, so the Steam number is only part of the picture, though PlayStation Store's October charts show it was the fourth most downloaded PS5 game in both the US and Europe. The pre-release sales numbers above are analyst estimates, not company figures.
Update: past 820,000 players and 4 million sales
The player count peaked on the Monday after launch, not the first weekend. SteamCharts recorded 823,104 players at once on 2 November, still short of Baldur's Gate 3 (875,000), so the comparison above holds.
S-GAME announced on 2 November, on the game's official X account, that Phantom Blade Zero had passed 4 million copies sold in its first 72 hours on PS5 and PC, Inven Global reported. The studio hasn't split that by platform. Analyst firm Alinea Analytics estimated around 4.3 million copies on Steam and PS5 by the morning of 3 November, about 3.1 million of them on Steam, Russian outlet PlayGround.ru reported.
Since then the numbers have eased, as they do for most launches: the second weekend peaked at 557,260 players on Saturday 7 November and 510,153 on Sunday, and the peak on 10 November was 427,729, according to SteamCharts.
