S-Game's wuxia action game launched Oct. 28 at $59.99 on Steam, peaking at 431,541 players and landing second on the most-played chart behind Counter-Strike 2.
Phantom Blade Zero, the wuxia action game from Chinese developer S-Game, launched on Oct. 28 and peaked at 431,541 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB figures cited by Eurogamer on Oct. 29. That made it the second most-played game on the platform at the time of Eurogamer's report, behind only Counter-Strike 2. It costs $59.99 on Steam in the U.S. and is also out on PlayStation 5.
What the launch numbers show
Eurogamer reports that the game is also sitting at the top of Steam's global best-sellers chart after jumping 16 places this week. Early user reviews on Steam average out to Mostly Positive, so players are happy, if not unanimous.
S-Game hasn't published sales figures. Alinea Analytics analyst Rhys Elliott estimated that the game sold about 850,000 copies across PC and PS5 before launch day. Add sales on Tencent's WeGame store in China and he puts the total well above 1 million. Elliott also said roughly 80,000 of those copies sold after reviews went up two days before release. Treat all of this as analyst estimates, not company data.
How it compares with Black Myth: Wukong
The obvious yardstick is Black Myth: Wukong, another Chinese-made action game. Eurogamer notes that it peaked at 2,415,714 concurrent Steam players in 2024 and is estimated to have sold more than 30 million copies. Elliott doesn't expect Phantom Blade Zero to get anywhere near that. Eurogamer's own guess is that the weekend could push its peak well above 500,000 players, which is a forecast, not a measurement.
What critics said before launch
Reviews landed on Oct. 26. IGN's Travis Northup gave the game 9 out of 10, praising the combat as satisfying and well tuned while calling the story needlessly convoluted and noting occasional performance issues. Eurogamer's Emma Kent was cooler, pointing to a general lack of polish and boss fights that break up the pace, even as she rated the swordplay among the best parts. Those scores and verdicts belong to the outlets, not to us. Steam's store page also lists a Metacritic score of 88.
The setup, per the Steam listing, is that you play Soul, a warrior with 66 days left to live. The game runs on Unreal Engine 5.
Our take
A peak above 430,000 players for a brand-new action game from a studio IGN describes as best known for mobile titles is a big result. The caveat is that Steam counts only show the PC audience. PS5 players, and whatever happens in China, sit outside that chart. The Mostly Positive user rating is also worth watching, because early scores tend to move once the first-weekend rush settles and people reach the later bosses. If you are on PC and thinking of buying, the split between IGN's enthusiasm and Eurogamer's reservations is a fair preview of what the user reviews are arguing about.
Related reading
Picture credit: S-Game
