Phantom Blade Zero Sells 4 Million Copies in Its First 72 Hours
Soul is having a great week.
Phantom Blade Zero is officially a monster hit, since developer S-Game says its wuxia action game sold 4 million copies within 72 hours of going on sale, and the studio thanked fans on X "from the bottom of our hearts for all the love and support" (IGN).
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If you haven't seen it in action yet, here's the official launch trailer.
How big is 4 million in three days?
It's a huge number, especially for a brand-new series, considering Phantom Blade Zero topped Steam's most-played chart on day one, passing PUBG and Dota 2, and it was the best-selling game on Steam by revenue, ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (IGN).
Then it kept climbing, and Steam concurrent players peaked on Sunday at 833,921, which is almost double the 448,000 it hit in its first few hours (we covered that launch here). Those numbers only cover Steam, since the game is also available on PS5 and Sony doesn't publicly share player counts.
The hype was there before launch, too, since it was estimated to have sold more than 1 million copies in presales across Steam, PS5 and Tencent's WeGame store, and nearly two thirds of those came from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Is it bigger than Black Myth: Wukong?
Not quite, because Black Myth: Wukong, the last big action game out of China, sold 10 million copies in its first three days and still holds the crown (IGN). But Wukong had years of viral trailers behind it, and Phantom Blade Zero is the first big console and PC release for a studio that started with an RPG Maker project. Reaching 40% of Wukong's launch numbers is still a massive achievement.
It also helps that the game is genuinely excellent, and IGN gave it a 9 out of 10 and called it "an unbelievably smooth action game filled with memorable boss fights, compelling combat, and limitless swagger."
Who's in the cast?
Roger Craig Smith, the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog, Ezio Auditore and Chris Redfield, plays the hero, Soul. Maggie Robertson, who played Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village, voices Mu Xiaokui. Martial arts legend Donnie Yen was a creative consultant, and he plays Soul's father, Mó Yuan, through full facial, voice and motion capture.
My read is that this is the start of a real franchise, because big action games from Chinese studios have now landed two years in a row and fans clearly want more of them. (Somewhere, a Phantom Blade One is already being planned.) If S-Game keeps the patches and the boss fights coming, 10 million doesn't look crazy.
If you loved Wukong's boss fights, Phantom Blade Zero is the obvious next stop, and it's worth catching up on the game that set this bar.
Are you playing it yet? Tell us your favorite boss so far.
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Header image and in-article images are official screenshots from Phantom Blade Zero, from S-Game.
