It’s only been out a few hours, but Phantom Blade Zero is already a big hit on Steam, topping the best-selling games chart, and reaching a huge peak concurrent player count of 448,000.
Phantom Blade Zero is ahead of eternal Steam big hitters PUBG and Dota 2 by peak concurrent players, and behind only Counter-Strike 2 as the most-played game on Valve’s platform. But it’s worth noting that the total peak player count will be even higher, given Phantom Blade Zero is also out on PS5 (Sony does not make player numbers public).
It’s also the best-selling game on Steam by revenue, ahead of Activision Modern Warfare 4, Aion 2, and Probably Stolen, a Cyberpunk shopkeeper sim that’s going viral.
Phantom Blade Zero – Donnie Yen Behind the Scenes Photos
The early success shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. This week, it was estimated that Phantom Blade Zero had sold over 1 million copies before launch, across launch platforms Steam and PS5, and Tencent’s WeGame (an online PC storefront in China). Nearly two thirds of total prelaunch sales were from China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong. Phantom Blade Zero is a wuxia action game developed by Chinese studio S-Game, and features martial arts movie star Donnie Yen.
Alongside the launch of the game, creative director and S-Game CEO, Soulframe Liang, penned a heartfelt letter thanking fans. In it, he talked about the game’s humble beginnings — a version of the world he created as a student in RPG Maker called Rainblood: Town of Death.
“Back then, I had no idea where my life or career would lead,” he said. “Making games had simply been a source of comfort while I studied abroad, but before I knew it, it had become one of the most important parts of my life.
“More than three years ago, when we brought our first, still rather rough Phantom Blade Zero trailer to a PlayStation showcase, we probably looked like a new studio being a little too bold, putting an unfinished game out for the whole world to judge. Phantom Blade was simply another original IP, its world, characters and story entirely unfamiliar to people.”
He went on to explain how the reaction to the trailer spurred the team on, and they cancelled other projects to focus on Phantom Blade while expanding the scale of production. They travelled across China to 3D scan villages, captured thousands of hours of motion capture, and went to Shaolin temples and sword masters to learn martial arts.
Soulframe also called out a few young and hungry developers on the team, such as art director Michael Chang, who drew concepts for every single character and environment. “After years of development, I feel that technology and experience have become the baseline, almost a given at this point,” he continued. “What I find myself paying more attention to now is the mindset of the people behind the game. Beyond skill and experience, is there a certain madness, a certain obsession?”
Soulframe explained that over time, the team started to feel like wuxia characters themselves, fighting battles each day to make the best game possible. “Over the past few years, one thing I often said to the team was, ‘Today, I have a suffocating decision to announce,’” he explained. “That usually meant taking apart something everyone had already carefully built and polished, then rebuilding it, or even abandoning it altogether.
“It meant a great deal of rework, and sometimes letting go of content that had already taken an enormous amount of time and effort. I am deeply grateful to the team for their understanding and support. We did it. We have poured all our thought and creativity into this game.”
He finished the post off by thanking players who followed the game’s journey from scrappy indie game to topping the Steam charts on its first day out.
IGN’s Phantom Blade Zero review returned a 9/10. We said: “Phantom Blade Zero is an unbelievably smooth action game filled with memorable boss fights, compelling combat, and limitless swagger.”
Kirk McKeand is a Contributor on IGN News. Find him on Twitter @MckKirk