Phantom Blade Zero Launches With Over 430,000 Players on Steam and Strong Critic Scores

S-GAME’s Phantom Blade Zero came out on PC and PS5 on October 29, and within a few hours it became one of the most played games on Steam. According to SteamDB, the game hit a peak of 434,028 concurrent players on Steam, and more than 400,000 people are playing it as of writing.

That puts Phantom Blade Zero third on Steam’s most played list right now. Only the competitive giants Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 sit above it, while PUBG: Battlegrounds, Apex Legends and Cyberpunk 2077 fall behind. Phantom Blade Zero also tops SteamDB’s trending games chart. These numbers cover Steam only. The game also launched on the Epic Games Store and PS5, so the total player count is likely higher.

In the first hours, players left more than 5,000 reviews on Steam, and the game holds a 78.34% rating on SteamDB. Most players praise the combat system and the visuals.

Critics rated Phantom Blade Zero even higher. The game scores 88 on Metacritic and around 91 on OpenCritic, and some outlets already call it a Game of the Year contender. Reviewers most often point to the fast combat and the boss fights.

Phantom Blade Zero is an action RPG in a style the developers call “Kungfupunk.” You play as Soul, an assassin framed for killing the leader of his order, who has only 66 days to uncover the conspiracy. S-GAME first planned to release the game on September 9, then delayed it by 50 days for extra polish. The Standard Edition costs $59.99, and the Deluxe Edition costs $69.99.