Phantom Blade Zero Tops Steam Sales as Concurrent Players Pass 500,000

It reached No. 2 on Steam's Most Played chart with 506,804 concurrent players, and led sales rankings in the US and UK.

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A Phantom Blade Zero warrior faces a floating figure in a wooded setting.

Phantom Blade Zero now leads Steam’s global sales chart. At a captured point on launch day, Steam’s Most Played chart showed 506,804 concurrent players, placing it at No. 2 behind Counter-Strike 2. The figure is a snapshot of active players, not a measure of total sales.

The sales lead began before release. On Oct. 27, two days before its Oct. 29 launch, Phantom Blade Zero was the only unreleased game in Steam’s top 10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Aion 2 were among the titles below it. It was also the chart’s second-most-expensive game, while other entries were cheaper, free-to-play, or discounted.

Phantom Blade Zero is currently the #1 best-selling game on Steam, even outselling Call of Duty! pic.twitter.com/gRUOyhSJDe

— GermanStrands (@GermanStrands) October 27, 2026

After launch, the game also ranked No. 1 on Steam’s US and UK sales charts. Its Steam edition costs $59.99 and £49.99.

The launch followed favorable reviews. Before release, the PS5 version had an 88 Metascore and OpenCritic showed a 91 average, as covered in our pre-launch score report.

Director Soulframe Liang also credited the developers behind the launch. In a PCGamesN interview, he said he was “deeply grateful to the team for their understanding and support” after asking them to rebuild polished work or cut content despite the time already invested. Liang credited art director Michael Chang with concept art for every character and most environments, and music director Caisheng Bo with creating more than 10 hours of music almost entirely on his own.

For PC players, options shaped by preview and show-floor feedback include control remapping, adjustable blade-clash audio, support for 16:10 screens, and ultrawide displays beyond 3:1. S-Game’s launch guidance warns that Nvidia driver 621.01 can cause performance instability and recommends version 617.42 for now. The day-one patch improves ray tracing and path tracing performance, though players on lower-end hardware may need to turn those features off.

What do you make of Phantom Blade Zero‘s first-day numbers on Steam? For more on the game’s launch performance and PC support, stay connected on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.

Framed for the death of his master and left with a ruined heart, Soul has sixty-six days to live. Alone and hunted by his former comrades, he moves through a world of shifting loyalties and silent blades — determined to unravel the conspiracy that has condemned him.

Rain mixes with blood, mercy entangles with vengeance. Soul's journey is one of love, hate, and the fragile search for what it means to have a heart.