Phantom Blade Zero studio S-Game has announced that its debut title has sold more than 4m copies in its first 72 hours on sale. The game’s official X account broke the news alongside a celebratory message, though without providing a per-platform breakdown of copies sold.
“Thank you everyone from the bottom of our hearts for all the love and support!” the developer wrote on X.
Phantom Blade Zero is available on Steam and PlayStation 5, but the 4m figure also includes sales made on the China-exclusive Tencent WeGame PC launcher. Prior to launch, Alinea Analytics analyst Rhys Elliott estimated Phantom Blade Zero to have sold over 1m copies before it had even released.
Phantom Blade Zero attracted over 431,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch, a figure that kept risking and rising into the weekend, ultimately settling at a massive 833,921 peak concurrent (via SteamDB). Just in case it wasn’t already clear, this is Steam’s biggest launch of the year so far, beating the likes of Forza Horizon 6 and far outpacing all other major releases such as Onimusha: Way of the Sword, The Blood of Dawnwalker, and Ace Combat 8.
Despite the very strong opening weekend’s numbers, Phantom Blade Zero has not been able to match or exceed the performance of Black Myth: Wukong, 2024’s also-Chinese developed triple-A action game, just yet. The breakout hit, estimated to have sold 30m copies since, is one of Steam’s largest debuts ever, peaking at 2,415,714 concurrent players at launch.
In Eurogamer’s Phantom Blade Zero review, Emma Kent spoke highly of much of the game, but was critical of its underwhelming narrative and lack of consistency, writing: “This game is exceptional in so many areas – the animations, the beautiful environments – and when the combat works, the sense of flow is incredible. Then you walk into a boss battle and feel all that power fade, like you’re waiting your turn to get hits in with a wooden sword.”
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Remedy, the developer behind the recently released Control Resonant, has published a striking quarterly financial report. It reveals that following Resonant’s release in September, the company’s revenue jumped 226 percent, generating €39.6m in Q3.
CEO Jean-Charles Gaudechon described this performance as “a defining milestone for the company.” The firm reported a €0.6m operating profit this quarter, a notable rise from the €16.4m loss recorded during the same period last year.
Several interesting highlights emerge from this sudden surge. For one, the US accounted for nearly half of Control Resonant’s players across PC and console, followed by Chinese-speaking regions and then the UK.
Perhaps most crucially, nearly half of Control Resonant’s players were entirely new to the franchise, with the company stating: “Reaching new players was a key goal for this game, and these early results indicate a growing audience for the franchise and for Remedy.”
Control (2019) also saw a bump in sales thanks to the release of Control Resonant, showing stronger performance this quarter than the previous two quarters of this year as well as its comparison period (the same quarter last year).
Remedy’s CEO now believes the studio’s focus is to “get Resonant into the hands of more players.” He adds that the game has laid a solid foundation for growth as other projects (including the Max Payne 1 & 2 remake) are in development. In short, things appear to be looking rather good for Remedy.
Control Resonant was an artistically impressive but critically divisive game. While many praised the series’ venture into third-person action, some felt it lacked some of the narrative punch of its predecessor. Nonetheless, the game quickly surpassed one million in sales after launch.
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