Phantom Blade Zero Launches To Huge Player Count And Positive User Reviews

Phantom Blade Zero Had The Fourth Best Launch Of 2026, And It Will Get Better Published Oct 29, 2026, 4:15 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 3,000 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, provided context on some AI drama, and revealed that Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on three occasions. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Phantom Blade Zero was always likely to have a huge launch. Cut from the same cloth as Black Myth: Wukong, which is the highest-played single-player game of all time on Steam, plus some stellar critical reviews, players were always likely to flock to it at launch. That has proven to be the case, as within a few hours of its release yesterday, Phantom Blade Zero hit a staggering concurrent player count, already the fourth-largest of the year—and its user reviews are pretty good, too. Phantom Blade Zero Is Off To An Absolutely Stellar Start On Steam Phantom Blade Zero's reviews were outstanding. When the embargo lifted, it overtook titles like Black Myth: Wukong and Genshin Impact to become the best-reviewed Chinese game of all time. It also became the best-reviewed Sam Woods game of all time, as after seven years in this job, I gave out my first perfect score. Coupled with its stellar trailers, hype for this one was high, and that translated to its Steam player count. Just three hours after its launch, Phantom Blade Zero ballooned to an incredible 431,541 players on Steam, and hours later, it was still sitting well above 400,000. That makes it the fourth-largest of any new game this year, and we haven't even hit the weekend yet, which is when player counts tend to peak. During this window, it overtook titles like Resident Evil Requiem, Forza Horizon 6, and the viral sensation Meccha Chameleon. You can view the full top 10 below: 1 Slay the Spire 2 574,638 2 Task Bar Hero 546,130 3 Subnautica 2 467,582 4 Phantom Blade Zero 431,541 5 Wardogs 428,666 6 Aion 2 397,905 7 How to Fish 373,971 8 Resident Evil Requiem 344,214 9 Meccha Chameleon 340,534 10 Forza Horizon 6 302,645 Alongside its fantastic player numbers, Phantom Blade Zero also received brilliant user reviews, earning the "Very Positive" rating on Steam. While many bemoaned the time it took the game's shaders to compile, they were quick to praise its combat, world, and boss fights, something I was also very keen on in my review. Systems Released October 29, 2026 ESRB Unreal Engine 5 Developer(s) S-Game Publisher(s) S-Game Engine Unreal Engine 5 Genre(s) Action, RPG