Phantom Blade Zero Tops 1M Pre-Launch Sales, Per Analyst

Phantom Blade Zero isn't even out yet and it's already sold more copies than many big releases manage in their first week. At least, that's the estimate from one analyst, and it lines up with how loudly this wuxia action game has been climbing the Steam charts.

What happened

Rhys Elliott, an analyst at Alinea Analytics, estimated in a social media post that S-Game's action RPG has sold about 850,000 pre-launch copies on Steam and PS5, according to IGN's report. Add in sales on Tencent's WeGame store in China and the total goes past 1 million. He puts pre-launch revenue at around $43 million. About three quarters of the Western pre-orders were on Steam, and nearly two thirds of all pre-launch sales came from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

These are estimates, not figures from S-Game, so treat them as a strong signal rather than an official tally. Elliott also says it's unlikely to reach the heights of Black Myth: Wukong, which sold 10 million copies in its first three days.

The game unlocks worldwide at the same moment. S-Game's Steam announcement gives the time as 7:00 PM PDT on October 28, which is 2:00 AM UTC on October 29. That works out to 10 PM ET on the 28th, 2 AM in the UK, 7:30 AM in India and 1 PM in Sydney on the 29th. It's out on PS5 and on PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store. The Steam page lists the standard edition at $59.99 in the US and ₹4,299 in India.

Why it matters

A second huge Chinese-made action game in two years is a big deal for the industry. It shows Wukong wasn't a one-off, and it shows Steam's audience in China can push a single-player game into the top tier on its own. Reviews are also strong: it sits at 88 on Metacritic, and IGN gave it 9/10. Expect it near the top of Steam's best-sellers this weekend.

What to do

• Clear space now. S-Game says the PC install is about 145GB and asks for at least 300GB free during the preload. An SSD is required. If your drive is busy all the time, my fix for 100% disk usage in Windows 11 is worth a read first.
• Update your GPU driver before launch. It's a cheap step that heads off a lot of day-one crashes.
• Update, 29 October: the game is out, and S-Game now recommends NVIDIA driver 617.42 rather than 621.01. If it crashes or stutters for you, my Phantom Blade Zero crash fix guide goes through the rollback and the other launch fixes.
• Know what the pre-order gets you. It's the Treasure Basin accessory, which adds 10% Remnant Dust, plus the Legacy outfit. Nice, but not a reason to buy before reviews if you're unsure.
• Note the DRM. The Steam page lists Denuvo, which matters if you play on Linux or Steam Deck.

Having trouble on PC? I put together the developer-confirmed crash and stutter fixes.