Phantom Blade Zero immediately tops over half a million concurrent Steam players, beating Silksong and Slay the Spire 2's all-time records in a matter of hours
It's behind only Palworld 1.0 as the biggest launch of 2026 so far
Phantom Blade Zero is finally out, and has already gotten off to a massive start as one of the most-played Steam games of the year as far as concurrent players are concerned.
S-Game's long-awaited action RPG has already landed a Metacritic score that places it as one of the top games of 2026, with the game also up for Ultimate Game of the Year at The Golden Joystick Awards 2026. On top of that, Alinea Analytics predicted that Phantom Blade Zero had already sold over one million copies across PC and PS5 before it had even launched, positioning it for a huge release day. And, as one of the last major releases before the GTA 6 tidal wave arrives, it's looking like it's already hit big.
Over on Steam, at the time of writing (via SteamDB), Phantom Blade Zero has peaked at 595,711 concurrent players today as it launched around 10 hours ago. This is a number that has gone up multiple times during the process of writing this, but at the very least, well over half a million players have booted up S-Game's Wuxia action game.
This number places it behind only Palworld 1.0 as the biggest launch of 2026 so far. But perhaps more impressively, it's already in the top 20 biggest games ever on Steam as far as concurrent player peaks go, beating out the likes of Hollow Knight: Silksong, Slay the Spire 2, and Terraria.
And from covering Steam peaks over the years, typically the way things go is that a game will hit its biggest ever peak on the Sunday after it releases, so there's still a chance for Phantom Blade Zero to become one of the biggest Steam releases of all-time – well, even more so than it already is.
If you're one of the over 500k players hopping in today, check out our Phantom Blade Zero tips and guides on how to find the cell key, Flesh Lily, and all the answers for the Gentle Thief's questions.
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Scott has been freelancing for over four years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.