Phantom Blade Zero Is Out: 723,876 Steam Players, 88 on Metacritic, and What to Know Before You Buy

Phantom Blade Zero is out, and its first day looked less like a quiet launch and more like an arrival. S-GAME's dark wuxia action RPG unlocked at 10 p.m. ET on October 28 (2 a.m. UTC on October 29) on PlayStation 5 and PC, and within its first full day it had topped Steam's best-sellers chart and drawn one of the biggest single-player launches of the year. If you spent the week wondering whether the decade of trailers would pay off, the first numbers say yes — with a few launch-day caveats worth knowing before you buy.

How big was launch day?

Big. SteamDB figures reported on launch day put Phantom Blade Zero's peak at 723,876 concurrent players on Steam on October 29 — third on Steam's most-played chart, behind only Counter-Strike 2 and PUBG and ahead of Dota 2. The climb was fast: it passed 431,541 players within about three hours of unlocking, then kept rising, and it sat at No. 1 on Steam's global top sellers.

Two things to keep in perspective. That peak counts Steam only — PS5 players are not included, and neither S-GAME nor Sony has published PS5 figures, so the true launch audience is larger. And pre-launch demand was already enormous: the game passed three million wishlists, with analyst estimates reported ahead of launch putting pre-release purchases above one million copies across Steam, PS5 and WeGame.

What critics and players are saying

Critics are broadly positive, if not unanimous. Phantom Blade Zero holds an 88 on Metacritic across PC and PS5, and a 91 Top Critic Average on OpenCritic with 100% of critics recommending it. IGN and Push Square both scored it 9/10; the clear outlier is Eurogamer at 6/10, which objected to the game's balance and structure.

The praise is strikingly consistent: the sword-and-martial-arts combat, the fluid animation, the boss fights, and the sheer range of weapons and abilities. The complaints cluster in the same places — a muddled story packed with unfamiliar names and factions, uneven English voice acting, and technical roughness including stuttering and frame-rate dips on both PC and PS5. If you buy games for combat first and story second, the reviews are a green light. If story is your main draw, read the dissenting reviews before spending $60.

Steam user reviews started at Mostly Positive — 79% positive across the first 2,002 reviews on launch morning — and improved as more reviews landed, with later launch-day snapshots reporting around 81% positive from more than 10,000 reviews, into Very Positive territory. Treat the percentage as a snapshot, not a final verdict: it will keep moving through the first weekend.

What is Phantom Blade Zero?

You play Soul, an assassin framed for murdering the patriarch of the Order, the martial-arts organization he serves. Mortally wounded, he has just sixty-six days to live, and he spends them roaming the Wulin — a world of martial artists, rival factions and conspiracies — trying to clear his name before time runs out. Newcomers do not need to know S-GAME's earlier Phantom Blade games to follow it.

S-GAME calls the aesthetic "kungfupunk": traditional Chinese kung fu and wuxia imagery fused with punk and industrial machinery, built in Unreal Engine 5 with motion capture from martial-arts choreographers. Combat is the whole pitch — dodge, deflect, counter and strike in one seamless flow, with more than 30 primary weapons and more than 20 secondary weapons called Phantom Edges. It is strictly single-player: no multiplayer, no co-op. The studio puts the main story at roughly 20 to 30 hours, plus around 20 more hours of secondary content.

Price and editions: $59.99 Standard, $69.99 Digital Deluxe

There are two editions, and the choice is simple. The Standard Edition costs $59.99 and includes the full game. The Digital Deluxe Edition costs $69.99 and adds two exclusive outfits for Soul (Wulin Legend and Blood-Steel Form), a digital artbook and the digital soundtrack. The game itself is identical in both.

Crucially, neither edition buys early access — everyone started at the same time, which is unusual for a $69.99 deluxe tier in 2026. Pre-orders came with a Treasure Basin accessory and a Legacy outfit, but S-GAME notes both can also be earned through normal in-game progression, so there is nothing to miss by buying now. U.S. prices match on the PlayStation Store and Steam; prices vary by region, so check your local storefront.

Platforms: PS5 and PC only — no Xbox, no Game Pass

Phantom Blade Zero launched on PlayStation 5 (including PS5 Pro support) and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. There is no Xbox version at launch, and it is not on Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass.

The PS5 version carries a reported 12-month console exclusivity window, meaning no other console version can arrive before October 2027 at the earliest — and even that is a floor, not a promise. No Xbox or Switch 2 version has been announced, so console players outside PlayStation should not plan around a port date that does not exist yet. PC players are unaffected by the console window and got the full game on day one.

At launch, every copy is digital. S-GAME's launch trailer announced PS5 physical editions — Standard, Deluxe and an Ultimate edition with a steel case — for 2027, with no month or price yet. If you want a disc, you are waiting until next year.

Before you play: the day-one patch and the driver warning

S-GAME shipped a roughly 5 GB day-one patch that the studio says significantly improves ray tracing and path tracing performance, alongside bug fixes. If you preloaded, download it before launching; fresh downloads already include it.

PC players with NVIDIA cards should check one more thing. S-GAME reported performance instability with NVIDIA's 621.01 Game Ready driver and recommends driver 617.42 with a clean installation until NVIDIA's next driver arrives. If the game stutters on a high-end card, check the driver before lowering settings.

Two practical notes. The install is big: about 145 GB on PC and roughly 135 GB on PS5, so clear space first. And on first launch, let the shader compilation finish — reports describe it as CPU-heavy and slow on some systems, and a stalled-looking percentage does not necessarily mean the game has frozen. Early testing also suggests Steam Deck is not the way to play this at launch, with frame rates under 30 fps at the lowest settings — a desktop PC or PS5 is the safer bet for now.

Should you buy it this weekend?

If parry-driven action combat is why you play games, buy now: an 88 on Metacritic, a 720,000-plus Steam peak, and a combat system critics and players agree on. If you play mainly for story, or you are on a base PS5 or a Steam Deck, waiting a week for patch notes and a settled user score costs you nothing — there was no early access and no pre-order bonus you can no longer earn. Day one already made Phantom Blade Zero one of the defining releases of the year; the first weekend will show whether the player count holds.

FAQ

Is Phantom Blade Zero on Xbox or Game Pass?

No. It launched on PS5 and PC only, and it is not on Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass. A reported 12-month PS5 console exclusivity window means no other console version before October 2027 at the earliest, and no port has been announced.

How much does Phantom Blade Zero cost?

$59.99 for the Standard Edition and $69.99 for the Digital Deluxe Edition in the U.S. Deluxe adds two outfits, a digital artbook and the soundtrack — not early access or extra gameplay.

Is there a physical edition?

Not at launch — every copy is digital. PS5 physical editions (Standard, Deluxe and Ultimate) have been announced for 2027, with no month or price yet.

How long is Phantom Blade Zero?

The studio puts the main story at roughly 20 to 30 hours, plus around 20 hours of secondary content.

Does Phantom Blade Zero have multiplayer or co-op?

No. It is single-player, and no cross-save or cross-buy between platforms has been announced — buy it on the platform you will actually play on.

Should PC players worry about performance?

Check the day-one patch first, then your NVIDIA driver: S-GAME recommends 617.42 over the newer 621.01 if you hit stutter. Let first-launch shader compilation finish, and make sure you have about 145 GB free.

Your first weekend in the Wulin deserves a record

Log Phantom Blade Zero, rate the combat, and see what other players thought of Soul's 66 days — all in one place.