In just a few days, more than 300,000 copies have been sold, including pre-orders. This certainly rivals Game Science’s title.
According to Alinea Analytics, Phantom Blade Zero is shaping up to be China’s next big hit. Since pre-orders opened, the company estimates that the game has sold 300,000 copies on Steam, generating $14.5 million in revenue. Phantom Blade Zero also tops this year’s Steam wishlist rankings. 1.6 million users have added the game to their wish lists. The biggest question currently is whether Phantom Blade Zero can surpass the massive success of Black Myth: Wukong, which sold 30 million copies in less than two years and is by far the biggest Chinese AAA game. Alinea staff member Rhys Elliott discussed this topic with Daniel Camilo, a consultant in the Chinese gaming industry, who believes that this outcome could still change before the game’s October 29 release.
“The hype in China is nowhere near what it was for Black Myth: Wukong but considerably higher than before the launch of Wuchang. Phantom Blade Zero is ‘much more of a gamer thing,’ but in a big way. It has a publishing license for mainland China and will be released in the country simultaneously with the rest of the world. This will allow S-Game and its partners to boost their marketing more than most games without a license usually do in China. We’ll see a lot more in-real-life offline promotional activities and exposure, and not just the usual online marketing blitz that other premium games launch here.” Camilo said.
According to Alinea Analytics data from Steam, Phantom Blade Zero has currently reached 73% of the pre-release sales of Black Myth: Wukong. In contrast, Phantom Blade Zero sold 6.4 times more than Wuchang: Fallen Feathers in the 70 days leading up to its release. Overall, it may be difficult for the game to sell as many copies as Wukong, but that isn’t necessarily required.
It would be a huge success for a studio developing its first AAA-tier premium game for PC and consoles to come even relatively close to this result. If the reviews are favorable, Phantom Blade Zero could come close to Wukong’s record-breaking sales figures.
