Phantom Blade Zero Game: The Top U.S. Search Is a Wuxia Action Launch That Passed 500,000 Steam Players in Hours
S-GAME's dark wuxia action RPG is the No. 1 trending search in the United States on this morning's list, two days after a launch that topped Steam's seller chart and drew critic scores from perfect marks to a 60.
The top trending search in the United States this morning is a video game that did not exist on store shelves three days ago. 'Phantom blade zero game' leads the U.S. Trends listing read by this desk, ahead of 'ncaa football today' - the search name for S-GAME's Phantom Blade Zero, a dark wuxia action RPG built in Unreal Engine 5 that launched worldwide on October 29 on PlayStation 5 and PC.
The launch numbers are the driver. TechTimes reported the game crossed 500,000 peak concurrent players on Steam within hours of its debut, clearing the all-time highs of several recent action releases on its first day; a separate player tracker, RageQuit, recorded a launch-day Steam peak of 723,876. Inven Global reported 400,000 concurrent players within the first hour, a No. 1 place on Steam's global top-seller chart, and pre-orders estimated at about 850,000 copies, with a Metacritic score of 88.
Critics mostly agree on the combat and disagree on almost everything else. Scores ranged from perfect marks at some outlets down to a 60 from Eurogamer, TechTimes reported, with praise clustering on fast, fluid fighting across more than 30 weapon types and criticism clustering on technical blemishes, frame-rate inconsistencies and thin quest direction. The main campaign runs about 20 to 30 hours, with side content adding roughly 20 more.
For Austin's players, the practical notes are size and platforms: the PC install is about 145 GB, and the game is on Steam and the Epic Games Store as well as PS5. It was originally targeted for September 9 before S-GAME delayed it about 50 days to October 29, citing polish - a delay the launch-week numbers suggest its audience forgave.
