When we last looked in on Phantom Blade Zero, the critics had just handed it a stack of nines. The public has since had its say, and the public’s verdict comes with more zeroes. Developer and publisher S-GAME announced on 2 November that its wuxia action RPG had sold more than four million copies across PlayStation 5 and PC in the first 72 hours after its 29 October launch. On Steam alone, the game peaked at a little over 833,000 simultaneous players.
It is worth being clear about what that figure is. It comes from the studio’s own social media post, it has not been broken down by platform or edition, and nobody independent has audited it. That is normal for the industry, where sales announcements are essentially press releases with a party hat on, and there is no particular reason to doubt it: the player counts are public and they are enormous. But it is S-GAME’s number, and we report it as such.
Some perspective helps. Black Myth: Wukong, the last Chinese action game to arrive like a thrown spear, sold ten million in its first three days in 2024, so Phantom Blade Zero has not rewritten that particular record. What it has done is post one of the biggest openings of 2026 for a new name on the box, from a studio making its first big console and PC game, with a hero who has 66 days to live and spends most of them airborne. For a genre the West mainly knows from late-night Channel 4 seasons and worn VHS copies of Iron Monkey, that is quite a result.
Which brings us to awards season, and the reason the game is trending again. Geoff Keighley will announce the nominees for The Game Awards on Tuesday 17 November, at 5pm UK time, and Phantom Blade Zero features in most people’s guesses for the six Game of the Year places. It was on the shortlist for the Golden Joysticks’ top prize, despite arriving only days before voting closed. The predicted company is intimidating: the Ocarina of Time remake, Resident Evil Requiem, Control Resonant, 007 First Light, and a certain Grand Theft Auto VI, which is expected to be nominated two days before it actually goes on sale, a trick previously managed only by Nobel Peace Prize winners.
We should stress that all of this is prediction. No shortlist has been published, the forums are doing what forums do, and the betting markets give the game odds that would not tempt a sensible person away from a cup of tea. The winner is decided nine parts by a jury of games outlets and one part by public vote, and juries have a habit of rewarding whatever arrived last and loudest. But a nomination looks likely and would be earned: strong reviews, a huge audience and a fighting system that makes most of its rivals look as though they are wading through custard.
Here at SFcrowsnest, we have a soft spot for any game whose protagonist is on a strict deadline, having met a few ourselves. We will know on Tuesday evening whether Soul has made the final six. If he has, he will at least be the only nominee who can say he got there with a ruined heart and a calendar.
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