Phantom Blade Zero Reaches an Estimated 500,000 Steam Pre-Orders
Phantom Blade Zero had an estimated 500,000 pre-orders on Steam before its launch. Pre-orders are payments made ahead of release, and the estimate also puts the sales at roughly US$24 million, according to Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, a games market research firm. Eurogamer reported the figures.
The game is an action title from developer S-Game. Its Steam listing describes it as a blend of wuxia, the Chinese martial-arts storytelling tradition, and fast, hard-hitting combat. It is built on Unreal Engine 5, a widely used engine that developers use to build and render their games.
Elliott's estimates also say Phantom Blade Zero was ahead of Gears of War: E-Day and Control Resonant on Steam at the time of reporting. China is currently the game's top market on Steam. Steam is the PC storefront run by Valve, and a storefront's cut of each sale is the share it keeps.
The game had also built a large following before pre-orders. It had 2.5 million Steam wishlists, a feature that lets players flag a game for reminders and updates. Of the players who wishlisted it, 41 percent had also played Black Myth: Wukong, 38 percent had played Elden Ring, and 28 percent had played Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Pre-orders opened on 12 August 2026, according to the developer's announcement, on PS5, Steam and the Epic Games Store. The same announcement came with an 11-minute trailer. The story follows a character called Soul into the Phantom World, a realm the game's official site describes as the heart of its setting.
Phantom Blade Zero launches on 28 October 2026 for PS5 and PC. Players who pre-ordered on those platforms will get the game on that date, and the developer's site lists the release as the same month.
For players, the numbers mean little beyond interest in a game that has been in the public eye for months. For the studio, pre-order figures give an early read on demand before launch day, when the true sales picture begins to form. The company has not released its own sales figures.
