Phantom Blade Zero: One region leads sales and favors a specific platform

The massive success of Phantom Blade Zero, with 4 million copies sold in three days, wasn't entirely unexpected. Before the game's release, market research firm Alinea Analytics had already published estimates suggesting that the action RPG had received around 850,000 pre-orders across Steam and PS5. Beyond the impressive figures, however, the breakdown reveals some interesting details.

For example, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong alone accounted for 62.5% of all pre-orders. Much like Black Myth: Wukong, Phantom Blade Zero comes from China and draws heavily on traditional Chinese martial arts, so it seems to appeal particularly strongly to its home audience. However, the really interesting part becomes apparent when looking at the platform breakdown.

Asian players apparently prefer Steam for action RPGs

While China, Taiwan and Hong Kong account for 75.9% of all Steam pre-orders, their share of PS5 pre-orders is just 24.9%. It seems that players in these Asian markets prefer experiencing action RPGs on PC – or perhaps on the Steam Deck.

The situation is different in the rest of the world, where the PS5 actually holds a slight lead. According to Alinea Analytics' estimates, around 151,000 pre-orders outside the three markets were placed on Steam, compared to approximately 167,500 on PS5. It's worth noting that Alinea Analytics' figures are market estimates rather than official sales data. Furthermore, all of the figures mentioned refer specifically to pre-orders. Whether subsequent sales have followed a similar regional and platform distribution remains unclear.