Stellar Blade — Shift Up’s blockbuster action-RPG — has done wonderfully well on PC having launched first on PlayStation.
According to the developer’s presentation to investors, Stellar Blade’s PC release sold more than 1 million copies in three days, sold a total of 3 million copies across both PS5 and PC, and has been recommended by 98% of its PC users, boasting an “overwhelmingly positive” user score on Steam.
That means, Shift Up claimed, that Stellar Blade is now the “best-selling PlayStation-exclusive launch IP in history” on PC, eclipsing games like Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, and The Last of Us in terms of peak concurrent users on Steam.
Helldivers 2, of course, remains in pole position across both single and multiplayer games, and by some considerable margin, too, estimated to have sold 12.7 million copies.
The PC version of Stellar Blade launched less than six months ago in June. PC-specific features include AI upscaling via Nvidia DLSS 4 and AMD FSR 3, an unlocked framerate, Japanese and Chinese voiceover, ultrawide display support, higher resolution environment textures, and DualSense support for haptic feedback and trigger effects.
Interestingly, though, a new report from Alinea Analytics (via PushSquare) estimates that while Sony has made an astonishing $1.5 billion from Steam since it started bringing its first-party titles to Valve’s platform, this has mostly been buoyed by the initial rollout, with sales of sequels — think Horizon Forbidden West and God of War: Ragnarök — slowing down. Analysts suggest this shows “the novelty is wearing off.”
“All of Sony’s major franchises have already landed on PC. The audience that was once excited to experience these games for the first time has largely been served. Later releases naturally face smaller potential audiences, and our estimates clearly show this,” analyst Rhys Elliott wrote.
“We launch-aligned our Steam estimates for God of War and its sequel, God of War Ragnarök. We found that God of War sold 2.5M copies after 427 days on Steam, over 2.5x more copies than Ragnarök sold in the same timeframe. Also, 13% of God of War’s Steam players also played Ragnarök on Steam.” The same trend can be applied to Marvel’s Spider-Man sequel.
Valve itself has made around $350 million from the 30% cut it takes from all games purchased on Steam, the analyst estimated.
IGN’s Stellar Blade review returned a 7/10. We said: “Stellar Blade is great in all of the most important ways for an action game, but dull characters, a lackluster story, and several frustrating elements of its RPG mechanics prevent it from soaring along with the best of the genre.
Don’t forget that a sequel, Stellar Blade 2, is also on the way.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
