Stellar Blade: On PC, 1 Million in 3 Days, Korean Studio Thanks China!

After launching on the PlayStation 5 in April 2024, Stellar Blade made its way to PC with high aspirations of replicating its success. Surprisingly, the game developed by South Korea’s Shift Up exceeded expectations, selling over a million copies globally within just three days. This brings the total sales figure to 3 million units, including those sold on the PS5 platform. The game’s performance outshines many Western blockbusters and underscores an undeniable trend: PC is not merely a secondary market but a global launchpad. Particularly when developers know how to reach China effectively. According to SteamScout data, 52% of user reviews posted on Steam for Stellar Blade are in Chinese, while English accounts for 26%, Korean 8.5%, and Japanese and French each less than 1%.

With a peak of 192,078 players connected simultaneously on Steam, Stellar Blade surpasses all typical records for a solo port from PlayStation. This number exceeds the concurrent player counts at launch for titles such as God of War, Horizon Forbidden West, and Spider-Man on the same platform. Shift Up has effectively targeted the right audience through a combination of an exclusive Chinese dub for the PC version, a price point adjusted to the local market (38$ compared to 60$ on console), and marketing tailored specifically for Asia, where consoles remain a niche market. The result is immediate and significant success.

Despite this meteoric success, Shift Up has decided not to capitalize on the game with a large DLC. No new chapters or extensive post-campaign content will be added; instead, the studio prefers to move directly to the next stage: Stellar Blade 2. This sequel promises to delve deeper into narrative elements, with increased ambition for writing, staging, and character development. This choice may surprise some, especially in a sector where any success is typically followed by a Season Pass or an extended roadmap spanning several years. For Shift Up, however, it represents a strategy to maintain momentum. Rather than diluting the impact of the first game, Shift Up aims to swiftly follow up with another strong release.