PlayStation has been on a roll lately with their June State of Play being the most watched in years, Death Stranding 2 releasing later this month, and a Ghost of Yotei-focused State of Play arriving next month.
However, their PC side seems to be doing exceptionally well, too, which is surprising since PlayStation’s PC releases, especially their single-player titles, are sometimes hit or miss financially or quality-wise due to faulty ports.
But their latest addition to the PC catalogue has had the biggest launch on the platform, beating out every other PlayStation-published single-player title on Steam, and you know the best part? Neither Sony nor PlayStation had anything to do with the game when it was initially revealed.
Stellar Blade is the biggest PlayStation-published single-player launch on Steam
According to SteamDB, Stellar Blade’s launch on PC has been nothing short of stellar (haha), with over 180,000 concurrent players and over 3,400 Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam at the time of writing.
The previous record was held by Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut which reached an all-time peak of around 77,000 players. Stellar Blade’s concurrent player count is nearly double that, and from the looks of it, the numbers are steadily increasing.
These insane launch numbers make Stellar Blade the biggest PlayStation’s biggest launch on PC, hence outshining every single PlayStation-published single-player title on Steam. The ironic thing about this achievement is the fact that Stellar Blade wasn’t even a PS exclusive when it was initially teased, and it wasn’t called Stellar Blade either.
Let’s take a walk down the PS timed-exclusives lane. Stellar Blade was teased by developer Shift Up way back in 2019 under the working title of Project Eve, which was derived from the protagonist’s name.
Sony had nothing to do with the title until Shuhei Yoshida, a former Sony Interactive Entertainment executive, played a prototype of it in 2019. According to his interview with GameWatch, he loved the combat so much that he offered a SIE publishing deal to Shift Up.
This led to Project Eve being officially announced as a PlayStation 5 exclusive in their 2021 showcase, and a year later, the project received the Stellar Blade name, and the rest is history, with the title now breaking records on PC.
Shuhei Yoshida has been instrumental in recognising talent and the potential of games in development, and offering the Sony deal to Shift Up is what caused Stellar Blade to become such a critically acclaimed PS exclusive, now winning hearts on PC, not to mention the phenomenal mod support.
The highest-player count for a PlayStation-published title on Steam is still held by Arrowhead’s multiplayer democratic masterpiece Helldivers 2, reaching an all-time peak of over 458,000 players. But in the single-player category, Shift Up’s Stellar Blade reigns supreme.
A Stellar Blade sequel is in development
Before Stellar Blade’s PC release, Shift Up confirmed that a sequel to the PlayStation exclusive title was in development in a presentation from May 16 that detailed the company’s earnings and plans. Contrary to the state of video game development cycles, the sequel’s release might be sooner than you think.
The Stellar Blae sequel is targeting a release before 2027, along with Shift Up’s next AAA RPG title, codenamed Project Witches, in development. The latter is also set to release in 2027, and more details about the project will be revealed later this year.
Until the sequel drops, players can enjoy Stellar Blade on both PC and PlayStation platforms. On second thought, PC players can also spice up their playthrough with some Stellar Blade mods.
So, what do you think about Stellar Blade being the biggest launch for a single-player PlayStation title on PC? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
