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Stellar Blade, the stylish action-adventure catching a lot of eyes in advance of its launch this month, has recorded impressive numbers among gamers downloading and playing its demo. These numbers even eclipse those who played the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo on PlayStation 5.
This is all great news for publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment, especially as it compares an all-new intellectual property against a major, established franchise — both gunning for the same audience.
Developed by the Korean studio Shift Up, Stellar Blade’s demo, available since March 29, recorded a peak of 690,000 daily active users, which is nearly double that of the 380,000 peak users drawn by the FFVII demo, which became available February 2021.
Image: Ampere Analysis
A Stellar demo
The demo figures come from Ampere Analysis and are a strongly positive indicator for the PlayStation original title. According to Ampere, if Stellar Blade converts demo users to game buyers at the same rate, it will be in for a whopper of a sales performance.
However, a new IP faces certain limitations that a 37-year-old cornerstone of video gaming may not. So Sony will still be watching closely to see how many of these players convert to actual buyers.
Still it’s good news for SIE, which saw another first-party launch, Foamstars, fall flat almost immediately after its February release. The PlayStation exclusive’s player count has dropped 94% since release.
Stellar Blade also faces the challenge of standing out amongst a crowded marketplace. The action role-playing game genre is brimming with titles and the largest to arise from Asian studios are doing well commercially. Dragons Dogma 2 hit digital storefronts last month and Elden Ring’s new DLC is set to launch later this year. Either of those would be strong competition, let alone both.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 has seen steady sales despite the persistent review bombing by disgruntled gamers unhappy with publisher Capcom about how microtransactions are sewn into the fabric of the game. The reaction caused Capcom to release a survey asking players for their feedback in hopes of garnering good faith.
Elden Ring became FromSoftware’s biggest-ever release in 2022 and built upon the SoulsBourne genre it innovated. The 23 million unit-selling title has now become the property of FromSoftware entirely after From acquired its trademark from original publisher Bandai Namco in February.
Elsewhere, according to Ampere Analysis, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is clocking up 2 million monthly active users. Rise of the Ronin, which launched in the same early-March window is seeing 1 million MAUs.
Stellar Blade is slated for an April 26 release and is exclusive to the PlayStation 5.
Featured image: Sony Interactive Entertainment
