Highlights
- Stellar Blade's demo has more daily active players than Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, hinting at potential commercial success for the new IP.
- The unique setting and gameplay demo of Stellar Blade have generated significant hype and interest in the upcoming sci-fi game.
- While Stellar Blade's success is not guaranteed, it could be a surprise hit.
The highly-anticipated PlayStation 5 exclusive Stellar Blade is already beating the recently-released RPG Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in terms of one major metric: daily active players for its demo. A new, unproven IP like Stellar Blade gaining higher player counts than a mainline game from an established franchise like Final Fantasy bodes well for the commercial success of the new sci-fi game.
The lead-up to Stellar Blade's release has been nothing short of interesting so far. Originally announced in 2019 under the working title Project Eve as a PS4, Xbox One, and PC game, the title resurfaced as a Sony-published PS5 exclusive in 2021. Since then, the game has been a bit of a hot topic across the gaming landscape, in large part because of the character design of its female protagonist. Controversies aside, there has been genuine hype building up for the release of the title, which was further amplified by the well-received gameplay demo for Stellar Blade that released on March 29. The demo garnered a lot of buzz on the internet, perhaps even more so compared to the demo of fellow PS5 exclusive Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
How Stellar Blade Approaches Cyberpunk Differently From Other Games
Stellar Blade boasts a unique setting that is inspired by more than just the cyberpunk genre, and it's worth exploring what sets it apart.
According to statistics gathered by Ampere Analysis, the Stellar Blade demo has reached a peak of around 690,000 daily active users on PS5. For comparison, the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo accrued around 380,000 daily players, which is a bit more than half that of the demo for Shift Up's upcoming game. The analysis from Ampere also indicates that Rebirth received a peak player count of 2.21 million players at launch, which was a 251% increase in daily active users (DAUs) compared to the game's demo. Assuming Stellar Blade has a similar boost in player counts at launch, it could potentially receive a peak of 4.01 million DAUs at release, though this prediction is a bit iffy since new IPs are harder to determine the success of.
Stellar Blade Could Be Even Bigger Than Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
The big gap between player counts for the demos of Rebirth and Stellar Blade may come as a surprise to some people. After all, Final Fantasy is a well-established franchise that boasts some of the best JRPGs of all time. Stellar Blade, meanwhile, is a brand-new IP. However, it's possible that more people checked out the Stellar Blade demo compared to the Rebirth one because they didn't know what to expect gameplay-wise. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, on the other hand, is a known quantity.
It's important to note that just because Stellar Blade's demo has more players than Rebirth's doesn't necessarily mean that the game will be a bigger success than Square Enix's RPG. However, it is possible, especially considering Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth may be lagging behind in sales compared to FF7 Remake. Regardless of whether Stellar Blade ends up being more successful than Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth or not, it's still a major release that PlayStation fans should keep an eye on when it releases on April 26, 2024.
Stellar Blade
Stellar Blade is an action-RPG developed by Shift Up and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game follows protagonist Eve as she attempts to save a devastated Earth from invaders called Naytiba.
