Summary
The highly-anticipated PlayStation 5 exclusiveStellar Bladeis already beating the recently-released RPGFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthin terms of one major metric: daily active players for its demo. A new, unproven IP likeStellar Bladegaining higher player counts than a mainline game from an established franchise likeFinal Fantasybodes well for the commercial success of the new sci-fi game.
The lead-up toStellar Blade’s release has been nothing short of interesting so far. Originally announced in 2019 under the working titleProject Eveas 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-receivedgameplay demo forStellar Bladethat 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 exclusiveFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
According to statistics gathered by Ampere Analysis, theStellar Bladedemo has reached a peak of around 690,000 daily active users on PS5. For comparison,theFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthdemoaccrued around 380,000 daily players, which is a bit more than half that ofthe demo for Shift Up’s upcoming game. The analysis from Ampere also indicates thatRebirthreceived 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. AssumingStellar Bladehas 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 ofRebirthandStellar Blademay come as a surprise to some people. After all,Final Fantasyis a well-established franchise that boasts some of thebest JRPGs of all time.Stellar Blade, meanwhile, is a brand-new IP. However, it’s possible that more people checked out theStellar Bladedemo compared to theRebirthone 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 becauseStellar Blade’s demo has more players thanRebirth’s doesn’t necessarily mean that the game will be a bigger success than Square Enix’s RPG. However, it is possible, especially consideringFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthmay be lagging behindin sales compared toFF7 Remake.Regardless of whetherStellar Bladeends up being more successful thanFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthor not, it’s still a major release that PlayStation fans should keep an eye on when it releases on May 09, 2025.
Stellar Blade
WHERE TO PLAY
RECLAIM EARTH FOR HUMANKIND The future of humanity hangs in the balance in Stellar Blade, an all-new story-driven action adventure. Ravaged by strange, powerful creatures, Earth has been abandoned, and what is left of the decimated human race has fled to a Colony in outer space. After travelling from the Colony, 7th Airborne Squad member EVE arrives on the desolate remains of our planet with a clear-cut mission: to save humankind by reclaiming Earth from the Naytiba – the malevolent force that has devastated it. But as EVE tackles the Naytiba one-by-one, piecing together the mysteries of the past in the ruins of human civilization, she realizes that her mission is far from straightforward. In fact, almost nothing is as it seems…
