Stellar Blade is a Steam HIT as discounted legacy games return to the fold
Plus, a look at how China is driving engagement on Steam for many top games, some big new game launches, last week’s top Steam games by copies sold, and PlayStation’s biggest Steam ports so far.
Following another eventful week for the industry, we’re diving deep into Stellar Blade’s success, how China is driving success on Steam and beyond, the top games of last week, and more.
Let’s not waste any time!
Stellar Blade is crushing it on Steam
Following over a year of exclusivity on Steam, Stellar Blade was released on Steam on June 11 and has already become a runaway success. Developed by Shift Up and published by PlayStation (second party), Stellar Blade is continuing to sell after amassing 544K copies by its launch day.
Now, Stellar Blade has sold more than 1.1 million copies on Steam (revenues of over $56 million) – adding to its 2.1 million players on PS5.
During its last earnings report, Shift Up said it expected Stellar Blade to sell better on PC than PS5. It’s already over halfway there after one week.
To put this in context, the PS5 version had sold 566K copies a week after launch, so the PC version – a port, no less – is selling twice as fast.
In addition to helping PlayStation reach Chinese gamers (more on that in a bit), Stellar Blade’s Steam launch led to more copies sold on PS5s. This shows that successful PC ports, and the marketing around them, can also drive sales on other platforms.
Since its Steam launch, Stellar Blade has sold an extra 50K copies on PS5 (at full price), its highest weekly jump since November 2024, when the PS5 version was discounted to $50 for the first time.
A week in, Stellar Blade is also the fastest-selling PlayStation-published single-player game on Steam to date (Helldivers 2 is multiplayer). Here’s some launch-aligned data for you:
As you can see, Stellar Blade even surpassed Horizon Zero Dawn’s impressive early Steam performance (launch-aligned, a week in). This is quite the achievement, as Horizon was the first-ever first-party PlayStation port back in 2020, so many PC gamers were curious and excited to jump in.
Stellar Blade – the first game in a new IP in 2024 – even outperformed juggernaut franchises like God of War, The Last of Us, and Spider-Man.
The only PlayStation-published title to sell more copies than Stellar Blade after a week was Helldivers 2, PlayStation’s first day-in-date PC launch – and one that set the world on fire no less.
Helldivers 2’s strong momentum continued after week 1, but Stellar Blade’s copies sold are already showing signs of stabilisation. I looked this up in the Alinea Platform’s ‘’Comparison’’ tab in just a few clicks (Stellar Blade’s the green line, and Helldivers is the blue):
As you can see, it’s unlikely that Stellar Blade will overtake copies sold for Helldivers 2, which shot to the moon after week one. 🚀
But why was Stellar Blade such a hit on Steam?
China drove copies sold for Stellar Blade (and many other hit games) on Steam
If you’re a game publisher or a developer, you (and your data provider…) really need to cover China – and not just cherry-pick Western markets for rollouts and analyses. Case in point: well over half of Stellar Blade’s Steam players (56%) are based in China:
The above image also shows that players in China account for huge shares of other top games from the past few years. In fact, most games that localise for the Chinese market find China in their top 3 markets on Steam (and some even on PlayStation).
Despite not being available officially in China, Shift Up maximised its chances in the Chinese market by offering:
Chinese localisation, including full lip-sync dubs for the China market (not included on the PS5 version) – a sure-fire way to win some friendly PR in China.
Local pricing of ¥268 (just over $37) versus the US price of $60 – making Stellar Blade more attainable for average consumers.
Local marketing in China – IRL and digital – letting players know the game was coming to Steam via curated messaging that resonates with the market. Chinese video site Billibilli blew up.
Want to know what else contributed to Stellar Blade’s success? Read this article! Warning: contains some … saucy data. 🌶️
PlayStation, which publishes Stellar Blade, has long outlined its plans of maximising its TAM via the Chinese market. And Steam is a Trojan horse to reach China. PlayStation is getting its ducks in a row elsewhere, too. It even has its own China-based incubator: China Hero Project.
The Chinese market is a force to be reckoned with on Steam – and the most forward-looking publishers know they need to maximise their chances for success.
Does your data provider cherry-pick Western markets only? Frustrating, we know. But at Alinea, we cover all markets – China included. Reach out here, and we’ll show you! You can also reply to this email.
We expect PlayStation and other publishers to target China more aggressively – not just via PC but via console, too.
Quick aside: Third-person games are already big on Steam…
We’re not naming any names, but we recently saw some … interesting discourse on social media saying that Stellar Blade’s Steam success highlights the potential for third-person games on PC.
We just wanted to ever-so-cheekily highlight that third-person-perspective games are already thriving on Steam, and have been for a while.
Some of the most popular PC games of all time have a third-person perspective by default: Fortnite, GTA 5, World of Warcraft, PUBG, The Witcher 3 – the list goes on.
And just think back to some of 2024’s biggest titles: Black Myth Wukong, Palworld, Helldivers 2, Marvel Rivals – all third-person. In fact, revenues generated by third-person games were almost on par with first-person ones last year:
So yeah, we reckon the potential of third-person games on PC has been evident for years – if not decades.
Moving on…
Two new launches dominated Steam’s copies sold last week, but indies and discounts did well too
Our Steam top 10 by copies sold for week 24 (that’s June 9-15) was another eventful one. Here’s the top 5
Stellar Blade (#1) sold 527 K copies and generated revenues of $27.6 million on Steam last week. This means it comfortably took the top spot for Steam copies sold on our week 24 ranking (by a lead of over 250 K!)
Dune: Awakening (#2) sold 271 K copies and generated revenues of over $10 million last week. While it didn’t quite hit the one-million mark overall (it’s now sold 969 K copies), Dune is retaining players well so far and is still attracting over 300 K DAUs, with minimal drop-off so far. As for the future, Dune is sitting on 2.7 million Steam wishlists.
R.E.P.O (#3), an indie co-op survival horror game, sold another 188 K copies, bringing its lifetime copies sold to 15 million (revenues of $117 million!). Over half of R.E.P.O players have played either Left 4 Dead 2 or Phasmophobia, again highlighting the potential of the co-op horror genre – when done right or with a unique spin.
Elden Ring Nightreign (#4) shifted 165 K copies sold last week. It’s sold 2.3 million copies on Steam to date (with another 1.2 million on PlayStation). It’s struggling to retain players, as DAUs are rapidly decaying, but that’s OK. Almost 60% of Nightreign’s Steam players have played for over 20 hours (and 20% for over 50 hours). Many players, it seems, are satisfied with their time.
Mortal Shell (#5) sold 121 K due to a huge discount. Playstack dropped Mortal Shell’s price from $30 to just $1.50 on June 8, its first discount this year, and its heaviest ever (half its previous lowest price of $3). Mortal Shell II, coming in 2026, was unveiled at Summer Games Fest.
Get a deeper dive – packed with even more data – right here.
As for the rest of the top 10, Guilty as Sock! sold 102 K copies on Steam last week, helping it take #6. The absurd $5 online party game sees players taking the role of some socks (yes, socks) with different roles in a courtroom. It’s continuing to build a niche audience with its charming chaos. You love to see it.
The Alters (#7) from 11 bit studios sold 95 K copies on Steam (revenues of $2.3 million) last week, after Poland-based 11 bit studios launched it on Friday the 13th (risky!). The genre-bending emotional sci-fi title combines survival, base-building, and action mechanics to great effect, with The Alters landing with critics (84 on Metacritic).
To date, The Alters has sold 135 K copies on Steam and crossed the three-million-dollar revenue mark ($3.4M).
Remember when we said China is important for Steam earlier? Well, we weren’t lying. China accounts for more The Alters players than any other market (45%), followed by the US (16%), and Russia (6%). 11 bit made sure to add simplified Chinese language options in the interface and subtitles – to great effect.
Speaking of 11 bit, an older title from the studio, This War of Mine (#8 with 86 K copies sold), saw its Steam price dropping to its lowest-ever price of $1. On one day last week alone, This War of Mine sold 17 K copies, the most it’s sold in one day since August last year, when it was discounted to $3 as part of Steam’s From Poland with Love promotion.
Gearbox’s Borderlands 3 (#9 with 84 K sold) also had its biggest-ever discount last week (to $3) – no doubt a bid to drum up hype for Borderlands 4 (coming in Q4).
Finally, horror blockbuster Resident Evil Village took #10 with 84 K copies sold on Steam last week, after a 75% price drop to $10 on June 6 as part of the Capcom Publisher Sale event on Steam.
Village has now sold a total of 3.6 million copies on Steam (revenues of about $100 million), as Capcom looks ahead to next year’s Resident Evil Requiem (RE9).
Want more data on all these games? Read this blog.
RE9 now has a Steam wishlist balance of 845 K, thanks to its premier slot in Summer Games Fest. As fans of the franchise, we at Alinea cannot wait to play RE9 at gamescom 2025 later this summer.
Speaking of gamescom…
Other insights, links, and cool stuff:
The whole Alinea team is heading to gamescom 2025! If there’s one thing we love as much as playing unreleased games, it’s connecting with the industry! So if you’d like to grab a Kölsch or a coffee – or just chat games – reach out!
Rhys was live on Giant Bomb on Twitch and YouTube earlier today. Catch Rhys chatting with Jeff Grubb about Capcom, Stellar Blade, third-party Switch 2, and a lot more.
Did you know we’re on BlueSky now? Follow us here if you’re active platform! We’re sure you’ve already followed us on LinkedIn and Twitter as well. 😉
The last word
The newsletter is still new, so we’d LOVE some feedback and suggestions for games, trends, or games industry topics you want covered in upcoming newsletters.
Reply to this email – or reach out here – and we’ll see what we can do! Who knows? Maybe we’ll give you a free trial for the Alinea platform 😉.
[Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]