shaun.prescott@futurenet.com (Shaun Prescott)
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Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero released on Steam earlier today and, oh boy, it’s doing numbers. At the time of writing there are 121,330 players according to SteamDB which, with a little bit of context, proves to be an overwhelming number.
Cast your mind back to June 2023 when Street Fighter 6 released on Steam. Many pointed out at the time that its launch-day concurrents were huge for a fighting game, and that was true: it compared favourably to Mortal Kombat 11 and Tekken 7, for example (35,147 and 18,966 respectively). Right now Street Fighter 6 has an all-time peak of 70,573 corresponding with its launch window. Dragon Ball, let me repeat, is currently sitting at 121,330 players.
(I just refreshed the SteamDB page and it’s now up to 122,431. Wow.)
How’s it compare to more mainstream blockbusters, ie, games that aren’t fighting games? To cherry-pick a few recent phenomenons, Elden Ring has a record of 953,426 and Baldur’s Gate 3 has 875,343. PUBG and Palworld hold the highest records, at 2.5m and 2.1m respectively.
So in the wide scheme of things Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero isn’t huge, but this is an emphatic record for a fighting game launch on Steam. It’s also interesting for other reasons: sure, Dragon Ball is a huge series, but Sparking! Zero’s approach to fighting is pretty distinctive and there’s quite a steep learning curve. It’s also interesting because compared to Dragon Ball FighterZ, arguably a much more approachable Dragon Ball offering, it’s a clear winner (FighterZ has a peak of a touch over 44,000).
Our Dragon Ball: Sparking: Zero review was positive: “Sparking! Zero is the best Dragon Ball game we’ve had since the PS2 and a generous love letter to Toriyama’s classic series,” Scott McCrae wrote.