Stellar Blade's runaway success on PC proves South Korea is positioning itself to become a major force in global gaming, and experts agree
The PC release of Stellar Blade has proven exceptionally popular, with developer Shift Up revealing impressive sales earlier this week in its latest financial report. But it’s not only a huge win for the studio and publisher Sony, it’s also exemplary of a booming games industry in South Korea seeking global expansion.
As announced by Shift Up, the PC version of Stellar Blade sold a million copies in its first three days on Steam, and now boasts over 3m sales on PC and console combined. Further, its peak concurrent player count on Steam sits at almost 200k – as per Shift Up’s latest financial report, that’s 2-5x higher than Sony’s other flagship triple-A games (Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, Spider-Man, to name three), making it the best-ever PC performance for a PS-exclusive IP launch. These are single-player games only, not including the multiplayer and multi-platform success of Helldivers 2.
“Following the PS5 success of Stellar Blade as a triple-A IP, Shift Up leveraged its unique strengths in optimisation, user experience, content enhancements, and market specific marketing to continue its success in the PC market – becoming a developer with proven hits across mobile, PC, and console,” wrote the studio in its report. And that success is set to continue throughout the rest of the year.
The popularity of Stellar Blade parallels an explosion of Korean culture in general. K-pop bands are global phenomenons; K-dramas and reality shows are all over Netflix; Korean films are winning Oscars; and Sony Pictures Animation’s KPop Demon Hunters film is thing that’s dominating everything right now. And it’s happening in games, too.