Dragon Ball: Spark! Zero is still in Early Access and will be released in full tomorrow (October 11), but that’s not stopping fans from promoting it on Steam in huge numbers in early builds.
Indeed, Sparking! Zero has exceeded the maximum player count of all other Dragon Ball games – and it’s not even close. SteamDB it currently reports a peak player count of 91,005, which was reached two days ago. At the time of writing this story, the game was still played by a solid number of players (currently 55,732, with a 24-hour maximum player count of 70,558), maintaining undeniably mighty momentum until the actual launch.
That’s already impressive considering these are just players who spent $100 or more on Sparking! Zero’s Deluxe or Ultimate Edition, which allows access to the game three days in advance. But the figure also doubles the Dragon Ball fighting game with the next highest player count, Dragon Ball FighterZ, which reached 44,303 on SteamDB charts.
This is quite significant when compared to other major fighting game series. Street Fighter 6 had a peak player count of 70,573 16 months ago, while Mortal Kombat 1 it peaked with 38,129 players on Steam 13 months ago.
The number of players will only escalate for those who purchased the standard edition of Sparking! No one will get their hands on this tomorrow, so it’s worth keeping an eye on it. In the meantime, read our review in progress, where we said that playing the latest main entry in the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series “feels like a labor of love as much as an attempt to resurrect the series.” “
Alex Stedman is a senior news editor at IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, she can be found reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
