Against all odds (and controversy), Stellar Blade hack has cut its way through all the competition to the front of the pack for the April 2024 sales report, provided in full detail by Circana. Considering this is Shift Up’s first ever action RPG, there’s a lot to celebrate as the numbers roll in and heroine Eve takes her place on the world stage.
Despite not being released until the last weekend of April, Stellar Blade’s sales still surpassed all competition, ranking Shift Up’s first console IP at #1 for total dollar sales (all platforms) as well as the best-selling premium game for PlayStation in April. . In addition, it was the only new April release to land on the high-quality list.
This places it above the likes of Dragon’s Dogma 2, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, MLB: The Show ’24, FPS heavyweights like Helldivers 2 and Call of Duty: MW3, and the surprising resurgence of Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. Most of Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic RPG portfolio saw a giant bump in sales after Amazon Prime’s Fallout series.
In addition to being the best-selling game for April, Stellar Blade is also the 16th best-selling game for the year so far. Considering the amount of competition on that front, that’s certainly nothing to scoff at.
The game notably fended off controversy over Sony’s (not Shift Up) last-minute censorship of certain items of clothing in Eve’s wardrobe (a petition was even formed by a niche of gamers as part of the backlash). However, the developers have clearly nailed it with Stellar Blade’s Boss Rush Mode update, adding new, definitely non-censored outfits for Eve to wear proudly.
Also, while director Kim Hyung Tae has neither confirmed nor denied anything about a Stellar Blade sequel, he and technical director Lee Dong Gi recently revealed to Famitsu that much more exciting content is in the works for their current IP. In light of that, Stellar Blade’s victory lap is likely to continue in the coming months.
Be sure to check out all our Stellar Blade guides and news at Pro Game Guides, like our feature on how Stellar Blade is delightfully nostalgic, and we need more games like it.
