Stellar Blade Demo Had More Peak Players Than Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Video Games

The Stellar Blade demo is a hit. According to Push Square (which is a cool name for a video game website), the demo for the South Korean action game has “about 690,000 daily active users” on its best day. Not only is this a great number, but it’s leagues ahead of the latest release from one of the heavy-hitter video game franchises, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the demo to which had “roughly 380,000 at its peak.” That’s a significantly bigger number for an original game that’s not based on an established IP compared to one of the most popular video game series of all time. Heads must be rolling at Square Enix, just as eyes are in the heads of games journalists still shaking over Eve’s curves. This also brings to mind the dismal numbers Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League brought in, and that’s another game based on an established and well-loved IP – not only the Arkham Batman games but DC Comics.

What’s funny is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of vitriol from games journalists over this, and they were plenty pissed off when the Stellar Blade demo rolled out, and gamers liked Eve’s traditionally attractive form. I saw one article from Gamerant called “Why Spending Lots of Time on Stellar Blade’s Demo Is a Double-Edged Sword,” but it’s a faint-hearted attempt to convince gamers to stop playing. I wonder if this has to do with the IGN France debacle. If you don’t remember, a writer for IGN France said Eve, the lead character of Stellar Blade, was “a doll sexualized by someone who has never seen a woman.” This didn’t sit well with gamers, who pointed out that Eve was a 1:1 body scan of Korean model Shin Jae-eun and was designed by a woman named Jiyun Chae. The backlash was so heavy (and the writer’s response was so smug and nasty) that IGN eventually issued an apology. Could this have made games journalists decide to go easy on Stellar Blade despite their distaste for attractive women and games that gamers enjoy playing? And if so, will this carry over into Stellar Blade’s full release on April 26, 2024? If so, it’s endlessly amusing that they’re being silenced by their own rules.