On Steam, Sparking Zero transforms Super Saiyan and sweeps away the genre competition with incredible player numbers.
Fans have been waiting for a successor to Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi for a long time, and Sparking! Zero has now fulfilled this dream. But not even Uranai Baba could have predicted how great the interest in the game really is.
On October 11, Sparking! Zero was released after a few days in early access and immediately broke the sound barrier on Steam. The number of players went through the roof here, making the new Dragon Ball game probably the most successful fighting game of all time.
Over 122,000!
If you pull out your scout and check the power level of Sparking! Zero via SteamDB, you might react with surprise similar to Vegeta’s reaction to Son Goku. During Early Access this week, the fighting game already saw over 90,000 concurrent active users. With the full release, the active player numbers jumped to a new high of 122,000.
Sparking! Zero has shot to 13th place in the ranking of the most-played Steam games in the last 24 hours. It is preceded by long-running favorites such as GTA 5, Stardew Valley, and Rust Above all, Sparking! Zero is smashing its direct genre competitor with such player numbers.
Until now, Street Fighter 6 was considered the most-played classic fighting game of all time, but Sparking! Zero almost doubles the previous record. Street Fighter 6 had a peak on Steam with just 70,000 concurrent players.
Even Tekken 8 (49,000), Mortal Kombat 1 (38,000), and Guilty Gear Strive (31,000) are left behind. Even other Dragon Ball games are far behind. The best score for Dragon Ball FighterZ is 44,000.
The only other fighting game that does even better than Sparking! Zero is, technically, For Honor (226,000) – but it’s debatable whether this sword-fighting game can even be classified as a fighting game.
What is the reason for its success?
Dragon Ball is obviously still the most successful and popular anime of all time. The fan base around the world of Akira Toriyama, who unfortunately only died in 2024, still seems huge. Even One Piece and Naruto don’t even come close to the numbers of Dragon Ball, at least on Steam with their own games.
But that also means that Sparking! Zero is not only the successor to one of the most popular Dragon Ball games of all time, but also an extremely well-made one. We also had a great time in the test, even though there is a lot to criticize.
Nevertheless, no other Dragon Ball game fulfills the fighting fantasies of fans as skillfully as Sparking! Zero. You can also see that from the Steam ratings, by the way. 94 percent of the 13,000 reviews are positive.
