Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has launched to the Dragon Ball series' highest Steam player count ever, and it's not even a close call.
Bandai Namco and Spike Chunsoft's latest Dragon Ball fighter launched just yesterday, but at time of writing, it's already hit a Steam player count high of 122,554, and that's with the weekend yet to come.
That's easily enough to dethrone its nearest competitor in the franchise, Dragon Ball FighterZ, which has an all-time Steam player peak of 44,303. That total is not to be sniffed at, but Sparking! Zero has left it in the dust.
Naturally, Sparking! Zero also comes out ahead of other Dragon Ball games like Xenoverse, its sequel, and ill-fated Dead by Daylight-style mobile game Dragon Ball: The Breakers.
In fact, according to SteamDB, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is currently Bandai Namco's third best-performing game of all time on Steam, second only to Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring.
It's pretty close between Sparking! Zero and Dark Souls 3, too, with the latter achieving a peak Steam player count of 129,975 across its entire lifetime. I'm betting that Dragon Ball beats that total by the time the weekend is through.
Elden Ring pulls out pretty far in front with almost a million concurrent players, but given the staggering popularity of that game, I don't think Dragon Ball should feel too worried about its success.
If you're unfamiliar with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, it's actually the fourth game in the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series, and it's pulling a Like a Dragon by adopting the Japanese title (since the games were released in Japan under the name Dragon Ball Z: Sparking!).
The game boasts more than 180 playable characters, "heart-pounding, high-speed 3D battles", and a feature by which you can create your own Dragon Ball battles and share them with like-minded fans around the world.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is available right now for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. You can read our review of this jam-packed fighter here.