Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero drops in player count

Just one month after its launch, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is down to a 90% loss on an all-time high player count for PC. While it is unclear what is the situation for the game on Playstation or Xbox.

When the anticipated title of the Budokai Tenkaichi series, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero entered the market on October 7th, it became a hit instantly. The game even sold more than three million units around the world within a day. While the highest player count on Steam went up to 122,554 players.

There was a major applause for the cel graphics and fast combat feature. However, currently, the game is going through a downfall period on PC.

The difference between the all-time peak and the active players in the last 24 hours is evident in the steep downward chart reading. The game only had 14,303 active players over the past day with only over 12,000 current active players. This proves the game was unable to consistently engage its players losing almost 90% of the player count.

Although it’s unclear how it is doing for the console community.

The game was highly appreciated for the addictive gameplay loop and Custom Battle mode by the players and critics as well.

The steady drop in players points toward several reasons

The drop in traffic underlines the criticism the Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero has received on its weird battle camera and the run-of-the-mill Episode Battle Mode. These could be the main reasons why the players lost their interest gradually.

If one looks further, other reasons come to light as well. For instance the overpowering characters in the game like Goku Black and Gogeta Super Saiyan 4. Given that the title’s motivation was to remain true to Dragon Ball canon, these characters easily dominated the match-ups which caused frustration in the community about the unfair balancing issues.

Another reason could be that the game was also crowded with cheaters including those adding NSFW content to the game. After the game’s launch, hackers were constantly refilling their Ki meter which enabled them to attack without any penalties. However recently the developer of Sparking Zero announced the banning of modders and cheaters.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero may bring back its players through future DLCs

Spike Chunsoft has hinted toward the new addition of characters to Sparking Zero from the Dragon Ball: Daima series with the second DLC dropping at the start of 2025. These characters will be Vegera (Mini) and Glorio the part of the latest anime series and the one which pays homage to its late creator, Akira Toriyama after his passing in March 2024.

The 3rd DLC will also see more characters from the Daima series which is planned for the Q2 of the next year.

The linking of fresh characters from the series in the upcoming DLC will reignite the spark again for the players and the new ones towards the game.