Fans Confused As Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Loses 95% Of Its Playerbase

People get hyped for a new game, sales go through the roof, and then a few weeks later almost everyone who got in on the ground floor is gone. It's a tale as old as time — or at least, as old as home consoles — and now, "Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero" fans are trying to make sense of the pattern playing out in their beloved game. Gamers are used to seeing their fellow players move on from titles after a while, but "Dragon Ball" fans are still confused by how quickly the plot has played out here. 

"Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero" blew everyone away last month, making old school "Budokai Tenkaichi" players just as happy as general fighting game fans. Steam preorders for the game sold through the roof and it game peaked at over 122,000 concurrent players on Steam — a pretty impressive number for a fighting game. Now that number's dwindled to well under 15,000 people logging in each day. While a few recent days have fared better, at the time of this writing, the game has lost right around 95% of its peak playerbase, not even reaching 10,000 concurrent players (per SteamDB).

"Sparking! Zero" is still kicking, but taking such a huge drop in active players is still seen as a significant blow. The dedicated "Sparking! Zero" fanbase can rest easy knowing that the developer still has more content in the works, which could potentially re-spark some serious interest in the game. Some fans online are already running a post mortem, but others are arguing that the big drop is nothing to worry about.

Fans noticed early on that "Sparking! Zero" has some surprising similarities to "Black Myth: Wukong," including ties to the Chinese novel "Journey to the West," plus the ways both of them will make you rage-quit at one point or another. "Black Myth: Wukong" also saw its player numbers dwindle after setting records, so there's another similarity for the list. Just like with that game, fans on Reddit have been brainstorming all sorts of issues that might be causing players to leave. Some pointed to a lack of crossplay and the intensely competitive atmosphere online as the real reasons behind the sudden drop in players. Others claimed that new game modes could bring players back, but disagreed on what those should look like. 

Of course, a few players had more pragmatic responses, like one fan who wrote, "It's a fighting game with online. Happens to practically all of them." That sentiment has come up more than once.

Yes, not everyone is worried about "Sparking! Zero." Plenty of people are pointing out that fighting games are a relatively niche genre, and compared to other games in the space, this latest "Dragon Ball" title is actually performing really well. Many argue that "Sparking! Zero" is actually in a comfortable place right now, even after the massive drop in players, and they're urging fans not to panic.

I hope yall realize this is a fighting and it's normal for a fighting games to drop down in players base after 4 weeks- 1 month around 80-90%. Having 16,000 people in a fighting game is high as hell compare to most fighting games. People are just blowing it out of proportion. pic.twitter.com/BoZxusUTzz

— zenos saki | Content Creator | @College (@zenossaki) November 10, 2024

Some fans have pointed to the original "Budokai Tenkaichi" as an explanation for what's happening with the "Sparking! Zero" playerbase. Those games were meant for casual fun with friends, and it's likely that all the lapsed "Sparking! Zero" players will keep poking their heads back into the game for months or even years to come. 

Not surprised at all that 90 percent of dragonball sparking zero player base has dropped the game. It's a situational game that folks won't be playing g all today everyday. They hype and nostalgia wore off and now folks who love it love it will
Be on it a bit more

— BluSatire (@BluSatire) November 8, 2024

That nostalgia factor seems to be what the devs are prepared for, anyway. Three different DLCs are already planned for the game, and developer Spike Chunsoft is aiming to space those releases out through the first half of 2025. Combine that healthy amount of DLC with all the incredible "Sparking! Zero" mods available online, and you've got a game that could easily have real staying power, regardless of what the numbers say at the moment.