Why Persona 5: The Phantom X Surpassing Royal's Peak Player Count is Only the First Hurdle

After months of regional testing and uncertainty for international fans, Persona 5: The Phantom X has finally made its international debut on PC and mobile. While the live-service gacha format certainly makes it a far cry from any Persona game that’s come before, Persona 5: The Phantom X also offers much of the same story and gameplay loop that a fan could expect from a mainline Persona game, from turn-based battles to social sim elements. That melting pot of features seems to have paid off already, because Persona 5: the Phantom X‘s peak player count has already rocketed past its guiding light, Persona 5 Royal.

Persona spin-off games have a sort of unpredictable history in terms of popularity, so it’s a bit of a surprise that The Phantom X is such a smash hit right out the gates. However, when considering the different audiences that it blends together, its immediate success becomes a lot less surprising. What’s more, the strong launch for Persona 5: The Phantom X ultimately isn’t the most important test of its quality by a long shot. The Phantom X has set out into uncharted territory for the Persona franchise, and the real measure of its success will be how well it navigates that chosen field.

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Persona 5: The Phantom X’s Popular International Release is Just Step One

There’s no denying that Persona 5: The Phantom X has started out strong. If Persona 5 was a big tailwind for the franchise, Persona 5 Royal was the ship that caught the wind in its sails, cruising well beyond the PlayStation and bringing the franchise to fans on Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch. On Steam, Royal displayed its appeal by earning a peak player count of about 34,000 on Steam — but in mere days, The Phantom X has shattered Persona 5 Royal‘s peak player count record by hitting 41,000 Steam users and counting. Impressive as it is, the reasons for the game’s instant appeal seem clear for two reasons:

Just as Persona 5 Royal was buoyed by the first P5‘s success, The Phantom X rides an even bigger wave of Persona hype thanks to the spin-offs, ports, and P3 remake that have released in P5R‘s wake. It simply has an even bigger Persona fanbase to work with than Royal.
Its identity as a AAA gacha game also means The Phantom X is well-equipped to appeal to gamers outside the current Persona fanbase. Games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail remain among the most popular live-service games on the market, so The Phantom X is an ideal option for gacha lovers looking for something new

Persona 5: The Phantom X Has Just Started Down a Long Road

This isn’t to belittle The Phantom X‘s early achievement — it’s still of note — but aside from these likely culprits for the early success, it’s also only the first step. Since Persona games are generally traditional non-service games, they don’t need to worry about a post-launch life; they release, get their playerbase, and eventually fans move on. The Phantom X, however, needs to justify its live-service move in the long run, not just the short term. It may be popular now, but its real popularity will depend on things like how compelling future plot updates are, how frequent and consistent in quality the updates are, and so on. As any number of live-service flops can attest, success is determined by staying power, not just first impressions.

In particular, this is a test of The Phantom X‘s controversial choice to draw on the gacha genre too. Aside from simply being a high-dedication type of game that players can burn out on, the gacha style’s monetization practices are often criticized as predatory. The developers are inevitably going to stay committed to monetization through gacha, but The Phantom X will need to be as F2P-friendly as possible if it hopes to earn or maintain goodwill. The Phantom X deserves to celebrate its strong start, but it has a lot of work ahead of it too.