Black Myth: Wukong – A New Phenomenon in the Global Gaming Industry
Black Myth: Wukong, an action role-playing game based on the classic novel Journey to the West, has quickly become a phenomenon in the gaming industry since its release. In just over three days after its launch, the game has recorded an impressive 10 million copies sold across all platforms, making it one of the best-selling games of all time.
On August 23rd, the official BlackMythGame account on the social media platform X announced this significant milestone. Since its launch on August 20th, the game has not only achieved 10 million in sales but also attracted up to 3 million concurrent players, a remarkable number that few games today can reach.
Daniel Ahmad, a renowned analyst from The Everything App, provided specific comparisons to highlight the exceptional success of Black Myth: Wukong. He pointed out that major games in recent years, such as Hogwarts Legacy, took three months to reach 15 million copies, while Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 needed a month to reach 13 million copies, and Baldur’s Gate 3 sold over 20 million copies in five months. Only the game Palworld has managed to reach 19 million players in two weeks, a milestone that Black Myth: Wukong might soon surpass.
The game’s success isn’t just limited to sales; Black Myth: Wukong also had an impressive launch in terms of player count. Within just a few hours of its release, the game attracted 1.3 million concurrent players. According to data from SteamDB, the game recorded an impressive 2,223,179 concurrent players on its first day. With this achievement, Black Myth: Wukong became the biggest game launch of 2024 and ranked second on the Steam platform for concurrent players, just behind PUBG, which had 3.2 million players.
On August 20th, according to data from Steam, the game’s data transmission rate peaked at 28 TB per second, with 82% of traffic coming from the East Asia region. This underscores the game’s strong appeal in the Asian market, particularly in China.
Black Myth: Wukong, also known as Hắc Thần Thoại: Ngộ Không, is an action role-playing game developed by Game Science, a game studio from China. The game was developed for PlayStation 5 and Windows, with an Xbox version soon to follow. In the game, players control a character inspired by Sun Wukong, called “Heavenly Mandate Man,” engaging in battles with various enemies and having the ability to transform into monsters or insects to fight.
Since it was first revealed in 2020, Black Myth: Wukong has garnered significant attention from both the gaming community and industry experts. Although it was initially scheduled for release in 2023, the game was delayed until August 2024 for further refinement. Upon its release, the game received widespread praise from both players and critics. Tyler Colp, a writer for PC Gamer, gave the game an 87% rating, praising the storyline, combat style, and the unique experience it offers compared to other games in the genre. He remarked, “It brings a sense of weirdness and magic that makes me genuinely curious and eager to try it.”
The success of Black Myth: Wukong is largely due to its popularity in China. According to the analytics company Niko, 93% of the game’s reviews on Steam were written in Chinese. Gameplay videos and previews of the game also dominated Chinese social media platforms such as Bilibili and Douyin. In fact, there were reports of a company giving all its employees a day off on August 20th to enjoy the game.
With its outstanding achievements right from its launch, Black Myth: Wukong has established itself as a dominant force in the global gaming industry, promising to continue setting new milestones in the near future.
