'Black Myth: Wukong' Tops Steam Charts, Beating 'Cyberpunk 2077' And 'Elden Ring'
Approximately 1.8 million concurrent users were playing the game just three hours after its release.
By Syazwan Bahri — 21 Aug 2024, 02:46 PM
Black Myth: Wukong, China's first AAA video game, has made history by becoming the most-played title of its kind on its first day of release on Steam
This achievement marks a significant milestone for Chinese developers, showcasing their ability to compete globally in the video game industry.
Following its release, Black Myth: Wukong sparked an unprecedented surge in downloads on Steam. Shortly after pre-downloads began, the platform experienced a peak bandwidth of 70Tbps. At one point, the game had over 1.8 million concurrent players on Steam.
According to the 2024 mid-year Chinese game sales report, Black Myth: Wukong achieved remarkable sales figures of 390 million yuan (RM239 million) and 1.2 million copies within just one month of pre-sales, setting a new record for pre-sales in Chinese-developed PC games.
Check out the trailer below:
The primary reason behind Black Myth: Wukong's popularity is China's long absence from producing AAA games
The term "triple-A games" or "AAA games" refers to an informal classification for video games produced by mid-sized or major publishers. These games typically have substantial development and marketing budgets, leading to high production values, extensive content, and broad market appeal.
Another reason for the title's immense popularity is its developers. The game was entirely developed by Chinese studio Game Science, based in Hangzhou. Tencent, which has an investment in Game Science, handles the game's domestic publication on its WeGame platform, which is similar to Steam but not tracked by SteamDB.
Here are some numbers to put Black Myth: Wukong's popularity in context
In comparison, Cyberpunk 2077, released by Polish developer CD Projekt in December 2020, had sold 25 million copies by October 2023.
Similarly, Elden Ring, from Japan's FromSoftware, achieved the same sales volume by June 2024, following its February 2022 launch.
