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In its first 24 hours, Game Science’s Black Myth Wukong has made history. The action RPG inspired by Chinese mythology peaked at over 2.2 million players shortly after it launched on August 20, 2024. This is the highest peak for any single player title on Steam. Overall, it’s the second highest peak on the platform, only behind PUBG’s 3.3 million players.
According to SteamDB, the title has averaged 1.2 million players in its first 30 hours. This means players have experienced 37.2 million hours in Game Science’s take on Journey to the West.
Fans have shown up to support the game, both in terms of sales and reviews. The game is currently the top seller on Steam and 97% of its 180,000-plus reviews were positive.
The game also received a visibility boost fueled by the culture war. Critics have accused the Chinese publisher of sexism and called out its creator review policies. According to The New York Times, co-publisher Hero Games sent creators a list of controversial subjects to avoid when discussing the title. These included politics, “feminist propaganda,” covid and China’s video game industry policies.
Whatever bridges Black Myth Wukong burned with critics, it appears to have overcome through fans who support its “no comment” approach. According to Metacritic, both users and critics rank the game slightly above an eight out of ten.
And it certainly didn’t dissuade creators from streaming the game or fans from watching. According to Streams Charts, viewers watched over 7 million hours of Twitch content since launch.
At this rate, Black Myth Wukong might become the biggest hit of 2024. So far, Helldivers 2 has topped the sales charts while Palworld set the bar for Twitch viewership with 40 million hours watched in its first week.
In any case, the game’s success proves that it’s possible for Chinese studios to break into Western markets with games developed domestically. Black Myth Wukong is available now on PlayStation 5, Steam, Epic Games Store, and WeGame.
