Black Myth: Wukong launched to a flying start. The game was released on August 20 by 10:00 AM Beijing time. In just a few hours after its release, the game’s player numbers rose sharply. At the time of writing, it had 1,443,570 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB. Interestingly, it surpassed 1 million players on Steam just 1 hour after its release.
Black Myth: Wukong comfortably sits at the top of the chart in terms of concurrent player count beating the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and PUBG. It has become the fourth charting game on the platform in terms of games with the most concurrent player count behind Counter-Strike 2, Palworld, and PUBG.
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That is not all, Black Myth: Wukong is now the most-played single-player game (non-live service game) on Steam, a record previously held by Cyberpunk 2077 with 1,054,388 concurrent players. It is also the most talked about on the Chinese X-like social media platform Weibo with over 6.7 million mentions.
The hashtag "Black Myth: Wukong" is expected to dominate the trending list throughout the day on Weibo, China's X-like social media, with 6.7 million discussions so far today.#Tencent's Wegame is a retailer of the game.@China #Game #BlackMythWukong @BlackMythGame $TCEHY https://t.co/JfoY7BTiFE pic.twitter.com/MxNVhUqPbH
— CN Wire (@Sino_Market) August 20, 2024
On Metacritic, the game has an average critic score of 82 on PC, based on 57 reviews. However, that will likely change in the coming days and weeks as more reviews are published. According to CN Wire on X, “Following this launch, the stock price of Zhejiang Publishing & Media, the game’s publisher, surged by 10%, while CITIC Press, the publisher of the game’s art book, saw its stock rise by 20%”.
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It is important to mention that the Steam numbers don’t include players on WeGame, the platform where Black Myth: Wukong is sold in China or PlayStation 5. According to reports the Xbox version of the game is in development—although its release on the platform has been delayed.
Keep politics and COVID out of Black Myth: Wukong coverage
A document from Black Myth: Wukong’s marketing team surfaced online last week. According to the document, Hero Games, the marketing team behind the game asked influencers and streamers covering Black Myth: Wukong to keep politics, feminist propaganda, and COVID-19 references out of their coverage.
French content creator and former editor for Gamekult Benoit Reinier claimed he was sent the document which he shared online. The document specified different topics that influencers and streamers are banned from exploring during the game’s coverage. They include:
- Discussing “China’s game industry policies, opinions, news, etc”
- Insulting other influencers or players
- Using “trigger words” like ‘quarantine’, ‘isolation’ or ‘COVID-19’
- Using offensive language or humor
The document also tells influencers and streamers not to “include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization and other content that instigates negative discourse” in their discussions. Some people may find the content of the document a bit unsettling.
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However, it is not uncommon for developers and publishers to issue guidelines to game journalists and streamers. However, in this case, many believe it is an attempt by the marketing team to distance the game from the character of the developers.
Game Science (the studio behind Black Myth: Wukong) CEO Feng Ji and some members of the development team have been previously fingered for making misogynistic and often sexually crude comments on social media. If any of those controversies had linked back to the game, it would have impacted its reception.
Some streamers are already saying Black Myth: Wukong has all the ingredients of a Game of the Year contender. Have you played the game? What is your first impression of it? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
