Within hours after its release, a Chinese-developed game supported by Tencent Holdings Ltd. shot to the second spot on Steam’s popularity charts—an exceptionally quick rise that might cement the game’s legacy.
On Tuesday, Black Myth: Wukong, an action-adventure game inspired by the mischievous activities of the legendary Monkey King, made its worldwide launch on Steam with over 2.1 million concurrent players, according to data tracker SteamDB, and outperformed other highly anticipated single-player games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring in terms of popularity. In terms of peak concurrent players, which measures how many people are playing a game simultaneously all over the world, it came in slightly above Palworld and Counter-Strike 2.
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The impressive first-day performance could support hopes that China’s $40 billion+ gaming industry is about to turn the corner following years of constant regulatory scrutiny. Major debuts this summer were exceptionally busy, with titles like Tencent’s DnF Mobile, NetEase Inc.’s Naraka: Bladepoint Mobile, and independent studio Mihoyo’s ZZZ among them. Wukong, created by Hangzhou-based Game Science, is China’s most spectacular PC release to date.
Its introduction attracted a lot of attention since a local studio entirely created it in contrast to many other blockbusters Tencent supports. Tencent publishes the game on its WeGame platform, which is similar to Steam, and has invested in Game Science. SteamDB does not track that service.
According to Vey-Sern Ling, managing director of UBP, “This might encourage a lot more such AAA game development for PC and console.” “Such game development for export may also be encouraged and receive more support from Chinese regulators.”
Tencent remained mostly unaltered in Hong Kong. However, speculators pushed up smaller businesses connected to the name. The 20% restriction was reached in Shenzhen for Huayi Brothers Media Corp.’s stock, mostly due to its little indirect investment in Game Science. Following local claims that the publisher is in talks to release game-related products, such as an art book, Citic Press Corp. also saw a 20% increase.
Wukong created a buzz in China that the gaming industry hasn’t experienced in a long time. It quickly became the most popular topic on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, where it remained all day. When the local beverage chain Luckin Coffee ran out of the game posters that it was giving away with iced Americanos, it apologized to the fans.
According to Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at Niko Partners, “The game’s success demonstrates that Chinese game developers have high-end development capabilities for AAA games and can compete with Western studios on the global stage.”
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Wukong, which is also playable on the PlayStation 5 from Sony Group Corp., delivers rough combat that has drawn comparisons to FromSoftware’s difficult Dark Souls game. Under development since 2018, the game is seen by critics and players alike as China’s most serious attempt to produce a big-budget PC console blockbuster with international appeal. Previous achievements from the nation have primarily come from the mobile space, such as Mihoyo’s Genshin Impact.
On the eve of its launch, Wukong received a perfect score of 10 out of 10 from well-known Chinese review sites like IGN China. Although slightly lower, their international counterparts’ ratings were largely good despite minor gameplay and translation difficulties.
Before launching their studio, Feng Ji and the other founding members of Game Science were employed by Tencent. In 2021, Tencent acquired a 5% share of the firm, as per the corporate registration website Qichacha.
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A 30-minute documentary containing interviews with the production crew about how Game Science developed its flagship product was aired on Monday by the official news agency Xinhua. A different Xinhua story commended Wukong for his attempts to faithfully reproduce cultural treasures such as old temples.
In the video interview, Feng stated, “We embody the simple love everyone has for this country and this nation.”
