As of this writing, Black Myth: Wukong, the action-adventure game from Chinese Game Science Studio, is the most played game on Steam in terms of player count. There are currently 1,400,932 players in the game (with a peak of 1,443,570), surpassing Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG, and all the usual games that occupy Steam’s top five.
Wukong was already predicted to be a huge success and the game was the best-selling title on Steam for several weeks, but the number of concurrent players is quite astonishing for an offline single-player game.
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Although the number of concurrent players is still increasing, this makes Black Myth: Wukong the fourth most popular Steam game in its history, just surpassing Lost Ark and Dota 2. The next target is Counter-Strike 2, which needs about 400,000 more players.
However, it will be really interesting if it manages to catch up to or even overtake Palworld, which reached a peak of 2,101,867 during its popularity phase. This also makes Wukong the third most popular paid game on Steam, behind PUBG and Palworld. PUBG, of course, reached its staggering peak of 3,257,248 concurrent plays when it was a premium title, long before it became free-to-play.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that these numbers only reflect Steam; Wukong is also available on WeGame in China. Even outside of PC, we have no idea how many copies the PS5 version managed to sell. The popularity was also reflected in the game’s very positive Steam user rating, based on over 28,000 reviews, and that’s despite the game’s use of the much-hated Denuvo DRM.
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As spectacular as these numbers are, the source of this great interest should come as no surprise. GameDiscover estimates that 88% of Wukong sales are made in China, with the next largest sales coming from the US at a much lower 3%.
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However, the launch of Black Myth: Wukong was not without controversy. Just yesterday, as Eurogamer reported, a document with do’s and don’ts was published that the game’s co-publisher had sent to streamers and influencers.
The marketing document – the authenticity of which has been confirmed by several people – specifically asks campaign participants not to use “trigger words like ‘quarantine,’ ‘isolation,’ or ‘Covid-19′” in their reporting. It also asks participants not to talk about “politics,” “fetishization,” or “feminist propaganda.”
The latter is particularly interesting as the studio behind Wukong, Game Science, has faced allegations of a long history of sexism and mistreatment of women, and the people behind Wukong’s marketing probably didn’t want influencers to mention any of it.
If you’re one of the millions of players just starting their journey to the West, be sure to check out these Wukong tips and tricks and check out our guides regularly. We recently published guides to help you find the Sterness of Stone and the Keeness of Tiger, and this one that shows you where to find Buddha’s Eyeballs and how to use them.
