A game developed in China and backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. has become the fourth most played title on Steam within hours of its release – an unusually rapid rise that may help it cement its place in industry history.
Black Myth: Wukong, an action-adventure title based on the escapades of the legendary Monkey King, has garnered more than 1.3 million concurrent players on Steam shortly after its global debut on Tuesday, surpassing the records of hotly-anticipated titles such as Cyberpunk2077 And Elden Ring, according to data tracker SteamDB. It overtook the fifth-placed Dota2 and then The Lost Ark by this metric, which measures the peak number of people playing the game on Steam worldwide at a given time.
A strong first-day performance could reinforce expectations that China’s $40 billion-plus gaming arena is turning a corner after years of relentless regulatory scrutiny. This summer has seen an unusually busy pipeline of major debuts, including Tencent’s own DnF MobileNetEase Inc. Naraka: Blade Tip and indie studio Mihoyo ZZZ.
Wukong’s The game’s launch attracted excessive attention in part because, unlike many of the Tencent-backed blockbusters, it was developed entirely by local studio Game Science. Tencent has made an investment in the Hangzhou-based developer and is also handling the game’s domestic release on its own Steam-like WeGame platform. SteamDB does not track this service.
Also available for the PlayStation 5 from Sony Group Corp. Wukong offers tough fights that match FromSoftware’s challenging Dark Souls series. The title, which has been in development since 2018, is seen by gamers and critics as China’s most serious attempt to produce a big-budget PC console blockbuster that could have global appeal. The country’s previous successes have been mainly in the mobile space, such as Genshin Influence by Mihoyo.
Major Chinese review sites, including IGN China, gave Wukong a 10 out of 10 on the eve of its release. The other games worldwide gave mostly positive, if slightly lower, ratings and cited some issues with gameplay and translation.
Game Science’s founders, including Feng Ji, worked at Tencent before starting their own studio. According to company registration site Qichacha, Tencent bought a 5% stake in the startup in 2021.
