The first time we saw a trailer of Black Myth: Wukong I joked that it looked great and would probably never really come outThat was on August 20, 2020. Exactly four years later, the fantasy action game is not only playable, but is breaking records on Steam for both single-player and online games.
The adventure inspired by China’s Journey to the West The novel shot up the charts on Valve’s PC gaming storefront overnight, becoming the best-selling and most-played game within its first 12 hours on the market. Black Myth: Wukong has already reached over 2.2 million concurrent players on Steam, putting it ahead of any other game ever released on the platform, outside of PUBGthe battle royale sensation of 2017, peaking at over 3.25 million players towards the end of the year.
Black Myth records broken set by other single player games like Cyberpunk2077 And Fire ringwhich rank seventh and eighth on Steam’s all-time leaderboard. That was impressive enough for Game Science, a studio founded by former Tencent employees who had worked primarily on mobile games in the past. But Black Myth has also surpassed every other Steam online sensation of recent years, including The Lost Ark And Palworldas well as Valve’s own multiplayer hits Counterstrike 2 And Dota2.
The overwhelming audience on the first day seems to have come largely from overseas, with Simon Carless from the Discover games Newsletter Treasure almost 90 percent of Black MythCurrent players on Steam are from China, followed by 3 percent from the US and 1 percent from Japan. “Probably over 80% of players are from China, whereas for a big game with localization in the region, maybe 25-40% of players are from China.” tweeted Michael Douise, Publishing Director at Baldur’s Gate 3 Producer Larian Studios. “It’s proof that the region can blow the numbers when properly mobilized both regionally and internationally for a major launch.”
Is Black Myth: Wukong is the Game Pass coming?
We also do not yet know the breakdown of player numbers on PlayStation 5, where Black Myth is a temporary console exclusive after the Xbox version was postponed. Microsoft’s failure is reminiscent of last year’s giant Baldur’s Gate 3 Launch, where a version was only ready for the Game Pass platform in December. Why the wait this time? “We are currently optimizing the Xbox Series X/S version to meet our quality standards, so it will not be released at the same time as the other platforms,” said Game Science wrote earlier this year“We apologize for the delay and want to minimize the wait time for Xbox users. We will announce the release date once it meets our quality standards.”
Some players speculated that this was due to a surprise exclusive deal with Sony, but it seems that the Xbox version, which must have the same features on both the Xbox Series X and the weaker S, is simply not ready yet. “We are looking forward to the launch of Black Myth: Wukong on Xbox Series X/S and are working with Game Science to bring the game to our platforms,” said a Microsoft spokesperson Windows Central in June. “We can’t comment on our partners’ deals with other platform holders, but we remain focused on making Xbox the best platform for gamers, and great games are at the heart of that.”
Given the blockbuster launch so far, it seems unlikely Black Myth: Wukong will be a surprise release on Game Pass when it finally comes to Xbox, unless Microsoft is willing to spend some money on the series. Usually, such deals are made to help developers and publishers hedge risks before release or to generate additional revenue during the long-tail phase when a game has already been out for a while. Baldur’s Gate 3 has not yet appeared in Game Pass, and studio director Swen Vincke previously said it would probably never happen.
