The release of the uber-popular Black Myth: Wukong set a new Steam record for the most number of concurrent players on August 25, 2024. According to PC Gamer, Steam hit a 37 million player milestone, where 37,266,324 users were online all at once. Valve’s PC digital distribution platform has managed to create a robust community of gamers who flock to their page for access to the latest games, and tracking the number of Steam players has now become a surefire way to assess the success of a new release.

The latest steam player record has been linked to the new game Black Myth: Wukong by developer Game Science, which was only released over a week ago on August 20. Despite its recent arrival, the game has become the second-most played Steam game of all time, standing one step away from breaking the record held by PUBG: Battlegrounds.

steam black myth wukong impact

Image: Black Myth: Wukong

Black Myth: Wukong Bolsters Steam Records 

The relationship between Steam and the impact of Black Myth: Wukong has been interesting to see, painting a clear picture of how the Chinese game has captured its audiences thoroughly. The story premise of playing as a monkey who puts his enemies in their place using martial arts might sound juvenile at first, but the game is anything but simplistic. 

The gameplay and boss fights have been engaging enough to keep its audience hooked for hours and despite some minor in-game grievances, the game has held on to this popularity. The single-player game is based on the Chinese novel Journey to the West and follows the “Destined One,” the game character based on the novel protagonist Sun Wukong, as he sets on his quest to collect the relics of Wukong. 

The stunning graphics, immersive music, and exciting gameplay have been repeatedly applauded as being genre-defining, however, many players have reported that the story is a little difficult to follow if you’re not intimately familiar with the original story. The game heavily relies on the gamer experience in real-time rather than the effective building of its lore, but regardless of the criticism, it is clearly doing something right for it to attract such a large audience. 

The Black Myth: Wukong-supported Steam record of 37 million concurrent players is particularly noteworthy because the platform had come close to seeing such numbers back in March when 36.35 million players had logged on to the platform. 

The initial record early in 2024 had stood at 33.7 million players, which means the platform has been on a steady upward trajectory in drawing in players. Such peaks are not an everyday occurrence and usually follow a gaming event or release when players rush to experience the newly announced content for themselves.

steam 37m milestone

Is the Impact of Black Myth: Wukong on Steam Surprising?

Most games peak during their release, as a large number of gamers and reviewers arrive to give the game a shot, following which interest usually dies down, limited to the handful of players who log in every once in a while to continue where they left off. Games like PUBG: Battlegrounds and Counter-Strike 2 are unique in that they draw in a regular stream of players who keep coming back to keep up with the latest updates in the game with no real “end game” content in sight. 

There are also some unique instances where games receive a sudden boost from returning players who are reminded of their love for the game after the revival or release of some parallel media. The Fallout series of games, particularly Fallout 76, saw a sudden upsurge of players following the release of the TV show inspired by it. 

steam player record

The Steam impact of Black Myth: Wukong is undoubtedly impressive, but will it be able to sustain its popularity for a little while longer? The game will likely be able to retain its players but it has its own share of controversy that might discourage others from giving the game a shot. 

Content creators and streamers who were contacted before the game’s release received a list of topics they were prohibited from discussing during their live streams. This included “feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse.” Trying to avoid controversy is not unusual for any game, but the company did not elaborate on what it meant by “feminist propaganda.” 

Matters were made worse by the fact that the company allegedly had a history of being sexist with IGN accusing the employees of having displayed inappropriate behavior in the past. Some content creators went so far as to refuse to review the game while others specifically used the terms prohibited by the organization to refer to the game and its content. 

Many stood steadfast against the game developer’s attempt to curb their freedom of speech. Despite the negative attention towards the developer, however, the game managed to remain free from controversy. While critics expected the game’s performance to suffer from the negative attention the studio received, the Black Myth: Wukong Steam record shows us this is far from the case. 

steam concurrent players milestone

The Steam Player Record Is Not the Only Major Milestone for Black Myth: Wukong

Aiding in Steam’s 37 million player milestone is just one instance of the game’s popularity. Black Myth: Wukong reportedly made $53 million USD in presales, and sold 4.5 million copies within 24 hours of its release. The game had its marketing plans locked and loaded and was able to sell 10 million copies within three days. Developer Game Science revealed that it had garnered 3 million concurrent players across platforms within those three days. Talk about a success story. 

According to IGN, Black Myth: Wukong has asserted its position as one of the fastest-selling games of all time, trumping Helldivers 2 which sold 12 million copies in its first 12 weeks, and matching up to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which combined sold 10 million copies in three days. 

The game’s success in China was expected, but its popularity in the international markets has showcased the power of the Chinese gaming industry and what it has to offer. While the region has many niche games to its credit, for example, miHoYo taking the lead in the gacha gaming category, the success of Black Myth: Wukong is a prime example of how developers from the region can find fame.

One look at the trailer is enough to convince anyone about the majesty of this game. If you want to be a part of the Black Myth: Wukong Steam records or try it out on a different platform, the game is available on PS5, Steam, Epic Games Store, and WeGame. There is an Xbox Series X|S version on the horizon but no release dates have been set for it yet. 

The Xbox version was initially expected to launch along with the other platform releases, but Game Science reported that they were still working on “optimizing the Xbox Series X|S version to meet [their] quality standards.” Until the Xbox version, the PC experience remains the prime option to test this game.

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