Why Black Myth: Wukong Is Already Blowing Everyone Away

It's not often that you see single-player games debut with eyeball-popping concurrent player counts on the first day, but 2024 has been an unusual year. First "Palworld" shocked the world by breaking Steam records, and now "Black Myth: Wukong" has arrived to do it all over again. The action-adventure title from Chinese developer Game Science launched today, and it's already surpassed an astounding 2.2 million concurrent players on Steam.

"Black Myth: Wukong" is officially the second-most-played single-player game in Steam history. It already overtook the all-time high player counts for "Palworld," and "Counter-Strike 2," but it still has quite a way to go before beating "PUBG," which sits at 3.2 million. That's unbelievably impressive, especially considering that Game Science has only developed two other games in the past, and "Black Myth" is its first full-price AAA title. Clearly, Game Science has really knocked it out the park "Black Myth" isn't just skyrocketing to the top of the SteamDB charts on hype alone. The game genuinely offers a fantastic action RPG experience and some of the best visuals you'll see this year. Reviewers have pointed out a few flaws here and there, but basically everyone agrees that "Black Myth: Wukong" is a definite winner.

"Black Myth: Wukong" tells a story based on Chinese mythology, taking particular inspiration from the novel "Journey to the West." Players take on the role of the Destined One, who must traverse a magical land, collecting relics and fighting all kinds of monsters along the way. Like most other "Souls"-adjacent games, the mythology in "Black Myth" might come across as a little opaque, but it's really just an excuse to give players a stunning world to explore and visually engaging enemies and bosses to battle.

At the time of this writing, "Black Myth: Wukong" has over 70,000 reviews on Steam, along with an overwhelmingly positive review score. Players are praising almost every aspect of the game, with just about everyone mentioning its standout visuals. "The production value in this game is off the charts," one player wrote on Steam. Another echoed that point, writing in their review, "Best graphics I've ever played in a game with RTX 4090." The game is more than just pretty graphics, though, and players are giving it props for successfully combining elements of other popular action RPG titles. "If you enjoyed 'God of War' (2018) and the 'Jedi Fallen Order' [series] then you will definitely enjoy this," one player wrote. Of course, there have been a few points of criticism, too, but the complaints are fairly standard for these types of games. Some players have had trouble following the story or coping with sudden difficulty spikes. Like most of the Soulsborne games before it, "Black Myth: Wukong" throws players into the deep end and expects them to make sense of everything on their own.

Professional reviews have largely been glowing as well, with GamingBolt giving it a perfect score and comparing it to beloved hits like "Bloodborne" and "Sekiro." Meanwhile, God Is A Geek called it "one of this year's best action games" and praised the variety in its combat and gear systems.

As mind-blowing as the Steam numbers for "Black Myth: Wukong" are, they tell an incomplete story. The game didn't just release on Steam. It's also available through the Epic store and on PlayStation 5, and players in China can get it via the Tencent-owned platform WeGame. The player numbers from those platforms haven't been reported, but the 2.2 million Steam gamers are only a fraction of the game's full playerbase.

What's even more shocking is that there's still another wave of players waiting in the wings. The game is set to be released on Xbox Series X|S as well, though the date for that release hasn't been set just yet. That just means that sometime in the near future, "Black Myth: Wukong" will get another spike in new players. In other words, the delay could end up working to the game's advantage. Game Science has blown the gaming world away with this release, and there's still plenty of time for the developer's latest game to grow.