Black Myth: Wukong Breaks Records on Launch Day, Becomes Top-Played Game of 2024

Black Myth: Wukong, an action RPG developed by Chinese studio Game Science, made a historic debut. On its launch day, with a peak of 2,223,179 concurrent players (CCP), the game shattered several records and became the top-played game on Steam.

It is now become:

• Most-Played Game of 2024: It overtook Palworld’s previous peak of 2.1 million players set in January.
• 2nd Most-Played Game on Steam: The game is now second only to PUBG’s record of 3,257,248 concurrent players set in 2018.
• Most-Played Single-Player Game on Steam: It surpassed highly popular titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy, and Baldur’s Gate 3.

Here are the top 10 most-played games on Steam right now based on peak concurrent players (SteamDB):

1. PUBG – 3,257,248
2. Black Myth: Wukong – 2,223,179
3. Palworld – 2,101,867
4. Counter-Strike 2 – 1,984,012
5. Lost Ark – 1,325,305
6. Dota 2 – 1,295,114
7. Cyberpunk 2077 – 1,054,388
8. Elden Ring – 953,426
9. Banana –  917,272
10. New World – 913,634

First teased in 2020, “Black Myth: Wukong” was highly anticipated from the start. From early 2024, it became the most-wishlisted game on Steam, beating other most awaited titles like “Hollow Knight: Silksong,” “Frostpunk 2,” “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2,” and “Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.”

When Game Science opened pre-orders on June 8, the game quickly became the top-selling premium game on Steam.

Wukong has also performed impressively in China as by mid-August, the game was already topping sales charts. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the excitement was so high that physical copies of the deluxe edition saw 160,000 pre-orders within a few hours on JD.com. With only 10,000 copies initially available at $276 each, the pre-orders were oversubscribed by 16 times. Niko Partners noted that the second round of pre-orders received over 700,000 registrations.

The game has received positive reviews from leading publications such as IGN and God is a Geek, and it boasts a 96% Overwhelmingly Positive rating from 128,888 reviews on Steam to date.

Black Myth: Wukong Reviews:

IGN China 10/10
God is a Geek 10/10
GamersRD 10/10
Gamersky 10/10
GamingBolt 10/10
Polygon “Astounding triumph”
CGMagazine 9.5/10
Voxel 9.3/10
Areajugones 9.3/10
COGconnected 9.3/10
Hardcore Gamer 9/10
Malditos Nerds 9/10
Twinfinite 9/10
IGN Brasil… pic.twitter.com/EFsZsfwWDx

— GermanStrands (@GermanStrands) August 16, 2024

Besides Steam, “Black Myth: Wukong” also launched on other platforms like PlayStation 5 and the Epic Games Store, where player numbers aren’t publicly disclosed but are expected to be significant.

The game is also set to release on Xbox Series X and S, although this was delayed due to optimization improvements.

As the weekend approaches, player numbers are expected to grow even further, potentially challenging the six-year record held by “PUBG.”

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