With this momentum, the game seems poised to beat PUBG: Battleground's record for the most number of concurrent players.
Game Science’s newest action RPG, Black Myth: Wukong has become the second-most popular title ever on Steam within hours of its launch, shattering records in less than 24 hours after its launch.
Black Myth: Wukong, which is based on the legendary monkey king's exploits, attracted more than 2.13 million concurrent players on Steam during its worldwide launch on Tuesday (20 August).
According to data tracker SteamDB, this was more popular than other extremely popular single-player games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring.
In terms of peak concurrent players, which takes into account the total number of players online at any given moment, it was ranked just above Palworld (2.101 million) and Counter-Strike 2 (1.818 million).
And if the success continues, they could be in a good position to surpass the record of PUBG: Battlegrounds set at 3.257 million in 2017. However, as a single-player game, Black Myth: Wukong will unlikely beat PUBG's record.
Why is the game so successful?
The game's rapid ascent can be attributed to several factors. One of the most significant is the game's origin from a Chinese development studio, Game Science, backed by Chinese gaming giant, Tencent Holdings, Ltd.
With China's gaming market expected to reach 730 million players within the next three years, Black Myth: Wukong's appeal to this massive audience likely played a crucial role in its early success.
On top of this, many players were also hyped about the game’s graphics and gameplay and are intrigued by the number of players enjoying it on Steam.
Despite the game's popularity on Steam, Black Myth: Wukong's launch has not been trouble-free.
Earlier this week, Game Science faced criticism after reportedly issuing a document to influencers and content creators, instructing them to avoid mentioning COVID-19, "politics," or "feminist propaganda" in their coverage of the game, as reported by Kotaku.
On top of this, on launch day, devs of the game have also warned PC players on Steam about "occasional serious issues" on PC even after "multiple internal full-process tests."
While some of the bugs already have fixes available, it is unknown if all of the issues raised have been resolved.
Black Myth Wukong is currently available on Playstation 5 and PC.