Black Myth: Wukong shatters Steam records for players on launch day

Black Myth: Wukong has had an explosive launch and instantly cemented itself as one of Steam’s most-played games of all time, second overall for concurrent players.

Black Myth: Wukong put on a masterclass in building prerelease hype. Since its initial reveal four years ago, it has been one of the most anticipated video games of the generation.

Despite some concerns about PC performance from prospective players, the game launched to positive critical reception, including our own review which calls it “one of the most striking marriages of graphical prowess and artistic vision”. Now it can add another feather to its cap.

Black Myth: Wukong burst out of the gate, immediately placing itself in the top ten for most concurrent players of all time on Steam.

At the time of writing, it has recorded an all-time peak of 2,223,179 players – the second-highest concurrent player count ever on Steam, beaten only by PUBG, which reached over 3 million in 2018.

Just after launch, Wukong registered 996,371 players. This made it the eighth most concurrently played game of all time on Steam before players had even made it past the main menu.

Trouncing FromSoftware’s Elden Ring instantly, the new release has continued to climb the charts beating out giants like Cyberpunk 2077 and Dota 2 within its first two hours. Black Myth Wukong sits at number four on Steam’s all-time highest player count after clearing Lost Ark.

As the first major project from indie developer Game Science, the results are staggering. It has been heavily marketed both internationally and in the studio’s home country of China which has a substantial population.

Black Myth: Wukong can add a historic launch to its list of accolades and given that the game is only in the early stages of that launch, there’s every chance it will climb higher on the charts as the day goes on.