Summary
- Following The Game Awards 2024, Black Myth: Wukong has seen a spike in concurrent players.
- The game, which had seen an average of 70,000 concurrent players daily, jumped to 213,882 on December 14.
- Black Myth: Wukong took home the prize for Best Action Game, as well as the Player's Voice award.
Black Myth: Wukong experienced a significant surge in player numbers last Saturday, December 14, with many influenced by its recognition at The Game Awards 2024 along with the game's producer's comments. The Game Science title had already maintained impressive numbers for a single-player game, but winning Best Action Game of 2024 and the Player's Voice category seems to have brought even more attention to Black Myth: Wukong.
Black Myth: Wukong was nominated for Best Action Game, Best Art Direction, Best Game Direction, and Game of the Year at this year's Game Awards ceremony. It took home the award for Best Action Game and the Player's Voice, a fan-voted category. However, Black Myth: Wukong lost Best Art Direction to Metaphor: ReFantazio and both Best Game Direction and Game of the Year to Astro Bot. All in all, The Game Awards 2024 was widely praised as one of the best shows in recent years, both for its announcements and for giving winners more time for their acceptance speeches. However, not everyone was happy with the results, as Black Myth: Wukong's producer publicly questioned the criteria for Game of the Year.
Black Myth: Wukong Getting PS5 Pro Update
The developers of Black Myth: Wukong reveal that the popular action game will get a PlayStation 5 Pro update, sharing the full patch notes.
Although producer Feng Ji's comments sparked some backlash, it seems there's no such thing as bad publicity. His remarks, combined with the game's awards, appear to have contributed to Black Myth: Wukong seeing a significant spike in player numbers according to SteamDB. The game, which had been seeing an average of 70,000 concurrent players daily, jumped to 213,882 on December 14 and has since stabilized at around 150,000 throughout the week. While this is a far cry from the two million concurrent players Black Myth: Wukong achieved at launch, they are still impressive numbers for a single-player game.
Black Myth: Wukong Concurrent Player Count Spikes
However, neither the game's producer nor its fans took into account that sales numbers don't necessarily translate to being named the best game of the year. Following Swen Vincke's speech and Astro Bot's Game of the Year win, Black Myth: Wukong fans review-bombed Baldur's Gate 3. Most of the negative comments on Baldur's Gate 3's Steam page currently seem to have come from players in China. Since The Game Awards is conducted in English, mistranslation may have played a role in the backlash, and users may have misinterpreted Vincke's points. Alternatively, it could simply be fans venting their frustration that Black Myth: Wukong didn't win Game of the Year and taking it out on Baldur's Gate 3 as a proxy, given that Astro Bot isn't available on Steam.
Ultimately, Black Myth: Wukong isn't the only game getting a boost after The Game Awards. Many TGA-nominated titles also saw sales spikes, even if they didn't win any awards. Following the announcement of the Game of The Year finalists, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth saw a 268% sales boost, while Metaphor: ReFantazio saw a 172% increase. While some in the gaming community have voiced their dislike for the award show, this year's event triggered some massive traffic and set the stage for what's to come in 2025 and beyond.
Black Myth: Wukong
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 82 /100 Critics Rec: 80%
- Released
- August 20, 2024
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Game Science
- Publisher(s)
- Game Science
WHERE TO PLAY
Black Myth: Wukong is an action RPG rooted in Chinese mythology and based on Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.
You shall set out as the Destined One to venture into the challenges and marvels ahead, to uncover the obscured truth beneath the veil of a glorious legend from the past.
As the Destined One, you shall encounter powerful foes and worthy rivals throughout your journey. Fearlessly engage them in epic battles where surrender is not an option.
Aside from mastering various staff techniques, you can also freely combine different spells, abilities, weapons, and equipment to find the winning strategy that best suits your combat style.
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- How Long To Beat
- 39 hours
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
