Chinese state media has thrown its full support behind “Black Myth: Wukong,” the country’s most successful single-player video game to date, highlighting its potential to introduce Western gamers to Chinese culture through the adaptation of the Ming dynasty epic, “Journey to the West.”
The game, which revolves around the mythological Monkey King, Sun Wukong, from the Chinese literary classic, achieved remarkable popularity immediately after its release. On Wednesday, a day after its launch, it was being played by 2.2 million concurrent users on Steam, a leading online gaming platform.
China Central Television (CCTV) emphasized the cultural significance of the game in a blog post, noting that while Chinese players have long engaged in cross-cultural understanding through Western games, it is now the turn of overseas players to delve into Chinese traditional culture.
“Black Myth: Wukong” draws heavily from the story of Sun Wukong, a beloved character who gains supernatural abilities through Taoist practices. CCTV suggested that players would gain the most from the game if they are familiar with the plot of the 16th-century classic.
Launched on Tuesday by Game Science, a Tencent-backed startup, the game quickly became a sensation on Chinese social media. Hashtags related to the game garnered 1.7 billion views on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.
State news agency Xinhua, in an editorial, celebrated the game’s release as a significant step for Chinese developers into a market traditionally dominated by Western AAA titles. Xinhua pointed out that with “Black Myth: Wukong,” the default language of a top-tier game is no longer English but Chinese.
Analysts at Shanghai-based Topsperity Securities echoed this sentiment, predicting that the game would draw more global attention to domestic Chinese games. They also suggested that various industries could benefit from intellectual property tie-ins with the game. Indeed, companies like Didi, Lenovo Group, and Luckin Coffee are already incorporating elements inspired by “Black Myth: Wukong” into their promotional campaigns.
Despite the game’s success, gaming stocks remained unchanged on Wednesday, with concept stocks related to its development experiencing a slight dip after significant gains over the previous month.
“Black Myth: Wukong” has been widely praised as China’s first AAA game, characterized by high development costs, extended production cycles, and substantial investment. Unlike other Chinese games, which are often mobile-based and rely on microtransactions, this game is a one-time purchase, priced at 268 yuan ($37.58) for the standard version and 328 yuan for the premium edition.
Pre-sales for the game, which began in June, had already reached 400 million yuan by the time of its launch, according to Citi.
While the profitability of “Black Myth: Wukong’s” business model remains uncertain, industry insiders, quoted by the state-owned Global Times, emphasize the importance of China finally having its own AAA game capable of captivating a global audience. The Global Times declared that “Global players will be able to get a deeper understanding of traditional Chinese culture while having fun.”
