China’s first AAA game Black Myth: Wukong tops Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring for Steam players
- The title hit 1.8 million concurrent players within eight hours of release, making it No 3 on Steam, as Chinese gamers rushed to play
Black Myth: Wukong, China’s first AAA video game, has broken the record to become the most-played title of its kind on its first day of release on the digital games store Steam, marking a major milestone for the Chinese developers.
The rush to play the title, which spent six years in development, has made it No 3 on Steam’s chart for having the most concurrent players of all time, reaching 1.8 million in the evening, according to the store’s real-time ranking on Tuesday. It follows PUBG: Battlegrounds and Palworld.
The biggest reason behind the popularity is China’s long absence from AAA games – an informal classification that refers to games from a mid-sized or major publisher that typically have higher development and marketing budgets – according to Zhang Shule, an analyst with CBJ Think Tank.
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China’s first home-grown AAA game breaks records after debut
“As the world’s largest gaming market and [home to] the richest gaming company [Tencent], there were no products that were truly recognised as AAA games globally. This has become a pain in the hearts of Chinese game developers and players,” Zhang said.
“This is also the reason why Black Myth: Wukong was so highly anticipated.”