Black Myth: Wukong has become a top seller globally, thanks in no small part to the huge support from Chinese players. In addition to its record-breaking performance on Steam, the game is also quite popular on PlayStation.
Discoverability expert and GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless noted on X that Black Myth: Wukong is estimated to have sold 3 million copies on PlayStation 5 since launch.
China accounts for 66.6%, or around 2 million, of the total. According to Carless, “Genshin Impact is one of the only PS5 titles with more Chinese players.”
Last week, Bloomberg said the PlayStation 5 was the top-selling consumer electronic product on Alibaba for the week leading up to the launch of Black Myth: Wukong. These are impressive results given the historical popularity of free-to-play mobile and PC titles in China.
How big is Black Myth: Wukong on Playstation 5 on China? @GameDiscoverCo estimates that ~2 million of the 3 million PS5 players of the game are located in China. (Genshin Impact is one of the only PS5 titles with more Chinese players.) pic.twitter.com/X4RathitCw
— Simon Carless (@simoncarless) August 28, 2024
On August 23, Game Science announced that Black Myth: Wukong has sold 10 million copies across all platforms (PC, PS5, and Tencent’s WeGame) in its first three days. Steam accounts for the vast majority of the total, with analytical services like VG Insights and Gamalytic estimating the game’s life-to-date sales on the platform at 15-16 million units.
As with PlayStation, the majority of Black Myth: Wukong players on Steam come from China. Over 90% of all user reviews on the platform are written in Simplified Chinese. According to GameDiscoverCo, the country accounts for 87.6% of the game’s total playerbase, followed by the US, Hong Kong, Japan, and Canada.
Black Myth: Wukong not only became a worldwide success, but also sparked a surge in local tourism as people travel to real places that appear in the game. According to South China Morning Post, searches for visitor attractions in Shanxi province soared 156% on the game’s launch day compared to the same date last year. The top 3 places were Yungang Grottoes, Fogong Temple Wooden Pagoda in Ying county, and Stork Tower. Travel platform Tuniu also showed that visitors to Shanxi increased by 50% from the previous month.