Black Myth: Wukong, China’s first AAA game, has set a new record on Steam for concurrent players of a single-player title, surpassing Cyberpunk 2077. It is also now the second most-played game of all time, including multiplayer, surpassing Palworld with a peak of 2,223,179 players. GameDiscoverCo’s Simon Carless revealed on Twitter that 88% of the players are from China, with only 3% from the US. Despite the success, developer Game Science has faced accusations of misogyny and censorship, with streamers given a list of banned topics including feminism and politics. The game has ties to the Chinese government through Tencent Holdings and Zhejiang Publishing & Media. Hero Games, which distributed streamer keys, has financial ties to state-owned enterprises. Some streamers decided not to cover the game due to the censorship restrictions. The game, based on Journey to the West, has received praise for its stunning visuals, monster design, and soundtrack. It is available on PC and PS5 now.
