As I write this, Black Fantasy: Wukong, the motion journey from China’s Recreation Science studio, is probably the most performed recreation on Steam by participant rely. There are at present 1,400,932 gamers in-game (with a peak of 1,443,570), surpassing the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG and all the standard video games that occupy Steam’s high 5.
Wukong’s launch was already predicted to be sturdy, with the sport being Steam’s primary vendor for a number of weeks, however the concurrent participant figures are fairly staggering for a single-player, offline recreation.
Although the variety of concurrent gamers continues to rise, even because it stands, this makes Black Fantasy: Wukong Steam’s fourth hottest recreation in its historical past, having simply surpassed Misplaced Ark, and Dota 2 earlier within the day. Its subsequent goal is Counter-Strike 2, for which it’s going to wish round 400,000 extra gamers.
It’s going to be actually fascinating, nonetheless, if it manages to get shut – and even overtake – Palworld, which achieved a peak of two,101,867 at its hottest. This additionally makes Wukong Steam’s third hottest paid recreation, after PUBG and Palworld. PUBG, in fact, achieved its staggering 3,257,248 peak concurrent when it was a premium title, properly earlier than it went free-to-play.
It’s additionally price conserving in thoughts that these numbers solely replicate Steam; Wukong can also be accessible on WeGame in China. Even away from PC, we do not know what number of copies the PS5 model managed to promote. The recognition was additionally mirrored within the recreation’s Very Optimistic Steam consumer evaluate score, based mostly on over 28,000 opinions, all that regardless of the sport’s use of the usually hated Denuvo DRM.
As spectacular as these numbers are, the supply of a lot of that curiosity is probably not stunning. In line with GameDiscover’s estimates, 88% of Wukong’s gross sales are from China, with the subsequent greatest contributor being the U.S. at a a lot smaller 3%.
The launch of Black Fantasy: Wukong wasn’t with out its personal share of controversy, nonetheless. Simply yesterday – as reported by Eurogamer – a doc of do’s and don’ts, which the sport’s co-publisher despatched to streamers and influencers, was made public.
The advertising and marketing doc – the veracity of which was confirmed by a number of folks – explicitly requests that these participating within the marketing campaign don’t embody of their protection “set off phrases akin to ‘quarantine’ or ‘isolation’ or ‘Covid-19.’” It additionally asks members to not discuss “politics”, “fetishisation”, or “feminist propaganda.”
That final one is of explicit curiosity as a result of the studio behind Wukong, Recreation Science, has been going through allegations of lengthy historical past of sexism and mistreatment of ladies. It’s probably the folks behind Wukong’s advertising and marketing didn’t need any of that to be talked about by influencers.
When you’re among the many hundreds of thousands of gamers simply starting their Journey to the West, hit up these Wukong suggestions and tips to get you began, and verify again recurrently for our guides. We just lately revealed guides that can assist you find the Sterness of Stone and Keeness of Tiger, and this one on the place to seek out Buddha’s Eyeballs and the place to make use of them.