Black Myth: Wukong is currently Steam's most played game as it continues to break records

As I write this, Black Myth: Wukong, the action adventure from China’s Game Science studio, is the most played game on Steam by player count. There are currently 1,400,932 players in-game (with a peak of 1,443,570), surpassing the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG and all the usual games that occupy Steam’s top five.

Wukong’s launch was already predicted to be strong, with the game being Steam’s number one seller for several weeks, but the concurrent player figures are quite staggering for a single-player, offline game.

Though the number of concurrent players continues to rise, even as it stands, this makes Black Myth: Wukong Steam’s fourth most popular game in its history, having just surpassed Lost Ark, and Dota 2 earlier in the day. Its next target is Counter-Strike 2, for which it’s going to need around 400,000 more players.

It’s going to be really interesting, however, if it manages to get close - or even overtake - Palworld, which achieved a peak of 2,101,867 at its most popular. This also makes Wukong Steam’s third most popular paid game, after PUBG and Palworld. PUBG, of course, achieved its staggering 3,257,248 peak concurrent when it was a premium title, well before it went free-to-play.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that those numbers only reflect Steam; Wukong is also available on WeGame in China. Even away from PC, we have no idea how many copies the PS5 version managed to sell. The popularity was also mirrored in the game’s Very Positive Steam user review rating, based on over 28,000 reviews, all that despite the game’s use of the often hated Denuvo DRM.

As spectacular as these numbers are, the source of much of that interest may not be surprising. According to GameDiscover’s estimates, 88% of Wukong’s sales are from China, with the next biggest contributor being the U.S. at a much smaller 3%.

The launch of Black Myth: Wukong wasn't without its own share of controversy, however. Just yesterday - as reported by Eurogamer - a document of do's and don'ts, which the game’s co-publisher sent to streamers and influencers, was made public.

The marketing document - the veracity of which was confirmed by multiple people - explicitly requests that those taking part in the campaign do not include in their coverage “trigger words such as 'quarantine' or 'isolation' or 'Covid-19.’” It also asks participants not to talk about “politics”, “fetishisation”, or “feminist propaganda.”

That last one is of particular interest because the studio behind Wukong, Game Science, has been facing allegations of long history of sexism and mistreatment of women. It’s likely the people behind Wukong’s marketing didn’t want any of that to be mentioned by influencers.

If you’re among the millions of players just beginning their Journey to the West, hit up these Wukong tips and tricks to get you started, and check back regularly for our guides. We recently published guides to help you locate the Sterness of Stone and Keeness of Tiger, and this one on where to find Buddha’s Eyeballs and where to use them.