Sales exceeded 1.5 billion and the whole network was going crazy. Did "Black Myth: Wukong" succeed in "creating a god"?

The domestic 3A game "Black Myth: Wukong" exploded the entire network as soon as it was released, with sales exceeding 4.5 million copies and sales exceeding 1.5 billion. Its exquisite graphics, rich plot and in-depth exploration of traditional culture have won enthusiastic responses from the market and players. The success of this game not only demonstrates the strength of Chinese game production, but also injects new vitality into the domestic stand-alone game market.

The gaming industry may usher in its own "Olympics".

On the day when Black Myth: Wukong was officially unlocked, players quickly came to the first of the eighty-one difficulties, "Decompression". A large number of players competed in decompression and super-sampling "hand speed", striving to quickly explore this first domestic 3A game. The topic of the entire network ushered in an unprecedented "release", and various hot searches continued to ferment.

One hour after its launch, the number of concurrent online players of Black Myth: Wukong on Steam exceeded 1 million, surpassing Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3. As of 15:00 on August 20, Black Myth: Wukong became the most popular game of the day, with a peak of 1.443 million players today and about 1.43 million people currently playing, which means that a large number of players have been playing since the game was unlocked at 10 a.m. The second place on the list is the flagship product CS2, which has been at the top of the Steam list for many years.

According to the hot sales data released by Steam, Black Myth: Wukong has topped the sales ranking in China in the week from August 6 to August 13. According to the domestic game sales ranking data, from the start of pre-orders to July 13, the game's sales reached 1.2 million, with sales of nearly 400 million yuan.

According to the statistics of the best-selling list of domestic games on August 20, Black Myth: Wukong has sold more than 3 million copies on Steam so far. Together with Wegame, Epic and PS platforms, the total sales volume has exceeded 4.5 million copies, with total sales exceeding 1.5 billion yuan. Currently, the Steam rating of the game is maintained at 95%+, of which Chinese reviews account for about 90%.

What does 400 million mean? Previously, Feng Ji, founder and CEO of Game Science, revealed that the hourly development cost of Black Myth: Wukong is about 15 to 20 million yuan. The overall game duration is about 15 hours, and the actual development time is about 1.5 times this time. According to this estimate, the development cost is at least 300 to 400 million yuan. So there is the hot search #Black Myth needs to sell 3 million copies to break even#. If this is the estimate, Black Myth: Wukong may have already broken even.

"Black Myth" not only ignited the gaming community, but also audiences from all walks of life actively or passively joined in this national emotional carnival. It is even more exciting than a sports event. The last national spectacle in the gaming community was when IG won the S-League. Today, Han Qiaosheng, a well-known sports announcer, wrote an article, confessing that after asking a friend why "Black Myth" was so popular, he replied, "It ended the dilemma of China not having a single-player game for 20 years, and its significance is similar to the Chinese national football team entering the World Cup."

The capital market responded quickly. Before the official unlocking, Huayi Brothers had already accumulated a 43.60% increase in the past five days. On August 20, the concept stocks of "Black Myth Wukong" continued to rise. Qitian Technology, CITIC Publishing, and Huayi Brothers hit the daily limit. The game publisher and the publisher of the version number, Zhejiang Publishing Media, had previously hit the daily limit and had accumulated a gain of about 20% this year. Leyard rose by more than 13%, and Zhishang Technology rose by more than 11%.

The domestic 3A myth "Black Myth: Wukong" is becoming a new group sentimental killer in the gaming circle. Is this quality work that superimposes the national IP of oriental mythology and national sentiment just in time or well-deserved? Local + overseas "destiny people" carnival, Black Myth becomes "the first college student in the village"

After the pre-download was launched yesterday (August 19), Black Myth: Wukong broke the 50TBPS platform pre-load bandwidth usage record previously set by Cyberpunk 2077 on the Steam platform with 70TBPS (59.3Tbps in Asia alone), which is equivalent to more than 70,000 people downloading at full speed with 1Gbps downstream bandwidth. However, even players who pre-loaded the game need to decompress it before entering the game experience, which also made "The first difficulty of the 81 difficulties is decompression" a hot topic today.

As a veteran PC game player, Liu Neng deeply feels that "Black Myth: Wukong" is becoming a tacit must-play project among friends in the circle, and the "destiny" content is extremely high.

On August 20, the day the game was unlocked, which was a working day on Tuesday, Liu Neng's friend list showed that all of them were playing the game "Black Wukong: Myth". Liu Neng told Entertainment Unicorn that some of his friends even took time off to play "Black Myth: Wukong" at home, and even his working buddies said that they would play it immediately after get off work, "Of course they have to play it." This grand occasion reminded him of the previous popular blockbusters such as "Cyberpunk 2077" and "Elden Ring" that were launched online.

As an old Souls gamer, Liu Neng did not have high expectations for Black Myth: Wukong, and only admitted that it was unique in the current domestic game market due to its buffs such as national sentiment and national IP. However, considering that the main players of this batch of domestic PC games have been exposed to computer games since childhood, "they have eaten too well", various overseas 3A masterpieces on Steam and online competitive categories that have been operating for more than ten years are in sharp contrast with the domestic mobile game market that has experienced extensive and refined growth in the short term.

Liu Neng believes that the audience base for PC games is there, so before a product under the 3A banner is born in the domestic market, both the game production concept and market trust need long-term cultivation.

But the facts obviously overturned his imagination. On the one hand, the "newbie-friendly" nature of Black Myth: Wukong did not "dissuade" many players like previous soul-like games. Liu Neng's experience was "a bit like Devil May Cry". Many players also reported that the difficulty of Black Myth: Wukong was between the soul-like games and God of War, and was quite friendly to novices.

In fact, at 5 a.m., five hours before the official release of Black Myth: Wukong, Feng Ji, the founder and CEO of Game Science, posted a Weibo, reminding players to "play moderately, take a rest, and don't rush to complete the game." He also emphasized that the game "will never be a reskin of any game you have played before," and that even players who have never played stand-alone action-adventure games are very suitable to use Black Myth as an introduction.

On the other hand, as a 3A-level game for domestic PCs, Black Myth: Wukong has already thoroughly and thoroughly exported culture before it was released, with its oriental mythology. Now it seems that the timing of its birth and the national sentiment are both on point. Domestic players pay close attention to the scenic spots, temples and other places and relics scanned and shot in the game, while overseas players are catching up on Journey to the West and asking for Chinese lessons.

After playing the opening chapter and adjusting the super sampling and other values, Liu Neng finally changed his opinion, "Many experiences in the game are amazing." For example, you can turn into the boss you killed and gain the opponent's skills; for example, the constant appearance of small bosses makes players overwhelmed.

In fact, this time, "Black Myth" has indeed fought its way out, and its performance in the media market has been further strengthened. According to Metacritic statistics, as of August 19, 54 global media gave it an average rating of 82 points, of which 7 media including authoritative rating agencies IGN China, IGN Brasil, GameBlast, and GamingBolt gave it a full score of 10 points. Has Black Myth, which was "rewarded by its ancestors", succeeded in "creating a god"?

In an interview with the main creators, the team once frankly shared that the creation of the story of "Black Myth: Wukong" was "a gift from our ancestors." For example, the oriental romantic myth story of "Journey to the West", for example, in the specific presentation of the game, the scanning and restoration of scenic spots and cultural relics such as the Xitianmu Mountain Tombs and Pagodas in Hangzhou.

The player plays the role of "the man of destiny" who embarks on the journey to the west in order to explore the truth of the legend. The 81 difficulties of the journey are the "tribulations" that are familiar to domestic players, such as the Black Bear Demon, the White Bone Demon, the King of Golden Horns, and Gao Laozhuang; even the digital deluxe version of "Black Myth: Wukong" contains the copper cloud stick weapon, the hundred-play Nuo mask, the hundred-play money-lined clothes, the hundred-play hand guards, the hundred-play leg hangings and other clothing, and the rare wind bell, which are also the "fashion outfits" of the Monkey King that players are familiar with.

In the cross-circle joint market, "Black Myth" is also booming. On August 19, Luckin Coffee and "Black Myth: Wukong" jointly launched the "Black Myth Tengyun American Coffee". Consumers who purchased the package could receive limited 3D limited poster grating cards, 3 joint cup sleeves and other peripherals. The package was quickly sold out. In addition, Lenovo Computer, hard drive manufacturer Zhitai, Didi Qingju and other brands have successively launched "Black Myth: Wukong" joint products, taking over this wave of gaming circle craze.

In addition to the success in the market, all aspects of Game Science, the company that produced "Black Myth", have also been exposed to the spotlight, now and in the future. There is a sign at the entrance of Game Science's company in Hangzhou, which reads "Busy design, tight R&D, no entry without permission, please forgive me." This is because after the game's initial release of the actual game video, some enthusiastic players quickly became curious about the team and the game content, so the team quickly put up a sign and added a curtain.

It is not just the enthusiastic players who are highly concerned about the creative team and content. The keen sense of the market has driven capital to quietly come in. According to Feng Ji, the founder of Game Science, after the trailer video "Black Myth" was released, Tencent's acquaintances immediately visited the company in a group, seeking investment in Game Science in the name of "help".

In multiple reports, Feng Ji asked Tencent several questions that he was concerned about: Will Tencent interfere with product decisions and the company's daily operations after investing? After the game is completed, will Tencent take away the distribution and operation rights of "Black Myth: Wukong" or other Youke products by relying on its status as an investor? Tencent answered the former question by saying "You can just pretend we don't exist at all", and the latter question was also impossible.

Compared to this somewhat inspirational story of game entrepreneurship, the wheel of the times and the changes in the macro environment are projected to all aspects of the market. Feng Ji once admitted in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that for the first time to make a buyout stand-alone game, completion is more important than perfection. Eight years ago, Feng Ji's team firmly believed that the Chinese stand-alone game market would definitely exist and would definitely be very large. In 2016, the US stand-alone market was $10 billion, Japan was just over $5 billion, and China was less than $100 million. At that time, the team made a firm judgment: in about 10 to 15 years, China's stand-alone market will reach or even exceed the scale of Japan.

In the current domestic stand-alone game market, the successful creation of "Black Myth" is inseparable from the right time, place and people. More importantly, it has laid a good foundation for domestic stand-alone 3A masterpieces, making the future full of possibilities.