It is unknown whether Luckin Coffee’s new product will be a success, but its collaboration with “Black Myth: Wukong” has been a big hit

Luckin's marketing level is still online.

"I went there at six in the morning, fearing it would be gone."

Shiyi, who lives in Anyang and is a junior this year, told 36Kr that the first Luckin store he went to opened at 7 a.m., but when he arrived early, he found that there were already many people gathered in the store. When he was told that there were no co-branded flash cards, he turned around and went to another Luckin store in Wanda Golden Street. However, the second store was still crowded. It was originally open at 8:30, but it was already packed with people before 8 o'clock, and almost all of them were boys. Shiyi said, "There were 15 people in the store, and only one girl."

Facts have proved that Shiyi's decision to get up early was right. Most people are not as lucky as him. "Each store only has about 20 flash cards, and the store I found only has 15," Shiyi said. The clerk told him that the number of flash cards in the store is determined by the usual sales of each store. In addition, a small episode was that the ordering system crashed at one point, and it took a long time to place an order.

Game fans' pursuit of the co-branded peripherals between Luckin Coffee and Black Myth: Wukong almost overwhelmed Luckin Coffee's system. "The peripherals sold out nationwide in seconds, and the system almost crashed," Luckin Coffee CGO Yang Fei said in his WeChat Moments, saying that the male purchasing power overturned the team's cognition. Yesterday at noon, Luckin Coffee officially issued a restocking notice, saying that the co-branded 3D limited posters were sold out in seconds, and the enthusiasm far exceeded the team's expectations, and a restocking plan has been formulated.

On the morning of the 19th, there were already a large number of posts on the second-hand trading platform Xianyu reselling this 3D co-branded poster. 36Kr followed up and found that the second-hand transaction price was gradually rising. The initial price was around 30 yuan, and now on the day of release, it has generally risen to around 50 yuan.

This flash card, which is being chased by game fans, is part of the joint peripherals of Luckin Coffee and Black Myth: Wukong. It is a joint poster with a 3D effect. One detail that is not easy to notice is that the gourd held by Wukong in the poster has the word "rui" printed on it. In the QQ discussion group of Black Myth: Wukong, those who got it directly put it on their PS5.

In some WeChat groups, heated discussions about Black Myth: Wukong have been going on for several days, and players and cloud players are constantly using all kinds of emoticons to make fun of the memes. The related pictures in the circle of friends are also consciously divided into two waves, one is directly playing the game, and the other is playing Luckin's "Tencent Cloud American Style".

1. Luckin Coffee, which charges for sentiment, underestimates the purchasing power of men

Luckin Coffee’s collaboration with Black Myth Wukong was planned several months ago.

Before the co-branded products were officially put on sale, Luckin CGO Yang Fei told 36Kr, "No matter what the actual final performance is, we will provide domestic support." Yang Fei talked about the idea behind this co-branding, "Journey to the West, Shanxi ancient buildings, and 3A games", these three keywords are enough.

Black Myth: Wukong, developed by Game Science, is not the first game company to develop the Journey to the West IP. In other words, before them, this treasure IP has been widely used in online games, mobile games and other games. But the unique aspect of Black Myth: Wukong is that it is the first domestic 3A masterpiece and a milestone in domestic games. Yang Fei told 36Kr that "feelings are greater than commercial calculations", including the name of the co-branded coffee "Tengyun Americano", which also comes from Wukong's "somersault cloud".

The popularity of Black Myth: Wukong is the fulfillment of the feelings of game fans. Xu Wei, a game fan born in the 1990s, posted a message on WeChat Moments as soon as Black Myth: Wukong was officially released this morning, saying, "When I was in college, I regarded games and animation as my life... It wasn't until my first year of work that this idea came close to reality... Thank you for helping me carry my dream."

The picture is taken from Xu Wei’s circle of friends, with his permission

Black Myth: Wukong is a typical male-oriented game IP. 36Kr has joined two Black Myth: Wukong QQ groups with over 1,500 members. From the crowd portrait, male users account for over 80% and about half of them are born after 2000. It is this group of people that made Luckin Coffee a hot topic. Yang Fei also said in his circle of friends, "It's more reliable than 10 Father's Days."

Judging from the results of the release, players are also crazy about this game. According to statistics from the website SteamDB, the number of online users of this game exceeded 1.2 million within one hour of its release, and it is still rising. This game has also become the "stand-alone game" with the highest peak in the history of the platform.

Before its release, Black Myth: Wukong had broken many records of domestic games and ranked first in the pre-sale list of domestic games. According to the statistics of the "National Game Sales List", Black Myth: Wukong topped the 2024 first half of the domestic game sales list with 1.2 million copies sold and 390 million in sales, and they just started pre-sale on June 8 this year. This achievement broke the previous pre-sale record of 100,000 domestic games, and the total revenue of the top 15 was only 570 million. In other words, Black Myth: Wukong contributed nearly 70% of the revenue of the top 15 in just over a month of pre-sale (the statistical time ended on July 13, author's note).

However, Luckin is just one of the brands that recharges its sentiments, and there are many other brands and manufacturers eyeing this game IP.

Previously, NVIDIA announced that it will release an exclusive driver for "Black Myth: Wukong" this week; Baidu Maps, Feizhi, and Jikos Industrial have respectively cooperated with "Black Myth: Wukong" to launch co-branded voice, co-branded handles, and co-branded clothing; Didi Qingju and Zhitai have respectively become the official cycling partner and designated cooperative storage brand. Some brands that failed to cooperate took advantage of the opportunity to launch various marketing activities such as free gifts for purchases over a certain amount and free games for consumption.

The money-making effect brought by "Black Myth: Wukong" also extends to the A-share market. The listed company Huayi Brothers has seen its share price surge for many days because it holds shares in "Hero Game", an investor of Game Science. As of midday on August 20, Huayi Brothers' market value has surged by more than 70% in the past five trading days. Qitian Technology, also a Black Myth: Wukong concept stock, also achieved a 20% daily limit in midday trading today.

The popularity of Black Myth: Wukong has obviously already gone beyond the gaming circle.

2. Black Myth: Wukong, the key to Luckin Coffee’s overseas expansion?

For Luckin, the explosion of this joint venture is another phenomenal screen-sweetened product after the Jiangxiang Latte. On September 5 last year, their cross-border cooperation with Kweichow Moutai achieved sales of over 100 million yuan on the first day. The joint venture with "Black Myth: Wukong" is their second collaboration with the Journey to the West IP. Previously, in May this year, Luckin and the film and television IP "A Chinese Odyssey" launched the joint "A Chinese Odyssey Watermelon Latte" and "A Chinese Odyssey Watermelon Latte".

From the feedback of product reputation, similar to the Jiangxiang Latte at that time, the product reputation of Tengyun American Coffee also showed differentiation. Some consumers gave positive comments, but many consumers complained that the taste was bitter and sour, saying that they could not accept it.

Putting aside the subjective color of taste preference, for Luckin, the collaboration with "Black Myth: Wukong" has obviously achieved the effect of attracting new customers. Shiyi told 36Kr that he does not usually drink coffee, but only drinks it occasionally. The motivation for getting up at 6 o'clock is the co-branded flash card.

There are also a large number of overseas players who are also addicted to the game. Since Game Science released its first "recruitment" video four years ago, players around the world have been urging for updates and discussing the game. On video platforms such as YouTube and Bilibili, there have been various overseas game bloggers' reaction videos to Black Myth Wukong. After watching the final trailer, Aztecross, the host of the console game "Destiny 2", said that it would be a "GOTY" (Game of the Year).

According to statistics from Erbing APP, as of 23:28 on August 19, except for Spain and Poland, excluding free games, "Black Myth: Wukong" has become the global sales top 1 of stand-alone games in all major regions.

However, the biggest impact that Black Myth: Wukong has brought to foreign players is on the cultural level.

Unlike Chinese people who have watched TV, cartoons, and the original novels since childhood and are familiar with the characters in Journey to the West, foreign players are generally unfamiliar and curious about Journey to the West through the Black Myth Wukong. Before the game was released, players on the well-known overseas game community reddit had already started to catch up on the novel Journey to the West, the 1986 version of Journey to the West, and discussed what a "gourd" is. Some overseas fans of Chinese culture took the initiative to popularize relevant background knowledge for players in various community forums.

Obviously, Black Myth: Wukong is not only a successful overseas expansion of a domestic game, but also a successful overseas expansion of Chinese culture. Judging from the development trajectory of 3A games in the past, Black Myth: Wukong's overseas influence will continue to grow in addition to games.

"The value chain of 3A games lies not in the main body but in the peripherals," a chief analyst of media and Internet told 36Kr. Compared with many industries, the sales of top 3A games, especially those in Japan, account for a very small proportion of the total GMV. "Some games even account for less than 10 percentage points."

Whether it is Mario, League of Legends or World of Warcraft, the top games have rich IP extension value, but the performance of 3A games may be particularly obvious. The aforementioned analyst told 36Kr that taking the Final Fantasy series as an example, players complained about the four "Shamatte" designs at the beginning, but after the game went overseas in 2015, the sales of peripheral products were "very scary", and the GMV exceeded that of the "Dragon Quest" IP of SQUARE ENIX in Japan.

The hardcore and even dark elements of Black Myth: Wukong may be more easily accepted by the Western world. "Compared with the Swords of Legends and Chinese Paladin series that were very popular in China in the past, it will be easier for Black Myth: Wukong to be exported overseas," he said.

This kind of cultural influence overseas is also what Luckin Coffee urgently needs. Before this collaboration, although it had opened more than 20,000 stores, its overseas expansion had always been cautious and slow, and the popularity of the Luckin brand was still limited to the domestic market.

Luckin Coffee is also accelerating its overseas expansion. According to Latepost, Luckin Coffee plans to launch a large-scale overseas expansion plan from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025, focusing on the Southeast Asian and US markets. Before that, the joint attempt with Black Myth Wukong may become an important springboard for their next overseas expansion.

Author | Yang Yafei Editor | Qiao Qian This article is written by the author of Operation Party [Future Consumption], WeChat public account: [36氪Future Consumption], original/authorized to be published in Operation Party, and reproduction is prohibited without permission.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.