An action-adventure title based on the mythology around the fabled Monkey King, Wukong was an instant success and became the most popular single-player title on PC platform Steam on its first day, toppling much-hyped competition like Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring, according to data tracker SteamDB. The game’s popularity endured and it set a new high of concurrent players on Steam on Thursday, confirming its position as the biggest PC debut in recent memory.
The game is priced at about US$38 ($49.42) in mainland China and Hong Kong — versus US$60 in the US — and skews heavily toward the local market. It lovingly recreates historic Chinese temples and one of its founders expressed “the simple love” for the nation in a documentary by state news agency Xinhua on the eve of the game’s release.
Wukong turned profitable on its first day and earned more than US$450 million in gross revenue over its first three days, according to Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad. Sony Group Corp. ran a sales promotion for its PlayStation 5 in China for the week around Wukong’s launch and saw stores sell out of the console, Ahmad added.
Counting sales across Valve Corp.’s Steam, Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Tencent’s WeGame, Wukong has reached the 10 million copies milestone faster than Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy, both considered smash hits in their own right.
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The strong performance may help shore up expectations that China’s US$40 billion-plus gaming arena is rounding a corner, after years of regulatory holdups. This summer marked an unusually busy season of major debuts, including Tencent’s DnF Mobile, NetEase Inc.’s Naraka: Bladepoint Mobile and indie studio Mihoyo’s ZZZ. Developed by Hangzhou-based Game Science, Wukong marks China’s biggest PC launch in history.
