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Black Myth: Wukong is one of the fastest-selling games of all time

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Black Myth: Wukong's protagonist the Destined One leaning into his sword ready to fight an enemy with a giant flaming spear.
Game Science

Black Myth: Wukong hasn’t been out a week, but it’s already breaking sales records by not only selling millions of copies in just a few days, but becoming one of the fastest-selling games of all time, according to one analyst.

Developer Game Science revealed Friday that the game had sold 10 million copies across all platforms, with a peak of 3 million concurrent players. This lines up with data on third-party Steam tracking sites like SteamDB, which show that the game peaked at 2.4 million concurrent players on Thursday, which was just two days after release. It’s still up above 2 million players at the time of this writing.

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Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad wrote on X that this success makes Wukong “one of the fastest-selling games of all time, surpassing Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy in the same time frame.” In terms of concurrent players, it’s only been surpassed by PUBG, which peaked at 3.2 million players on Steam around six years ago.

You can attribute its success to a lot of factors — its stunning visual style due in part to the use of Unreal Engine 5, its soulslike gameplay — but according to Ahmad, it goes back to how it spread throughout China. Game Science is a Chinese studio backed by Tencent, and the game is based on Journey to the West, one of the most famous Chinese novels of all time.

“The high-end graphics, transformational (literally) gameplay, and cultural connection resonated strongly with Chinese gamers,” Ahmad wrote in a blog post.

More importantly, Wukong shows that Chinese developers are ready to compete with the Western video game industry, and that player preferences are changing. In 2014, Niko Partners found that most player spending was on mobile. By 2024, the country had overturned its console ban and in 2021, Valve launched an international version of Steam.

“Black Myth: Wukong is more than just a one-off success story — it represents the growing capabilities and ambitions of Chinese game development studios and their ability to compete on the global stage,” Ahmad writes.

Plus, Chinese players want bigger blockbuster experiences, and Wukong seems like a great example of one that can hit every checkbox. There haven’t been a lot of big AAA game releases this year either, so despite accusations of sexism and its long development time, it appeals to players outside of China as well. Jacqueline Burgess wrote in The Conversation that “until now, video games have been an untapped soft power resource in China. But the rise of Black Myth: Wukong suggests this is going to change.”

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Carli Velocci
Carli Velocci
Contributor, Games
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
All achievements and trophies in Black Myth: Wukong
A character gearing up for battle in Black Myth: Wukong.

Black Myth: Wukong isn't quite a Soulslike, but it is still a challenging game with more bosses than you can count. Overcoming those will be your main objective, but there are a lot more things to do and see off the beaten path. You'll be rewarded with experience, materials, and other goodies to upgrade The Destined One with, but also those tantalizing Trophies and Achievements. Completing every challenge a game has for you is a badge of honor, and with 81 in Black Myth: Wukong, only the most dedicated warriors will be able to earn them all. We can't help you beat the bosses themselves, but can give you the full list of every Black Myth: Wukong Trophy and Achievement.
All achievements and trophies in Black Myth: Wukong

There are technically spoilers ahead, but not really. What we mean by that is Black Myth: Wukong's Achievement and Trophy descriptions aren't very, well, descriptive. Most won't help you fathom how to get them or where to even look, so referring to specific guides for anything you're missing from the list below will be best.

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All Relic perks in Black Myth: Wukong
A character gearing up for battle in Black Myth: Wukong.

There are a ton of things to keep track of in Black Myth: Wukong. You have your basic skill tree, plus equipment, Spirits, weapons, armor, and even health gourd to manage as you make your way through the majestic landscapes. Relics show up less frequently than anything else but can have the biggest impact on your experience. This makes them just as important to the gameplay as they are to the narrative. You will only get five across the entire game, each with three distinct perks to pick from. You can only use one per Relic, though, so let us give you a quick primer on every Relic perk in Black Myth: Wukong and how you get them.
How to get Relics
Without spoiling anything, you will automatically get a new Relic at the end of each chapter in Black Myth: Wukong. With a total of six chapters, that leaves five Relics in total since you do not get one after beating the game. None of them are missable. When you get one, you can activate its perk by sitting at a Shrine and going into the Self Advance menu. From there you can go to Reignite the Sparks and finally Relics to choose your perk of choice.

While not a fully permanent choice, you will need to visit a Shrine if you ever wish to change your build with different perks since only one perk per Relic can be active at a time.
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Black Myth: Wukong is already annihilating Steam records
A monkey swings a flaming sword in Black Myth: Wukong.

Less than 24 hours after its release, Black Myth: Wukong is already making a massive impact on Steam. The action RPG isn't just the top-played game on the platform -- it also has the second-highest concurrent player count of all time.

Black Myth: Wukong is a new release from developer Game Science that turns the Chinese novel Journey to the West into a Dark Souls-adjacent action game. It's a major moment for China, as its being touted as the country's first "AAA" release. Its astonishing Steam player count puts the enormity of that moment into numbers.

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