UPDATE: Since publishing this article mere hours ago, Black Myth: Wukong’s star has continued to rise. It hit a new peak concurrent player count of 2,223,179, putting it into second place on SteamDB most played games chart. Only PUBG: Battlegrounds ranks higher at 3,257,248. Black Myth’s impressive player count not only suggests it’s selling well, but it also grants it the title of having the highest concurrent player count of any single player game ever on Steam.
ORIGINAL STORY: It can be hard to gauge exactly how excited people are for any given game prior to its release. Black Myth: Wukong, the console game debut from Chinese developer Game Science, has been highly anticipated, but I certainly didn’t think it was going to do this well.
The PC launch has gone so well that Black Myth: Wukong currently has the 4th highest concurrent player count ever seen on Steam. That’s according to SteamDB which says the game hit a peak concurrent player count of 1,443,570 players just four hours ago as I write this.
That’s enough for the game to claim 4th place in terms of highest concurrent player counts of all time on Steam, just under 400,000 players shy of beating Counter Strike 2’s biggest peak.
It doesn’t quite give Black Myth: Wukong the honour of being the most played game of the year so far, though – that record is still held by Palworld which achieved a peak concurrent player count of 2,101,287. But it does give it 2nd place.
Notable games Black Myth: Wukong has defeated to claim its 4th place are Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Of course, there’s a chance Black Myth’s numbers will keep growing. Typically games will hit their highest numbers in the first day or two and then taper off, but sometimes they manage to keep growing. Helldivers 2 is a good example, as is Baldur’s Gate 3.
We also don’t know how well the game is doing on PlayStation 5 where it might be drawing in even higher numbers.
Regardless, it looks like Black Myth: Wukong will be a huge success for Game Science.
