Black Myth Wukong launch hype sees it instantly conquer Elden Ring, Cyberpunk player records

Black Myth Wukong has barely been out for half a day and already the first AAA game from Chinese studio Game Science has climbed to fourth on Steam’s concurrent all-time peak player count, pushing ahead of behemoth titles like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077.

Right now, Black Myth Wukong is sitting at a player count of 1,423,400 with only three multiplayer titles—PUBG: Battlegrounds, Palworld, and Counter-Strike 2—ahead of it on Steam. This is doubly impressive as this is without counting players on PlayStation and other PC storefronts like Epic Games Store and China-exclusive WeGame. Everything combined, we are already looking at perhaps one of the biggest video game launches in history, though we’ll want to wait for official numbers to substantiate any records.

For comparison, the two closest singleplayer games with the highest concurrent player count on Steam, CD Projekt’s post-Witcher blockbuster Cyberpunk 2077 and FromSoftware’s magnum opus Elden Ring, peaked with 1.05 million and 953 thousand players respectively.

The feat looks even more impressive with Black Myth Wukong surpassing two of Steam’s most popular free-to-play titles: Smilegate’s Lost Ark and Valve’s own Dota 2. As for making inroads into the top three, Wukong doesn’t seem too far off, with only around 400,000 differentiating CS2, and around 700,000 to Palworld. PUBG’s 3.2 million peak may also finally see some competition too, provided word-of-mouth virality takes its course.

Black Myth Wukong was sitting on top of the best-seller list on Valve’s storefront for a whole week prior to its launch. But even then, it wasn’t enough of an indication of the record-breaking count we are seeing at the moment, especially considering it’s the first major PC/Console release from an entirely China-based development team.

Even better, the action RPG is sitting at “very positive” currently on Steam with a 90 percent positive ratings out of more than 8,000 user reviews. Naturally, we expect the player count to reach even higher in the coming week.

Update Aug. 20, 1.03am CT: Added more Steam stat record details.