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A monkey-like character with a staff stands next to an elder on top of a hill overlooking a mountain enshrouded in fog in Black Myth Wukong.
Screenshot by Dot Esports

China’s influence sees Black Myth: Wukong plunge 2 million players in hours

Will the numbers go back up?

Black Myth: Wukong saw a jaw-dropping number of players immediately after its release on Aug. 20, with its peak player count reaching 2,223,179. But after nighttime in China, the player count dropped considerably.

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Wukong reached its peak player count around 8am CT. China has a few different timezones, and Wukong’s numbers spiked at 10pm in its capital, Beijing. It’s hardly surprising to see so many Chinese players tuning in to Black Myth: Wukong at that time, and given roughly 90 percent of its players are in China, the drop-off isn’t surprising, either.

At 5pm CT, or 6am Beijing time, the player count for the Game Science title was only 247,325, according to SteamDB. Usually, people wake up and go to work around that time, unless they took time off to dive into Black Myth: Wukong, which we’re sure some did.

Sun Wukong standing on his feet blocks a staff attack while on the clouds in Black Myth Wukong.
Combat is one of many things praised in Black Myth: Wukong. Screenshot by Dot Esports

The game is already on the rise, though, with more players returning to it after their daily routines. At the time of writing, Black Myth: Wukong has 1,312,834 players, according to SteamDB.

The RPG title is heavily inspired by Chinese culture and mythology, so its popularity in the Asian regions is nothing but expected. It’s also one of the best games of 2024. In our review, we gave it an eight out of 10 score, praising its combat, bosses, and graphics.

It seems we’re not alone in our favorable opinion. Game Science’s production scored 81 on Metascore out of 60 critic reviews (for the PC version), while the user score sits at an impressive 8.5 rating.


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Author
Image of Mateusz Miter
Mateusz Miter
Freelance Writer at Dot Esports. Mateusz previously worked for numerous outlets and gaming-adjacent companies, including ESL. League of Legends or CS:GO? He loves them both. In fact, he wonders which game he loves more every day. He wanted to go pro years ago, but somewhere along the way decided journalism was the more sensible option—and he was right.