After Being Released, The Black Myth Game Was Able To Collect 2.1 Million Players In 24 Hours

JAKARTA - The Chinese and international video game community in the past week was shocked by an anthropomorphic monkey. The monkey became the main character of a game that had just been released in the bamboo curtain country. The first furore began when a monkey named Wukong sent a list of topics that gamers had to avoid.

The second excitement, within 24 hours of being released to the public, this game was able to occupy second place on the Steam streaming platform. The reason is, the game entitled Black Myth managed to collect 2.1 million players who played simultaneously and sold more than 4.5 million copies.

The game was born from the classic 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West. Black Myth: Wukong is a single-player action game that allows players to act as "Undestined" - an anthropomorphic monkey with supernatural powers.

Some Chinese people think the novel Journey to the West has succeeded in in introducing Chinese culture to the international community. Reporting from the BBC, this game was first introduced in August, 2020. However, it was only officially released on Tuesday, August 19, 2024.

Researcher of the socio-political and economic impact of Chinese digital media from the University of RMIT Australia, Haiqing Yu said many factors contributed to the success of the game.

"High-end graphics, sophisticated game designs, and burning sensations all contribute to their success - as well as the size of the Chinese game community, which is the largest gaming community in the world," Yu explained to the BBC and quoted by VOI, Sunday, August 25.

"This is not just a Chinese game targeting the Chinese market or a Chinese-speaking world," he added.

Videos posted on TikTok after the release of Black Myth show tourists flooding the temples and holy places featured in the game, which one user X calls a "successful example of cultural rediscovery".

"When talking about digital media and Chinese communication platforms, of course people can't avoid talking about censorship," he said. "Black Myth is... an example of how to tell Chinese stories well, and how to expand the influence of Chinese culture globally. I don't see any censorship there."

Niko Partners, a company researching and analyzing the market and consumers of video games in Asia, insists Black Myth "helps show off China's mythology, traditions, culture and real-life locations around the world".