After its release, the Black Myth game gained 2.1 million players within 24 hours

JAKARTA – The Chinese and international video game community was shocked last week by an anthropomorphic monkey that became the main character of a game that had just been released in the country with the bamboo curtain. The initial uproar began when a monkey named Wukong sent out a list of topics that players had to avoid.

The second excitement: Within 24 hours of its release, this game was able to rank second on the Steam streaming platform. The reason for this is that the game, titled Black Myth, was able to attract 2.1 million concurrent players and sell more than 4.5 million copies.

The game is based on the classic 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. Black Myth: Wukong is a single-player action game in which players can act as Undestined, an anthropomorphic ape with supernatural powers.

Some Chinese believe that the novel Journey to the West has introduced Chinese culture to the international community. According to the BBC, this game was first introduced in August 2020. However, it was not officially released until Tuesday, August 19, 2024.

Haiqing Yu, who studies the sociopolitical and economic influence of Chinese digital media at RMIT University in Australia, said many factors contributed to the game's success.

“High-quality graphics, sophisticated game design and a burning emotion contribute to their success – as does the size of the Chinese gaming community, which is the largest gaming community in the world,” Yu told the BBC, quoted by VOI on Sunday, August 25.

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

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

“When you talk about digital media and Chinese communication platforms, you obviously 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 worldwide. I don't see any censorship there.”

Niko Partners, a company that researches and analyses the video game market and consumers in Asia, emphasizes that Black Myth “helps showcase China's mythology, traditions, culture and real-world places around the world.”

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