THE last few years have been exceptional for gamers, with hundreds of excellent games being released.
Usually, it is games from already successful series that rise to the top and become the biggest sellers, but this year, a number of new games have broken records.
The first breakout success of 2024 was Palworld, a new IP from indie Japanese studio Pocketpair.
Palworld featured the creature capturing gameplay from series like Pokémon, combined with base building mechanics and survival crafting.
People were excited by the mix of genres and it became an instant success with over 2million concurrent players on Steam at its peak.
Now another new IP from a fairly unknown developer has broken Palworld’s record and has had one of the most successful launches of all time.
Black Myth: Wukong is a newly-released soulslike from Chinese studio Game Science that is based on the classic Chinese story, Journey to the West.
While there was a good amount of hype up to the game’s release thanks to its spectacular graphics and intriguing boss battles, no one expected its unprecedented success.
It was released on both PC and PS5, and is estimated by analysts to have sold around 4.5million copies on launch day.
Game Science has not confirmed these sales numbers, we know that it is well in excess of 2million thanks to Steam’s concurrent player count.
By comparison, one of the most popular and successful games of last year, Baldur’s Gate 3, sold just 2.5million during its Early Access period.
This was considered a huge success, well surpassing developer Larian’s expectations and what other similarly critically acclaimed games achieve.
Not only has it sold well, but people were eager to dive right in, hitting a peak of 2.2million concurrent players on Steam.
This is the second-highest concurrent player count on Steam, losing out only to PUBG.
As Black Myth: Wukong released simultaneously on PS5 too, the concurrent player count is likely much higher.
It has also received glowing reviews from both fans and critics, with an “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating on Steam.
Wukong got an impressive 81 rating on review aggregate site Metacritic, with many praising its look and well-designed boss fights.
If you want to read more about the game, check out our Black Myth: Wukong review.
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