Black Myth: Wukong Has Massive Launch, Overtakes Cyberpunk 2077 to Become Most-Played Single-Player Game Ever on Steam [IGN]

Black Myth: Wukong has enjoyed an enormous launch on Steam, where it has overtaken Cyberpunk 2077 to become the most-played single-player game ever on Valve’s platform.

The action RPG, developed by Chinese studio Game Science, launched in the early hours of this morning and quickly shot to the top of Steam’s most-played games list with an incredible 1,443,570 peak concurrent players. That figure will surely grow as the working week heads into the weekend and more people buy the game.

Less than 24 hours after launch, Black Myth: Wukong has already seen the fourth-highest concurrent figure ever on Steam, and is only behind PUBG (3,257,248), Palworld (2,101,867), and Valve’s own Counter-Strike 2 (1,818,773). It is ahead of big hitters such as Dota 2, Elden Ring, and Baldur’s Gate 3. Already the game has nearly 30,000 user reviews on Steam, with a ‘very positive’ user review rating.

Black Myth: Wukong’s launch will be even bigger than Steam suggests. It also released on PlayStation 5 (Sony Interactive Entertainment does not make PlayStation player numbers publicly available), Tencent’s Chinese game portal WeGame, and the Epic Games Store. An Xbox Series X and S version is due out later (find out why here).

IGN’s Black Myth: Wukong review returned an 8/10. We said: “Despite some frustrating technical issues, Black Myth: Wukong is a great action game with fantastic combat, exciting bosses, tantalizing secrets, and a beautiful world.”

If you’re jumping into Black Myth: Wukong, be sure to check out our feature, 13 things Black Myth: Wukong doesn’t Tell You.

This week, IGN verified an email sent from the Black Myth: Wukong marketing team that told content creators who were granted a Steam key that they must not include “feminist propaganda” or use what are called “trigger words” such as COVID-19 in their coverage.

Game Science has yet to respond to IGN’s previous report compiling numerous sexist comments made by the studio’s founders and other developers spanning the last decade.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.