Even if you’re not a gamer, you would have heard of the international success of China’s first “Triple-A” game called “Black Myth: Wukong”, an action RPG developed by Chinese studio Game Science. It was so successful that it has sold a jaw-dropping 10 million copies in just 3 days – and made a cool US$600 million – since it went on sale on August 20, 2024 across PC and PlayStation 5. But that was not all.

 

The game, based on the classical Chinese novel “Journey to the West”, hit over 2.2 million peak concurrent users (PCCU) on Steam within its first 24 hours, making it the most popular single-player game by PCCU in the platform’s history. Crucially, it also ranks second among all games by PCCU, trailing PUBG (a 2017 battle royale game) which peaked at 3.2 million.

 

To put Sun Wukong’s, or the “Monkey King”, success in perspective, Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 became the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time only after 12 weeks, when it sold 12 million copies. The Chinese-developed game, first announced in August 2020, even overtook Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy within the same timeframe.

Heck, it has even matched Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which combined sold 10 million copies in 3 days to become Nintendo’s fastest-selling game of all time. Not only it is incredibly popular in China for the obvious reason, “Black Myth: Wukong” is also a huge hit globally. On the sixth day since it was released, a whopping 1.9 million PCCU were playing the game on Steam.

 

Daniel Ahmad, Director of Research and Insights at Niko Partners, said Black Myth: Wukong’s sales success “represents the growing capabilities and ambitions of Chinese game development studios and their ability to compete on the global stage”. Even though it has hit 3-million concurrent players across all platforms (Steam’s 2.4 million and PS5’s 600,000), the Xbox could add more users later.

 

Wukong’s success isn’t limited to digital platforms. Physical editions of the game, including collector’s and deluxe versions, sold out within seconds on JD.com, as more than 700,000 gamers signed up for a chance to purchase the limited set of 30,000 copies. There were 1.7 billion views on Weibo during the launch day, not to mention it was the most watched game on Huya, DouYu, and Bilibili on its release day.

But as with every success from China, there are always critics and haters, especially from the West. They have wildly accused Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei of allowing Beijing to use its 5G infrastructure for espionage (an allegation that the United States can’t prove until today) just because the West was behind the technology, hence wanted to clip the wings of Huawei.

 

And when China stunningly crushed the U.S.’ 64 years of unbeaten record in the men’s 4×100 metres medley relay in the recent Paris 2024 Olympics, where Chinese superstar Pan Zhanle,together with Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang and Sun Jiajun, Tea won the gold in a time of 3 minutes, 27.46 seconds, the Chinese swimmers were being accused of cheating.

 

Just when you thought the West was done with their jealousy of China’s success – from 5G technology to sports – now they have started lecturing the Chinese game developers for lacking diversity. For example, instead of focusing on the gameplay, stunning graphics, innovative combat or story, Screen Rant gave Wukong 3/5 review due to lack of diversity and inclusion – even sexism.

Exactly what did the so-called Western gaming journalists expect from Chinese developers of a game based on Chinese novels in the 16th century? The novel is a legendary account of the pilgrimage of the Chinese Buddhist monk – Xuanzang – who journeyed to India along with three protectors (Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing) in the 7th century to seek out and collect Buddhist scriptures.

 

Perhaps the West was expecting some characters based on White Man, African Negro or Caucasian to be included in the single-player action RPG (role-playing game) inspired by Chinese mythology. By punishing and criticizing the Chinese game for not aligning with the Western standard, it only proves the West is desperate to maintain its losing dominance to China – even in the gaming industry.

 

Sorry folks, Wukong is a Chinese game based on Asian literature, not the British Empire and certainly not the American Cowboy culture. It’s not hard to understand why critics were upset with China’s first AAA game – an industry term referring to high-budget, high-profile titles by well-known publishers – a field traditionally dominated by American and European studios.

The game was designed for players from China, and anyone who is fascinated with the story of the Monkey King. In fact, nearly 90% of its players are from China. Unlike most other AAA games, the default language for Wukong is Chinese. More importantly, if 2.2 million people are playing Wukong on Steam and 90% of that is Chinese gamers, that’s still about 200,000 to 300,000 international players, which is a lot.

 

This is not merely a made-in-China game, but “Journey to the West” is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Every Chinese child – or non-Chinese kids educated or mingled with Chinese community – grew up either having watched the cartoons, movies or TV series about the naughty and rebellious Wukong. Everyone knows the story by heart. So, the game brings back their childhood memories to live in the game.

 

US-based game reviewer and YouTuber Michael Onorato believes Wukong has left an impression internationally as it rivals the best the industry has to offer in aspects such as gameplay, visuals and storyline. Like it or not, “Black Myth: Wukong” represents the growing capabilities and ambitions of Chinese game development studios and their ability to compete on the global stage. 

The Chinese audiences are not aware or even care about the Western culture, while the West is trying to bulldoze its culture war into the Chinese game. Not only Wukong indirectly introduces Chinese culture and literature, but it also showcases the Chinese soft power to the world, something which the West isn’t impressed. Clearly, the world does not revolve around the people in the West.

 

In truth, the Journey to the West contains more diversity that the West could stomach, such as the chapters of “Kingdom of Women” and “Spring of Pregnancy” from the 100-chapter stories. While Wukong is the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie is the Monk Pig. Other characters included tiger, bear, buffalo, dog, ox, dragon, snake, marten, wolf, antelope, goldfish, spider, scorpion, and the list goes on. Heck, 9 out of 10 characters aren’t even human!

 

Are there any games from the American and European studios as diverse as Black Myth: Wukong? If LGBT, Caucasian monkey, females with boobies and blondes must be included in the game to qualify for diversity, then the West obviously has no clue about the Journey to the West, let alone the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization and culture. Wukong does not need lectures about different genders or sexual orientation to be successful.

Because the game was developed using real landscape in China, a lot of Western game players have become curious – even addicted – to not only the game, but also the Middle Kingdom. The lack of knowledge about the Chinese mythology, culture and literature, and not the lack of diversity, is the reason why more than 200,000 non-Chinese players are hooked to playing Wukong daily.  

 

As players get bored and tired of Western fantasy themes, they are increasingly intrigued by the “Eastern fantasy” elements of Wukong, which is deeply rooted in Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The development of Wukong reportedly cost about US$56 million, excluding marketing expenses. Meaning, Game Science has already recovered its investment in just 3 days.

 

The more the West condemns Wukong with lame excuses which smell jealousy, the more free marketing the Monkey King gets. This is a Chinese game developed in China for Chinese audiences and doesn’t need to cater to Western political correctness by forcefully including diverse female characters or transgender individuals to make Western nations happy.

For a very long time, China has failed to project its soft power despite its economic and military rise. Its cultural and creative industries have lacked global appeal, whilst neighbours Japan and South Korea successfully export their culture around the world. In the gaming sector, Japan has long dominated since the early 1980s when Nintendo stunned the world with games such as Donkey Kong and Mario. 

 

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Japanese developers have hijacked Chinese history and folklore through successful and globally popular games. Koei, with the popular “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and “Saiyuki: Journey West”, has tapped into the classic Chinese novel by the same name. Even “Dragon Ball”, one of the biggest Japanese anime series globally, was derived from Sun Wukong.

 

The relentless attacks from some Western media are due to Wukong’s unexpected high quality and popularity, which in turn could challenge the gaming ecosystem in the Western world. They fear that foreign players from the West would discover the “real China” through the game, which features historical sites that survive today in China that players can still visit. 

Thanks to the Monkey King, social media are buzzing with comparisons of the video game versions and the real locations in China. It’s not rocket science that such cultural heritage hype may at least boost tourism to the Middle Kingdom. Wukong could be the game changer that influences foreigners to learn Chinese. Don’t be surprised if Washington suddenly declares that “Black Myth: Wukong” is a threat to U.S. national security.

 

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August 27th, 2024 by financetwitter

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