news

text/ mobile games rum‍‍

just one month after its launch,black myth: wukong》(hereinafter referred to as "black myth")once again created a "myth" in the history of domestic games.

on september 20, the latest data from foreign data analysis company vginsights showed that the sales of the domestic 3a game "black myth: wukong" on the steam platform has reached 20 million copies, and the total revenue of the game has exceeded us$961 million.(approximately rmb 6.79 billion)。

of course, the game is distributed not only on steam, but also on wegame, play station, epic games store and other platforms, so the total sales of black myth may already be heading towards 30 million. after seeing such a luxurious result, my confidence and expectations for the domestic stand-alone track have also become stronger.

facing such results, i believe many friends have more or less expected it. after all, within three days of its launch, black myth officially announced sales of over 10 million, and within two weeks, sales reached 18 million. it is only a matter of time before it exceeds 20 million. such commercial results are considered remarkable in the entire gaming industry. even compared with the first-tier products in the industry, black myth is not much inferior:

《elden ring》total sales exceeded 20 million within about one year of its launch.

if black myth is compared with most of the popular games released this year, it is no exaggeration to describe its performance as a "dimensionality reduction attack":

"sword star" sold 1 million copies in less than a month (ps5 platform only).

players' recognition of the game is not only reflected in sales. as of press time, the number of user reviews for black myth has reached 640,000, with a favorable rating of 95%.

comparing with other 3a masterpieces, it is not difficult to feel the value of this data. elden ring currently has 700,000 reviews, with a favorable rate of 92%;cyberpunk 2077"black myth" has nearly 680,000 reviews, with an approval rate of 83%; "red dead redemption 2" has 570,000 player reviews, with an approval rate of 91%. at first glance, many people may think that "black myth" is still far from the popularity of top 3a games, but don't forget that these classic products have been online for more than two years, while this dark horse has only been released for a month.

in terms of completion rate, black myth has also reached the average level of top-level products. according to the data from the steam platform, completing the 72nd difficult achievement(defeat the remains of the great sage)in comparison, the total number of people who have completed the achievements of all the endings of cyberpunk 2077 is 36.1%. since elden ring has multiple endings, the specific data cannot be determined, but combined with the achievement of defeating the boss before the ending, the clearance rate is also between 30-40%.

it is worth mentioning that the achievement rate of black myth is 7.7%. i believe that friends who have played the game can understand how difficult it is to complete all achievements. players not only need to defeat all bosses, leaders, and monsters, complete all side quests, but also repeatedly kill monsters to collect all equipment, wine, seeds and other props.(i still lack an iron bone silver ginseng)in comparison, the achievement rate of "elden ring", which only requires collecting legendary props and defeating some bosses, is only 10%, which is enough to show the players' enthusiasm for this game.

outside of the game, black myth is also very popular. most people have seen the spread of related content on the internet and various memes, so i would like to talk about the echo of black myth in reality.

according to cctv news, some popular high-speed trains from beijing to taiyuan and xi'an to taiyuan were quickly sold out on september 14. tongcheng travel data showed that in the past week, the search popularity and hotel booking popularity in datong, shuozhou and other places in shanxi province increased significantly, with booking popularity more than doubling year-on-year.

seeing these locations, players who are familiar with the background of game production will probably smile knowingly, after all, many scenes in the game are modeled from ancient buildings in these areas. the xiaoxitian venue where tianmingren and huangmei fought came from xiaoxitian in qianfo temple in xi county, shanxi province and shuilu temple in lantian, shaanxi province; the tower that witnessed the player's fight with the black bear spirit was taken from the east and west towers of kaiyuan temple in quanzhou, fujian province; the kangjin star lord, who left a deep impression on many tianmingren, also referred to the sculptures of the 28 constellations in the jade emperor temple in jincheng, shanxi province. the fact that it allows players to take steps and spend money to travel to other provinces also indirectly proves the powerful influence of "black myth".

not only chinese players, but also overseas players have been conquered by this mysterious monkey from the east. when the game was released on august 20, the number of followers of the black myth section of the overseas forum reddit was only about 20,000. as more and more foreign players began to pay attention to black myth, the number of subscribers to the reddit black myth section soared at a rate of almost 10,000 per day, and has now exceeded 310,000, becoming a popular section in the stand-alone game area on reddit, and its popularity in recent times is not inferior to some top-tier blockbusters.

some overseas top anchors also live-streamed black myth and gave it very high praise, with the related videos being played 2-3 million times. it can be said that a large number of players around the world have been captivated by this monkey.

in addition, from all indications, 20 million does not seem to be the limit for black myth. on the one hand, as mentioned above, 20 million is just the estimated sales volume on steam; on the other hand, black myth may still have the possibility of releasing dlc.

on september 15, daniel camilo, a gaming media reporter based in shenzhen, tweeted that the first dlc of "black myth: wukong" will be released during the lunar new year in 2025, and said that the news came from a "very reliable first-hand source."

wu dan, ceo of hero entertainment, an investor of game science, also said in an interview that the dlc for black myth: wukong is in production and is expected to bring a new round of sales boom to the original work.

in addition, when a player asked the main artist yang qi about the subsequent plot development of the npc crane immortal on weibo, yang qi did not deny the possibility of the release of new content, but gave an intriguing answer such as "if you want to protect an animal, what is the role of the donor?"

of course, we cannot confirm the specific release date of the dlc based on the above information, but at least we have hope of seeing the dlc. when the dlc is released, it will surely set off a new sales boom. at that time, "black myth" may have the potential to hit 30 million or even 40 million sales.

from a more macro perspective, the performance of black myth in its first month not only proves that domestic manufacturers have the ability to develop high-quality stand-alone products, but also shows that the potential of the domestic stand-alone market is far greater than most people had imagined.

of course, the success of black myth does not mean that the domestic stand-alone track has been "successful". after all, there are a lot of factors other than the product behind the success of black myth. for example, the well-known theme of journey to the west, the title of the first domestic 3a game, the promotion of cctv media, etc. it can be said that it has the right time, right place and right people.

so the question is whether high-end stand-alone products after black myth can reproduce this popularity and commercial performance? probably not. the reason why myths are called myths is because they are almost impossible to replicate. but it is undeniable that black myth has brought new hope to the domestic game market.

through this explosive popularity, black myth has allowed more casual or online game players to see and get in touch with stand-alone products, understand stand-alone gameplay and payment models, and expand the potential stand-alone market; it has also allowed manufacturers and investors to see another path for the domestic game market besides mobile and online games; more importantly, for other practitioners in the development of stand-alone games, black myth is undoubtedly a shot in the arm, or a beacon, telling them that "the road ahead is not a dead end, but there is still a way to go."

looking back at the domestic stand-alone track in recent years, we can see more and more potential stand-alone products appearing, such as "daba: watermark land", "shadow blade: zero", "tang legend: pipa xing", etc. these products have made breakthroughs and innovations in at least one of the aspects of art, subject matter, and gameplay.

after black myth’s brilliant “first strike”, more and more players will probably begin to look forward to more excellent domestic stand-alone products to meet the market and players one after another, and continue to write the “myth” of domestic stand-alone games.