Black Myth: Wukong’s first week of sales numbers are in, and they firmly inhabit “Don’t take a big sip of coffee before you look at them” territory. 10 million units sold, which, as industry analyst Daniel Ahmad pointed out on X, “The Everything App,” is a record-breaking performance that leaves some of the biggest releases of the past few years in the dust.
For perspective, here are some comparative numbers:
- Hogwarts Legacy: 15 million in three months
- Elden Ring: 13 million in one month
- Cyberpunk 2077: 13.7 million in one month
- Baldur’s Gate 3: 20+ million in five months
- Helldivers 2: 12 million in three months
The only game that comes close is Palworld’s 19 million players in two weeks, a mark that Black Myth: Wukong seems on track to surpass. It’s a sales figure that lines up with Wukong having leapfrogged the competition to be the #2 most-played game in Steam’s history by concurrent players. Before that, it was also the most wishlisted game on the platform after The Day Before met its ignominious end.
I saw the book at the store and thought the cover looked neat, so I picked it up to skim a few pages. Holy fuck was the writing bad. I chuckled and threw it back on the shelf.
I was taken completely by surprise to later learn it was a bestseller and being made into a movie. “50 Shades of Grey” for 30-somethings.
Looking back, it’s easy to see why it was a hit: it was slop for slop hogs. It said “what if bibeo bame, and knowing a lot of useless bibeo bame and nostalgia trivia means you eventually win the sex trophy and become the billionaire ruler of a dying planet?”