In just two weeks, Black Myth: Wukong has shattered all expectations, raking in nearly $800 million in sales. This has made it one of the fastest-selling games in history, setting a new benchmark for the action RPG genre. And it’s performed so well despite a concerted effort to attack the game for “lack of diversity.”
Black Myth: Wukong is developed by the Chinese studio Game Science and financially supported by the Chinese tech giant, Tencent. The game draws heavy inspiration from the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, centering on the character Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King. Th game is set in a mythological version of ancient China, full of otherwordly creatures and bosses that will give you a run for your money.
The game’s impeccable visuals, souls-lite-styled combat, and more have pushed it toward a global audience in ways previously thought impossible for a video game from China.
With that said, the action RPG is especially important for China, both culturally and within the video game industry. Black Myth: Wukong represents a major step for Chinese developers in the global market, as it showed that a quality AAA title is possible.
Within just three days of release, Black Myth: Wukong had already sold more than 10 million copies. By the end of its second week, the game had sold over 18 million units, generating around $800 million in revenue.
This is more than tenfold the original development cost of $70 million over six years.
Analyst Daniel Ahmad confirmed these figures and added, “This makes it one of the fastest-selling games of all time, only overshadowed by games like GTAV and MW2.”
But that’s not the end of the Destined One. According to Bloomberg, “Game Science is working on an expansion to Wukong, which will give it a chance to monetize the game a second time.” While the announcement of DLC for the action RPG by GameScience is no surprise since the game set some Steam records, it is a clear opportunity for Game Science to capitalize on the game’s momentum.
The expansion would probably pit the Destined One against new bosses, further enriching the narrative that has already stunned the world. It is also no surprise that GameScience is following the trend of Shadow of the Erdtree, as Black Myth: Wukong is not the end of the story that united the world. However, there are also rumors of Black Myth being an anthology series and a DLC sees a completely new character.
However, the introduction of paid DLC will open a Pandora’s box of questions about whether the game can maintain its current level of quality, and not be a simple cash grab.