Black Myth: Wukong propels Chinese gaming market to record high in third quarter
Apart from lifting domestic sales, its global popularity contributed to 21 per cent growth in overseas revenue for China video games
The Chinese video gaming market reached record revenue in the third quarter, thanks in large part to the success of the country’s first AAA video game, Black Myth: Wukong, according to new research.
Sales in the world’s second-largest video gaming market by revenue rose to 91.8 billion yuan (US$12.9 billion), according to a report by the Gaming Publishing Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association. The report, published on Wednesday, showed growth of 8.95 per cent from the 84.2 billion yuan in the same period last year.
The AAA title – an unofficial designation for premium games with large budgets and long development times – was released in August by Hangzhou-based studio Game Science. It is currently available on Windows and Sony’s PlayStation 5 console.
Black Myth: Wukong not only helped lift domestic sales, but its global popularity contributed to an almost 21 per cent sales growth in overseas revenue for China-developed games, which amounted to US$5.17 billion in the quarter, the Chinese gaming committee said in its report.
Global sales of Black Myth: Wukong distributed through online gaming store Steam have exceeded 21 million copies to date, bringing in a total of over US$1 billion for its developer, according to the latest data compiled by gaming market researcher VG Insights.
That has propelled the relatively unknown Game Science to become the 12th largest game publisher on Steam, only trailing more established global giants like US studios Valve and Electronic Arts, and French-owned Ubisoft, according to consultancy Gamalytic.
Valve topped the rankings with more than US$10.7 billion in total revenue from the Steam platform.
