Black Myth: Wukong boosts PS5 sales in China, which rarely happens

Black Myth: Wukong has catalyzed PlayStation 5 console sales in China, new reports from Bloomberg indicate.

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Game Science's legend-infused action RPG Black Myth: Wukong is taking the world by storm, especially in China, where it has become a smash hit. The game is now the second most-played Steam game of all time in terms of peak concurrent users, with over 2.3 million users logged in and playing on Valve's PC storefront client. The Monkey King has also conquered the top-selling and most-played charts, as per official data from Valve. Note that this does not include sales made on Tencent's domestic WeGame store.

Black Myth: Wukong's meteoric rise isn't just limited to PC, however. The game is also significantly boosting PlayStation 5 sales in China, which bodes well for Sony Interactive Entertainment. Bloomberg reports that PS5 sales have more than doubled on Alibaba's Tabao e-commerce storefront in the week of the game's launch. This apparently is a rare occurrence for the PS5 in the overseas region, which is typically dominated by free-to-play mobile games.

It's unknown just how many copies of the game have been sold across the globe on either PlayStation 5, Steam, or WeChat, as peak concurrent numbers are only indicative of users who are logged in and playing the game versus the total sum of those who purchased the title.

Interestingly enough, Bloomberg also notes that Tencent has a 5% stake in Game Science, the developer of Black Myth: Wukong. It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds over time, and how much of a boon the game ends up being for platform-holders like Valve and Sony--the latter of which whom may discuss the game's impact in a Q2 earnings call.