Then came the recent phenomenon of Black Myth: Wukong, based on the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West, which tells how a monkey born out of natural forces acquired skills and guarded his master on a journey to a Buddhist mountain to get holy scriptures.

From the game's official release on Aug 20 until Aug 22, the maximum number of global players on the Steam platform was 2.2 million, 2.35 million and 2.4 million respectively. The number of online players has exceeded those for popular games such as Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Elden Ring, and are second only to the record set by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

By the evening of its release day, over 3 million copies of the game had been sold on Stream's international video game digital distribution service. By Friday evening, the total number of copies sold exceeded 10 million. Another 1.5 million copies were sold on WeGame, Epic! and PlayStation services, with total sales exceeding 1.5 billion yuan ($210.3 million).

On X, Meta, formerly Facebook, and Quora, a question quickly spread among international players — who is that Chinese monkey character in Black Myth: Wukong and what's the story behind him?