China and Korea are coming

Last week, we talked briefly about two sleeping giants that are awakening from their slumber: China and Korea. Both countries have very different identities in the gaming space, but are without a doubt the ones to watch as off, well, right now. Case in point: 18.000.000 copies sold of a high-budget triple AAA singleplayer game – only one of the biggest successes ever.

The videogame is an everchanging industry. But not all of it evolves at the same pace. While technical leaps seem to happen on the weekly, other things stay the same for year: like dominant production and sales markets. Japan, United States and (to a lesser extent) Europe have made most of the games consumers spend their money on. It has been this way for decades, even with some publishers trying to find and stimulate the next big emerging market.

Eyes have been on regions like Africa, or trying to strike gold in India. A country like Korea has a rich gaming culture with some of the world’s best esports athletes, while China kept its focus on the domestic market. That changed when Tencent (with the 19th biggest market cap in the world) started buying up gaming studios.

Tencent’s specific strategy hasn’t exactly set the world on fire (if anything, it disrupted the market in negative way through mergers and acquisitions); but China’s goal of becoming a stable player in the global market was at least made obvious.

Over 2.000.000 people playing on pc at the same time - making it the biggest singleplayer game ever on Steam.

And that brings us to the last couple of years and the traditional console triple AAA gaming space. Korea has had several studio’s set-up with lofty ambitions, going for that major global hit. One of these projects, Lies of P, was a modest success last year. This year, Stellar Blade, supported by exclusive marketing from PlayStation, managed to make even bigger waves and caught the attention and appreciation from a global audience. But a few weeks back, it was China that emerged from the shadows and showed what it’s capable of with Black Myth: Wukong.

Made by Game Science, a relatively small development studio with hardly a hit on their name, Black Myth: Wukong was received with an average positive reception by foreign press. But then the figures starting rolling in. Over 2.000.000 people playing on pc at the same time – making it the biggest singleplayer game ever on Steam. That’s not even counting PlayStation 5 numbers and copies sold, or PlayStation 5 consoles, rumored to sell out immediately because of this game.

This week, Game Science announced it sold an incredible 18.000.000 copies in just two weeks time. While numbers for ‘fastest selling games’ all seem to take their own periods, this could put Black Myth: Wukong at the top of that list.

Is Wukong lightning in a bottle? It’s possible. Is this the first of many major global hits coming from China, with domestic support pushing never before seen player numbers? That’s more likely, considering the strategy, pace and path the Chinese gaming industry is currently on. Wukong is no doubt the canary in the coalmine, for a country that has slowly but surely set its sights on this market. In a few years times, we’ll undoubtedly look back at this game marking the beginning of a new era.

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