The Wukong Effect Paving the Way for China’s Premium Gaming Future – New NikoIQ Exclusives

This is an extract from our latest NikoIQ Exclusive published last week for our clients.

NikoIQ Exclusives are mini topic reports where we leverage our proprietary survey data and insights to dig deeper and build out analysis on topics that are timely and interesting.

Our latest NikoIQ Exclusive covers Black Myth: Wukong and aims to answer a question many have been asking: “Is Wukong’s success sustainable or is this a “lightning-in-a-bottle” moment for the Chinese market? This report looks to answer that question and outlines what both Chinese and Western developers can learn from the mass appeal and success of Black Myth: Wukong when working with the Chinese market.

Inside the Rise of China’s Blockbuster Game Black Myth: Wukong

Over the past decade, China’s video games industry has been predominantly driven by free-to-play (F2P) live service titles such as League of Legends and Genshin Impact, with F2P games accounting for approximately 90% of all player spending in 2023. China is also a mobile-first country with mobile games accounting for an estimated 68.7% of all player spending and 90% of all gamers in the country last year. Because of this mobile dynamic and a market that has historically been driven by F2P titles, the success of Black Myth: Wukong, a title by a relatively unknown game developer that set multiple global video game records, has captured the attention of the gaming world.

According to Niko Partners’ China Games & Streaming Tracker, Black Myth: Wukong dominated the game live streaming landscape in China, debuting as the #1 most-watched game on its launch day, dethroning all other titles and rivaling Honor of Kings over a two-week period. In fact, since Niko began tracking China games streaming data, going back as far as July 2020, Black Myth: Wukong is the only new title launch to receive more views and viewers than either League of Legends, Honor of Kings, or Genshin Impact.

The game’s success can be attributed to several key factors.

1. A strong reveal: Black Myth: Wukong was first unveiled in August 2020 with its debut trailer earning more than 50 million views on Bilibili. Its virality was driven by its uncompromising approach towards high quality graphics and RPG gameplay, with many gamers pointing out that it looked like a next-generation game. The strong reveal had built hype around the game’s release, with additional trailers and teasers over the next four years helping to drive pre-orders.
2. Familiarity with story: The game is based on Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, one of the Four Great Classic Novels of China that everyone in the country is intimately familiar with. While there have been plenty of games based on Journey to the West in the past, this is the first one to provide a true high-fidelity experience with locations and characters painstakingly recreated in the game. Black Myth: Wukong builds on this rich legacy and serves as a sequel to Journey to the West, fulfilling the imagination of many Journey to the West fans who have wondered what will happen next. This adaptation breathes new life into the beloved novel while staying true to its essence. Strong cultural pride and identity has been instrumental in driving the success of the game in China.
3. Availability on Steam: While the game was officially approved by the NPPA for distribution in China, and launched on Tencent’s WeGame, most sales came from the international version of Steam. This is because Steam is the most popular PC game distribution platform in the country, used by 79.5% of PC gamers that purchase premium games. The platform operates in a grey area, but as of today it’s fully accessible without a VPN and provides access to both games that have been approved and those that are unapproved.
4. Regional pricing and propensity to pay: Premium games have traditionally been a hard sell in China, with piracy playing a large role in the 2000s, and a lack of willingness to spend upfront in the 2010s. Indie games would typically need to be priced under RMB 100 ($14) and AAA games under RMB 200 ($28) for mass acceptance. With the average monthly salary of a gamer in China set to surpass $1,000, and an increased propensity to pay upfront for entertainment, more than 15 million in China were willing to pay RMB 268 ($38) for the game in its first month. The title is still priced lower than in the US where it costs $60 and we note that regional pricing is important in China given purchasing power parity considerations.
5. Social media, streaming and broader spillover: Word of mouth has played a large role for the game, both prior to launch as new trailers dropped, and also post-launch on social media platforms. The game was also picked up by a high number of streamers, with the game accounting for 27% of all streamed gaming content (hours) across DouYu, Huya, and Bilibili in its first two weeks. This led to a spontaneous hardware upgrade cycle as gamers upgraded their PCs and purchased PS5s. Game Science also partnered with brands such as Luckin Coffee and even the Shanxi Tourism Board, as many of the real-world locations in the game are in Shanxi, which led to the game achieving its phenomenon status.

The key question then is: Is Black Myth: Wukong a one-off success story for the China market that only another domestic game developer could hope to replicate, or is this something that global game developers can learn from and take advantage of?

Clients subscribed to NikoIQ can see how we’ve answered this question and read the full deep dive on the success of Black Myth: Wukong within the NikoIQ Exclusives portal.

Niko Partners publishes topic bulletin reports exclusively on NikoIQ every two weeks, and clients can even request topics for us to cover.

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