Magic monkey tale inspires China’s gaming industry to seek blockbuster success

As Beijing eases regulations, developers are tooling up to produce big-budget titles with international appeal

China’s video game industry is scaling up to release more blockbusters in 2025 after the breakout global success of “triple-A” title Black Myth: Wukong.

In August, little-known Chinese developer Game Science achieved one of the fastest-selling debuts in gaming history with 10mn copies sold in three days of a title inspired by a classical Chinese novel about an anthropomorphic monkey with supernatural powers.

The action role-playing game has since earned $1.1bn, with nearly 25mn copies sold, according to estimates from gaming consultancy Niko Partners. About 70 per cent of sales came in China.

The game’s appeal both at home and abroad goes beyond its state of the art graphics, fun gameplay and strong character development, according to one typical fan.

“China’s gaming industry has gone through an industrialisation process. Before, they found it hard to compete with the likes of Activision Blizzard. But the Chinese studios have brought in foreign experts, scaled their teams, standardised tools and production processes, focusing on high- production values, popular gameplay mechanics, and deep progression systems that can help them compete globally.”

While they were going head to head with international gaming giants, Chinese developers had a cost advantage, he said, with the country’s vast pool of talented and cheap engineers. Game Science spent $42mn developing Black Myth: Wukong, according to government reports.

“If the same game were developed in the US, it would have cost at least twice if not three times as much. The costs are so much lower in China,” said Ahmad.