Silicon Valley’s Favorite Video Games of 2024
Put down your work—pick up a controller.
Despite China’s massive presence in the tech world, the country’s videogame industry never had a big-budget, AAA game release until this August, when Shenzhen-based Game Science released Black Myth: Wukong, an action role-playing game inspired by the classic Ming dynasty novel “Journey to the West” about a demigodlike monkey warrior.
The game debuted to critical acclaim, with players lauding its stunning graphics and often punishing gameplay. “I’m a big fan of games that are challenging and force you to perfect your understanding of the game’s mechanics in order to succeed,” said Jeffrey Wang, co-founder of analytics software company Amplitude Analytics. “I suppose you could say that the single-mindedness of that pursuit helps de-stress.”
In the first few hours after Wukong’s release, the game set an all-time record for concurrent players of a single-player game on Steam, and in its first three days it sold a staggering 10 million copies, making it one of the fastest-selling games ever.