[Click eStock] Why Did the Record-Breaking Hit Game Geomeun Sinhwa: Ogong Succeed?

Based on the Journey to the West Universe, Explosive Popularity in China
Tencent's Large-Scale Investment and Marketing Key to Success
Domestic Game Companies Also Achieving Meaningful Results

The action RPG "Black Myth: Wukong," released on the 20th, achieved sales of 10 million copies in just four days, setting a record for the fastest time to reach 10 million sales. The game received positive feedback, earning a Metascore of 81 and an "Overwhelmingly Positive" overall rating on Steam. Although optimization issues were noted as a drawback, the storytelling and graphics were highly praised, and the peak concurrent Steam player count reached 2.41 million.

Nam Hyoji, a researcher at SK Securities, stated on the 29th, "'Black Myth: Wukong,' which has received particularly strong responses from Chinese users, is based on the Journey to the West universe and has gained great popularity in the Chinese market." He added, "It ranked first in the Steam weekly sales chart in China and Hong Kong, and Chinese-language reviews accounted for about 93% of all reviews, highlighting the significant interest from Chinese users."

The game's developer is Game Science. Although composed of former Tencent developers, their previous titles did not achieve significant success. However, this success is analyzed to be due to Tencent's investment of 400 million yuan (approximately 74.8 billion KRW) and aggressive marketing efforts.

Researcher Nam said, "The success of 'Black Myth: Wukong' has also led to increased sales of PlayStation 5 consoles in China and has raised expectations for upcoming console games." He added, "In the domestic mobile market, Chinese games have already entered the top ranks, with three out of the top five games in Google Play's mobile game revenue rankings being Chinese titles. This demonstrates the effectiveness of Chinese games' massive capital and aggressive marketing strategies."

Beyond mobile, the development capabilities of Chinese games in the PC and console markets are also rapidly rising. This is expected to further accelerate the growth of Chinese games in the global market in the future.

Meanwhile, although domestic games failed to win awards at Gamescom, they received positive evaluations for increasing exposure to overseas users through demonstration opportunities. In particular, Krafton's "inZOI" has rapidly climbed the wishlist rankings on Steam, attracting significant interest among overseas users. Researcher Nam said, "Domestic game companies are actively working to expand into overseas markets and platforms, achieving meaningful results." He added, "With a solid existing intellectual property (IP) traffic and high expectations for new releases, Krafton is recommended as the top preferred stock in the industry, and Neowiz, which is preparing to release DLC in the second half of the year, is also a noteworthy company."