When it comes to the question of if Black Myth: Wukong won game of the year you can only get a nuanced answer. Game Science's action RPG launched August 2024 and erupted onto the scene not only due to its astounding graphics powered by Unreal Engine 5, but also because it placed the Journey to the West mythos into AAA gaming in a way that players had not yet experienced. Within just 3 days the game sold 10 million copies while achieving 2.2 million peak concurrent players on Steam, putting it among the fastest selling single player games of all time. Once awards season rolled around Black Myth: Wukong was firmly positioned in almost every GOTY discussion.
Did Black Myth: Wukong Win Game of the Year
Short answer; yes in most player-voted categories and no at the high profile jury-led awards (i.e. The Game Awards 2024). The Game Awards (that many continue to recognize as the "de facto" Game of The Year), Black Myth: Wukong received a nomination for best game but did not win. The award went to Astro Bot (Sony). However, Black Myth: Wukong did win Best Action Game and the Players' Voice award, which is a fan voted category and expresses the core support from the players. At the Steam Awards held on January 1, 2025, Black Myth: Wukong was named Game of the Year and received two additional awards, resulting in it being the most decorated game at this event. The fact that Steam is the largest PC gaming platform in the world (by number of users) and that the winners of the awards are determined by actual users of this platform, is important to consider. Thus, if you ask yourself in 2026 did Black Myth: Wukong win Game of the Year?, the answer is clear — YES. That was a definitive yes given by the players from this platform.
Detailed List of Wukong's GOTY Awards
In order to analyze the award wins of Wukong, you need to consider the separate results from player voted awards and jury voted awards; this split provides clarity to almost all aspects of the award process.
| Award Organization | GOTY Award Results | Other Noteworthy Wins |
|---|---|---|
| The Game Awards 2024 | Nominated, did not win | Best Action Game, Players' Voice |
| Steam Awards 2024 | Won | Outstanding Story Rich Game, Best Game You Suck At |
| Golden Joystick Awards 2024 | Won (Ultimate GOTY) | Many category wins |
| Time Magazine Best Games 2024 | Editorial recognition | Highest ranking single player game |
It becomes apparent that Wukong performed like a legitimate GOTY contender at every event where the player had a vote and at one event where the jury cast the final votes it failed to do so. ## Steam Awards 2024
The Steam Awards were very important for Black Myth: Wukong, and while everyone remembers the GAME OF THE YEAR award, winning two additional awards — OUTSTANDING STORY-RICH GAME and BEST GAME YOU SUCK AT — also provides insight into how players interacted with the game. The story award shows players found the game's foundation from Journey to the West a good fit, and the additional award for difficulty applies perfectly to the many difficult boss fights and combat situations that require players to time their moves, be patient, and execute their skills instead of just mashing buttons. The combination of those three awards demonstrates that Wukong was not only popular with gamers; it also provided players with multiple layers of experience.
The Game Awards 2024
At THE GAME AWARDS 2024 in December, BLACK MYTH: WUKONG was nominated for GAME OF THE YEAR against ASTRO BOT, ELDEN RING: SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE, METAPHOR: REFANTAZIO, and BALATRO. The jury chose ASTRO BOT as the winner, which resulted in much debate within the gaming community.
Regardless, Wukong won BEST ACTION GAME, and many gamers felt this award was a natural fit for the game. In addition, the PLAYERS' VOICE win reinforces how players viewed this game as deserving of being included among the year's defining titles. An interesting statistic in this category is that four out of the top five nominees (Black Myth: Wukong, Zenless Zone Zero, Wuthering Waves, and Genshin Impact) were from Chinese developers. This statistic is more than just an interesting stat. A lot of people see Black Myth: Wukong as Game of the Year because of several key factors, including its scale, its innovative technology, and its incredible gameplay experience.
The first major factor that stands out about the game is the scale of its success, which is excellent. At launch, the game had a peak concurrent Steam player count of 2.2 million. That’s huge for a single-player video game. It’s also more successful in terms of sales than many other large Western game franchises that have been around for a long time. By mid-2025, the game will have sold over 25 million copies around the world. That’s impressive for a company that has never made a blockbuster console game before.
This game has also set new standards for video games in such a short amount of time. When the game was released, Black Myth: Wukong was one of the best-looking video games available, having showcased the graphical capabilities of Unreal Engine 5 to an unbelievable level. The use of Ray-tracing, Nanite, and Lumen created environments in the game that were incredibly next-generation instead of just “really pretty.” The developers used actual temples, mountains, and real historical places located in Shanxi Province to give players a distinctively unique experience compared to the more generic fantasy world-type settings used by most other video game developers.
The combat systems of the game were another big reason why players loved Black Myth: Wukong. There are more than 80 unique bosses in the game, and players loved to talk about how awesome it was to experience fighting against so many different unique bosses with their own characteristics and styles. Many players said it made their experiences with the bosses in the game so much more memorable than previous video games they had played. Many people viewed the boss-focused design of the game as a key aspect of its experience.
Likewise, the cultural mythos of the game played an important role in how the game's personality was conveyed to players. By using Chinese voice acting, traditional instruments like the suona, and many references to Journey to the West, Game Science created a distinctive and authentic character for Black Myth: Wukong. This was advantageous for the game rather than being detrimental.
The 2024 GOTY nominees at various award shows created an interesting opportunity to compare how the jury compared the winners with each other.
Astro Bot won GOTY at The Game Awards 2024 as a fully realized, incredibly enjoyable 3D platformer. The jury praised the design, precision of execution, and accessibility of Astro Bot, making it clear how they would support that game as an award nominee. In contrast, Black Myth: Wukong is less polished than Astro Bot, more culturally specific to China, and has little interest in making its edges round. Those differences likely influenced the Western-based juries' evaluations of the candidates overall.
At the Golden Joystick Awards 2024, Black Myth: Wukong was awarded Ultimate Game of the Year, which provides additional evidence for the overall pattern described above. In contrast to the Game Awards where the juries had the greatest influence in choosing the winners, the results from the Golden Joystick Awards clearly show that when the public opinion had the most conspicuous impact on the award selections, Wukong dominated. While the critics-over-players debate is not new to the gaming industry, it felt especially pronounced in 2024 because of the tremendous commercial success of Wukong in relation to the critical success of Wukong.
Therefore, the question that remains is whether the critics' or players' choice of GOTY carries more weight? It actually comes down to what you put priority on,
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The Game Awards provide the most mainstream exposure and assistance from the media.
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Steam Awards, due to their enormous PC player base, almost everyone voting on the platform directly, count as an award for users.
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Golden Joystick Awards are the oldest/most established public-vote awards for games.
If we are talking about whether or not Black Myth: Wukong WON the award of "game of the year" based on player recognition, the answer is an emphatic yes.
The Meaning of Black Myth: Wukong's GOTY in 2026
Looking at this from 2026, the awards run for Black Myth: Wukong feels much larger than just one trophy argument.
For one thing, it was a significant milestone for Chinese AAA development. Before Wukong, China’s position in the global gaming world was still mostly mobile games, free-to-play games and gacha monetization for many. Game Science had the courage to go in the opposite direction and create a premium $70 single player game with a production budget that is reportedly between $70-$75 million, in comparison to many of the AAA game productions out of the West, which have had higher budgets (and/or costs) assigned to them. That alone created a level of separation for Wukong from other AAA games. Since then, a sequel has been announced for Black Myth: Zhong Kui, and other Chinese AAA studios have entered into their premium games investments at an accelerated speed since the release of Wukong.
Another result of Wukong and it's foundation on quality content is that it has created a strong argument for the single-player market at a time when many premium publishers are changing their efforts to develop/live-service platforms. As this article is written in 2024, it is difficult to ignore the fact that in 2024, there were multiple live-service titles released by major publishers (one of those was Sony's) that failed immediately upon launch. Wukong demonstrated that there remains a high demand for a fully realised, story-driven game without the use of battle passes or ongoing monetisation schemes.
Game Science has continued to support the game since its launch. Complaints regarding stuttering and frame drops on some PC systems were indeed valid, but these issues have significantly decreased due to multiple patches over time, to a state currently satisfactory in the mind of both the PC player base as well as PlayStation 5 players, as demonstrated by stable reviews on both Steam and Metacritic.
The impact of Wukong has expanded beyond just video games; tourism to locations in the Shanxi Province that appear in the game has reportedly increased, Wukong-influenced artistic swimming won gold at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships, and it is now a Guinness World Record holder for Fastest Selling Video Game Based on a Classic Novel. That is pretty impressive for a franchise's first launch.
Conclusion
So, did Black Myth: Wukong Win Game Of The Year? The most definitive answer is Yes and No.
The game did NOT win GOTY at The Game Awards 2024, you may be aware, an award show that claims to be the biggest award show in gaming. That award went to Astro Bot. However, it did win Steam Awards 2024 Game of the Year, Golden Joystick Ultimate Game of the Year and Players' Voice at The Game Awards. The takeaway for players looking for 2026 is that Black Myth: Wukong won more of the significant public GOTY awards than it lost to jury selections and the major jury-selected awards have almost no impact on its legacy. Based on the number of sales, the number of awards and the way Wukong raised the bar on expectations for Chinese AAA titles, Wukong has already assured itself of being one of the biggest titles from the era.