In a stunning turn of events, Black Myth: Wukong has seen its player count skyrocket, becoming the second most played game on Steam ever, less than 24 hours after launch.

With over 2.1 million active players, Black Myth: Wukong now trails only Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, which had a record 3.2 million players in 2018. Keep in mind, these are just Steam figures, meaning the PlayStation 5 and Chinese gaming client WeGame aren't included in the count. Those numbers are likely much, much higher by now.

The community's reaction to the game's success is something to watch rather than explain. Hundreds of memes have been posted, all of which follow a similar format.

So why does Black Myth: Wukong pull in such insane numbers? Well, it has a lot to do with his extreme popularity in China, as Wukong himself is such a huge part of their cultural heritage and a major figure in a lot of influential media. Seriously, Wukong kinda rocks. In Wu Cheng’en’s 16th century novel Journey to the West, where he gained much of his fame, he is said to remember every monkey ever born and to be able to jump 54,000 km in a single jump. That’s pretty hardcore. Oh, and he’s also said to have rebelled against heaven, which is maybe even more hardcore.