Black Myth: Wukong sends China’s game-enabled hotels into overdrive, boosts room rates

Name: SCMP
Telephone: +852-2680-8888

Stay-and-play rooms with high-powered PCs prove popular among fans who lack their own hardware or just want a nice place to play with friends

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Gamers play at a Wanyoo hotel on Changshou Road in Shanghai. Photo: Weibo/ 第一财经网

Mia Castagnonein ShanghaiandDaniel Renin Shanghai

Published: 10:11am, 29 Aug 2024Updated: 1:00pm, 29 Aug 2024

China’s biggest-ever video game hit, Black Myth: Wukong, has led to a surge in bookings at hotels that cater to gamers, according to travel provider Trip.com.

Some operators of such hotels – which offer gaming hardware in their rooms for fans who do not necessarily have their own – reported that they sold out multi-person rooms on August 20, the evening that the game was released.

Booking site operator Trip.com Group confirmed the spike in activity, reporting that search volume for gaming rooms that night increased by 40 per cent compared with the previous day. Nearly 70 per cent of the gaming fans booking such hotels were from the post-90s and post-00s generations, and 75 per cent were men, the company said.

The blockbuster video game, developed by Tencent Holdings-backed start-up studio Game Science, drove a wave of “Wukong economy” activity, providing bright spots in sectors like tourism and computer accessories amid overall soft domestic consumer spending.

An undated image provided by Game Science shows the Monkey King from the video game Black Myth: Wukong. Photo: Xinhua

The success of China’s first AAA premium game, which is based on the literary figure Monkey King from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, is also driving a travel boom in parts of the country, according to local authorities and businesses.