A strong case can be made that Black Myth: Wukong is not deserving of its nomination for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024. Earlier today, Wukong was revealed to be contending for GOTY at next month’s The Game Awards alongside Astro Bot, Balatro, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, and Metaphor: ReFantazio. And while there’s no denying whatsoever that Black Myth: Wukong has been one of the biggest success stories of 2024, it hasn’t really achieved the same sort of critical acclaim to warrant such a nomination.
When Black Myth: Wukong launched back in August, it shattered all sorts of records. These records were specifically seen on Steam where it became the most concurrently played single-player game ever on the PC platform. It has since gone on to surpass 20 million copies sold and even assisted in driving sales of the PlayStation 5 even higher. Without a doubt, Black Myth: Wukong has been a resounding achievement and shows the power that games hailing from China might have in the years to come.
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Related: The Game Awards 2024 Full Nominees Revealed
Even with all of that being said, though, Black Myth: Wukong hasn’t really been a critical darling that would lead one to think of it being in the conversation for Game of the Year. On review aggregate site Metacritic, Wukong has a solid 81/100 score for its PC version, while the PS5 version has been reviewed at a more paltry 76/100. As a whole, this puts it as the 112th best-reviewed game of 2024 on Metacritic and is well behind the likes of Tekken 8 (90/100 aggregate score), Animal Well (91/100 aggregate score), and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (89/100 aggregate score).
Looking outside of 2024 alone, what proves further that Black Myth: Wukong likely shouldn’t have been given a Game of the Year nod at The Game Awards is that it’s the worst-reviewed game to ever be up for the honor. Since The Game Awards started in 2014, the 81/100 aggregate review score for Black Myth: Wukong is the lowest that has ever been seen for a title in the running for Game of the Year. Previous lows were seen with Death Stranding (2019) and A Plague Tale: Requiem (2022), which each received aggregate scores of 82/100.
I don’t say all of this to try to discredit Black Myth: Wukong whatsoever. Again, the game is very deserving of the success that it’s had and I’m thrilled for those at developer Game Science. Additionally, Metacritic isn’t a perfect science whatsoever and the scores of all of the games mentioned here do nothing more than provide a snapshot into how they have been received. Still, it’s hard for me to see how Black Myth: Wukong landed this Game of the Year nomination over several other titles that were seemingly much more deserving. If nothing else, it’s a good thing that The Game Awards really doesn’t matter and is more focused on showcasing what’s coming in the future rather than truly honoring the best games of the year.
