- Uma Musume: Pretty Derby has reached 21 million downloads in just over three years
- The title has generated over $2 billion in Japan to date
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby has officially reached 21 million downloads, and developer Cygames is distributing a guaranteed SSR gacha ticket to celebrate.
Pretty Derby was first launched in the Japanese dev’s home country in February 2021, and later rolled out in South Korea, China and Taiwan.
Its South Korean release brought in $2.3 million in the game’s first 24 hours there, back in 2022, but the game was pulled from Chinese stores in 2023 despite receiving a coveted licence approval in the region.
Regardless, Uma Musume: Pretty Derby has now reached 21 million downloads across its select few release territories, arriving at this milestone with plenty of achievements behind it, but still no clear global launch in front.
At the races
According to AppMagic data, Uma Musume: Pretty Derby has generated over $2.27 billion in its lifetime to date from Japan alone. Revenue peaks every March – around its anniversary – which this year saw an update to the main story, introduced a new team called Askera, launched the Trainer Pass, and added new beta racing content in the form of Monthly Match.
More recently – as the game came to reach 21 million downloads – a horse girl called Jungle Pocket was added to the gacha inspired by a real-world racehorse and Japanese thoroughbred of the same name.
The multimedia franchise, kickstarted by a 2018 anime series, is known for turning recognisable horses into horse girls who compete in races, speculated to have factored into its Chinese ban due to the imagery and gambling nature of derbies combined with Pretty Derby’s gacha mechanics.
But whatever China’s reason for the game’s ban, Uma Musume remains a popular franchise in Japan with multiple anime seasons, a movie, and of course, Cygames’ mobile game.
The development team posted on Twitter: “The game Uma Musume: Pretty Derby has exceeded 21 million downloads! To celebrate reaching 21 million downloads, we are giving away the SSR Make-Up Debut Gacha Round 4 to all Trainers! We hope you will continue to enjoy the game Uma Musume: Pretty Derby!”
