Bluepoch’s debut time travel title Reverse: 1999 has reached its one-month anniversary in the West following a global launch on October 26, 2023, and it’s been a prolific month indeed. By expanding outside of China, Reverse: 1999 has now reached $15 million in lifetime net revenue across nearly five million installs.
Across time and space
The phrase “Chinese gacha game” may initially bring the industry’s heaviest hitters Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail to mind, but those are far from the only titles making waves in the genre. Reverse: 1999 is one of them, having marked Bluepoch’s first-ever game on May 31, 2023 and then launching globally last month.
It’s easy to see why, therefore, the bulk of Reverse: 1999’s revenue has come from China thus far – now days away from its six-month anniversary while the global release has only one month under its belt. According to AppMagic data, 74% of its $25 million gross mobile revenue across the Apple App Store and Google Play Store has come from China and is followed by 12% from Japan.
After app store fees, Reverse: 1999’s net revenue comes to approximately $15 million to date, made across almost five million downloads. Again, China represents the largest audience, but the disparity is smaller than the revenue difference: 45% of players are based in China while 55% are across the rest of the world – Japan and the US leading with 12% and 10% of downloads respectively.
And finally having their hands on the game, Japanese players have spent the most out of anyone in the last month too. They have accounted for 38% of revenues in the past 30 days, while Chinese players have accounted for 23% and US players 19%.
Since its global launch, the game has earned approximately $4.5 million in net revenue.
It’s clear that Reverse:1999 is already proving a hit for Bluepoch, attributable to its leveraging of popular Web3 mechanics, card-based gameplay and gacha elements. It stands out with unique characters like a talking apple and a British Beatles fan whisked through time, with a fully voiced narrative that takes players on a journey through the 20th Century.
Many players were eager to try the game out based on its Chinese release, with more than one million players having pre-registered for the global launch.
