As of November 4, it will already have been one whole year since Goddess of Victory: Nikke graced mobile devices everywhere, and with $500 million in revenue safely under its belt, developer Shift Up is readying for a first anniversary celebration to remember, beginning November 2.
In its first 12 months, this RPG has become known for its story, cleanly animated illustrations and racy character designs.
A busy year
Being a gacha game, Goddess of Victory is bound to benefit from upcoming celebratory character launches like SSR Red Hood. Dorothy and Harran are getting new costumes too, and SSR Snow White is an alt to be distributed for free, ensuring all fans have a new combatant to play with.
There will also be login bonuses, gems, a free character every day for 21 days, and dozens of free gacha pulls via voucher distributions. A new minigame is coming also, as are new chapters in the story mode.
All in all, it’s looking to be a celebratory anniversary, and Shift Up certainly has a lot to be happy about after a first year that’s proved so strong out of the gate. Indeed, in its first month Goddess of Victory generated $70 million from only four million players and quickly grew its fanbase sixfold – reaching 25 million downloads in three months.
Shift Up, based in South Korea, also delivered the most popular squad RPG in the region through 2023.
With so many victories already, it seems inevitable that Nikke will eventually land in the unicorn club: an exclusive place to be, and one that so many mobile devs wish to join. That $1 billion revenue milestone is one only the best of the best can reach, and for Shift Up’s smash hit to be halfway there in a year is no mean feat. Even more impressive is reaching that halfway point in a year mired with controversy, censorship and complaints.
After all, fans quickly took to social media after launch to bemoan Goddess of Victory’s content censorship; in particular, complaints were made about the character Rupee’s acquired skirt that wasn’t present in the beta, covering part of her bodysuit. Yuni underwent similar changes, and publisher Tencent was accused of censoring sexualised content in acquiescence to Chinese regulators; these accusations were made despite the game not having released in China.
Regardless, it’s safe to say that Shift Up’s contentious new star has reached its anniversary victorious. Following a collaboration with Nier Automata that boosted sales by 215%, Tencent subsidiary Aceville acquired a massive two million shares in Shift Up, spending almost $60 million to do so.
