The anime-inspired mobile game Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross celebrated 50 million downloads according to promotional material shared across a number of sites. Netmarble, the company behind the game adaptation, has also begun a promotional event to mark the milestone.
Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross joins a number of anime-inspired titles in the lucrative ‘gacha’ market. As we previously reported, although players of anime games (classified as mimicking the art style of Japanese animation) make up less than 3% of overall users, they account for 20% of total spending according to data.ai.
Big in Japan
The appeal of anime titles can be broken down into a number of components. The simplicity and stylised appeal of the visuals attracts new fans and makes graphic processing less intensive. Utilising existing properties can also entice existing fans who might not otherwise engage with mobile games.
Anime fans have also been primed to spend money by numerous other promotional materials tied to shows and manga (Japanese comics often closely associated with, adapted from or to, anime). Familiarity with figure collecting, promotional events for food and other relatively small campaigns means that anime fans could be more willing to spend relatively often on material tied to their favourite properties.
Given that publishers such as Shueisha (behind world-famous series such as Dragonball and Naruto) are opening mobile gaming divisions to capitalise on this market, it seems that the main players in the anime and manga industry see potential for growth. As one of the highest grossing mobile games of all time is Fate: Grand Order, based on the popular multimedia franchise, the cosmetics based monetisation of gacha may soon make the leap further into the West.
