When it comes to mobile games, players often discover it's hard to find something they enjoy playing long-term. Compared to the options on PC and consoles, phone games tend to trade quality and a micro-transaction model for the one-time fee and reputation of bigger titles. But despite these inherent disadvantages, Fate/Grand Order, Twitter's most talked about game in 2019, continues to be a success over four years afters its initial release.
Fate/Grand Order is a free-to-play mobile game published by Aniplex. Based off Fate/Stay Night and other entries in the popular franchise, players take the role of a "master" that summons "servants" to do battle. These "servants" are heroic spirits from the history and tales of different cultures across the world, called to the present. Fate/Grand Order's story is presented through turn-based combat and a visual novel format, detailing players' exploits to save humanity by recovering seven holy grails distorting key time periods and locations throughout the past such as America, Camelot, and Babylonia.
Initially available only in Japan, FGO made $110.7 million dollars its first year and was downloaded widely, even outside the region. Once developers saw the potential, the app was released globally in other regions such as North America, China, and Korea. Since then, the mobile game made over $1 billion from player spending in both 2018 and 2019 which is comparable to Pokemon GO's sales. Japan contributed a majority of the recent $4 billion dollar mark with $3.3 billion spent in the region alone.
FGO has managed to keep its players entertained through a combination of gameplay, the Fate franchise, and an immersive story. Although it is a gacha, a notably frustrating element of mobile gaming, all summoned servants are useful regardless of rarity. Furthermore, the game draws on over a decade of Fate material under Type-Moon, allowing players the chance to obtain many iconic and beloved characters from the various series. Finally, the story is divided between a host of talented writers led by Kinoko Nasu, the author of Fate/Stay Night, revitalizing the visual novel genre in an unlikely way.
For those reasons plus many more, FGO has been downloaded around 13.8 million times globally and the average player has spent $291 dollars on the app. With the current trend, the mobile game looks to make over $1 billion dollars again in 2020 and bring the total record to over $5 billion generated in revenue.
Currently, Fate/Grand Order players worldwide are at different points in the overall story. North American players will have to wait until around April to begin Part 2: Cosmos in the Lostbelt. In the meantime, all fans can enjoy the currently airing Babylonia anime and the upcoming set of Camelot movies, paid for with the money spent in-game.
Fate/Grand Order is available now on iOS and Android.
Source: SensorTower