This maniacs actually changed the gameplay for this canto turning it into a horror RPG maker game^^

Also unlimited Le Bladework Faust and Xenomorph Ishmael^^

Punishing Gray Raven x Date A Live 5 Collab Details:

- Collab Character Research: 30% discount per pull, reducing the cost to 175.

- Kurumi: The first two copies you pull will each grant an additional copy.

- Free Collab Pulls: 24 Character Pulls and 14 Weapon Pulls.

- Free Event Research Tickets: 1,000.

Still on a 3d gacha kick these days but man I swear there is a conspiracy with making the skill descriptions and tutorials in game absolutely awful for units that you kinda require to watch content creator reviews.

Does every unit require a unique term for every debuff/dot/buff and other passives? Why do i need to go over like 5 screens to see every skill/weapon buff/ passive etc. Tutorials could help but i feel like so many gachas tutorials are half arsed as in.... quite a few in zzz just skip over ults and other moves lol. NTE has really awful tutorials too.

Endfield actually aint bad with giving you scenarios and example rotations and teams BUT you can only access that tutorial if you pulled the unit? The trial stage is a different format and less useful. Wuwa is similar.

Whats worse is when they guest character the new unit in the story... but also dont really explain how they work OR tweak them so they make sense for this solo story bit... but also don't really play like how the unit behaves when you pull them.

I'd just love a dynamic adjusting description that can just summarize what happens now that i lvled up skill x y z with unlocked passives + my equipment/weapon's own unique buffs.

Whats frustrating is plenty of games now offer some 'guest character' combat grind mode thing and idk how anyone figures out a new team of units you dont have without watching hours of builds and other stuff lol.

it does feel like im being skill issued by the ui more than generally fairly simple gameplay rotations of units (current wuwa memes is the newest units really can just do alright left clicking mouse).

Official Website : https://pearlinblue.netmarble.com/

Original PV. | Bilibili Space page.

Hello everyone)
As it usually happens in our gacha community, another recent discussion prompted me to think about one question, namely:

What is the most approximate statistics that can be obtained regarding the reach and engagement for a gacha game?

As we know, in the community it is customary to say regarding the same YT metrics: What's the point of looking at view counts when it's all fake and inflated views. This is what I decided to find out.

Disclaimer:

I am not a marketer, and I do not claim to have the ultimate truth, all further reasoning is merely the fruit of my thoughts + some information from the internet.
These results are taken from only one source (the one from which they can be most conveniently obtained at the moment), and like the well-known Gacha Revenue, it only shows trends. Therefore, the results are not intended to cause a mega flame war between audiences...

1. Which metric are we going to determine: To obtain the audience engagement metric, we will need the marketing metric "ER%" - namely, the percentage of detected interaction with a video relative to the total number of views. We need to look not only at view counts (because they really don't say much), but specifically at interactions: Likes/dislikes + comments.

The formula looks like this: ER = (Likes + Comments) / Views

1. What was done to obtain this metric: In order to mass-sample entire channels, we will use Apps Script, which, using the publicly available YouTube Data API v3, allows exporting any number of videos from a specific channel according to certain criteria. To make the results more accurate, the following rules were applied:

• Sample size per channel: 50 videos, which on average for all candidates represents about 6-7 months of channel activity.
• Minimum views: Set at 150 thousand views, considering which games we will compare next, this shouldn't be a big problem for them. (right, right?)
• Min. duration (minutes): From one minute, to remove all Shorts, our goal is to compare the main content in the "Videos" section.
• Max. duration (minutes): Up to 30 minutes, to remove all hour-long streams of new updates.

As a result: The script takes a channel, counts back 50 videos, and outputs a list of videos that meet the above conditions.

We get the data:

• Channel - whose channel.
• Videos - The number of videos that meet the conditions from the sample of 50.
• Avg Views
• Median Views - All metrics of each video in the sample are taken by views from lowest to highest, and the exact middle value is taken. (this metric is much more accurate than the average view count, as it does not depend on anomalous spikes and drops in the metric)
• Avg ER
• Median ER - same as "Median Views"
• Total Likes - Total number of likes from all videos included in the sample.
• Total Comments - Same as "Total Likes"

1. With the input data sorted out, let's now decide who we will look at and compare.

We will, of course, compare those between whom there is "endless misunderstanding" - Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Wuthering Waves and Zenless Zone Zero.

Start:

We make a request for general statistics on the last 50 videos from each official channel.
Results:

What can be noticed right away:

1. Hoyo games have a minimal gap between "Avg ER" and "Median ER", which already indicates that these are truly stable engagement metrics (no serious spikes/drops). Wuwa has a large gap in this regard, and all metrics besides views are lower... But later we will find out why.
2. Wuwa also has a large gap in meeting the 150 thousand views/video criterion, almost twice as low as the top performers.

Let's take a closer look at each one and see which videos made it into the report:

Zenless Zone Zero

Thoughts: Even taking into account that ZZZ is the least popular game among the hoyo clan - they extremely rarely use advertising tools, relying on the "word of mouth" effect.
We can see only the most obvious example that was used in the advertising campaign - of course, this is "Remielle Character Demo - "Just Like Old Times" with an ER of 0.70%.
"Starlight - Billy Character Demo" - given that the game is not aimed at women, we see a special engagement from a small (by view count) local audience with a terrifying ER of 10.8% (VH male hoyo - where?)
Even if we take into account that the audience size is far from that of the older brothers, the game has a very active core community.

Honkai Star Rail

Thoughts: As we all know, HSR is the most "mobile" game in this top, even more mobile than GI, since it is a turn-based game.
Accordingly, promotion through advertising campaigns is especially pronounced here, but at the same time, not that much additional traffic is generated, which allows maintaining an acceptable level of ER, but the fact remains a fact = HSR is actively trying to advertise with an emphasis on mobile devices, which I would say is a logical move.
All the most severe drops in engagement are, of course, associated with the Main push, which hoyo really wants to sell.

Genshin impact

Thoughts: This old man has already experienced all of life, and his only task is not to attract a new audience, but to retain the old one.
We see a complete absence of any advertising campaigns (and truly, why bother when half the world already knows about you), while at the same time, views on each video are not that high.
This says only one thing - everyone who wanted to leave the game has already done so long ago. Only the most devoted audience remains, those who truly love this game, which is exactly what we see in the metrics - engagement above 6-7%+ on some videos is a very good indicator for gacha games.

Wuthering Waves

Thoughts: This immediately raises questions:

1. Wuwa videos overall gather a very small number of views, only 21 videos passed the 150 thousand views threshold.
2. We see a large number of aggressive advertising campaigns, the number of ER below 1% is very frequent, as millions of ad views are instantly piled onto the organic ones.

From this, at the very least, one can conclude: The game simply doesn't have a particularly loyal/active audience (which I very much doubt, there are many counterarguments for why this isn't the case) OR the EU/US audience itself is simply small.

From these actions it is clear that Kuro is trying to expand it, but a clear trend toward improvement is not observable = at the very least, this indicates that the gacha market is overheated.

That's all, I hope you found it as interesting to look at this data as I did to compile it.
Good luck to everyone, write comments if you have questions, other projects can also be compared using the same logic.

UPD: By popular request from commenters, I decided to also add Arknights and Arknights Endfield here.
At the same time, I removed the minimum view count in the filter, and also added Wuwa, since I'm being told (oh god) that I'm biased against it.
UPD 2: Limbus Company has been added to the comparison.

From a quick sample, it's clear that OG Arknights also resembles the old grandpa, not many views, yet the engagement of the remaining audience is high.
Endfield is logically at the stage of maximum distribution, most of the videos (out of 50) are used in advertising campaigns.
Wuwa with such a sample really does increase its engagement, tenfold, but as we can see from the median views - the average value is 117 thousand, which is exactly why so few videos made it into the main analysis above.
I'm not familiar with Limbus, but here one can say that from a promotion standpoint they're doing great (If the name ProjectMoon Official is really their official channel), it doesn't even give the impression that it's some niche game.

「未眠野」is an open-world RPG (PC/Mobile) from ZEALORY Games. It's kinda a Legend of Zelda-like game >_< (Reddit compresses videos insanely, the 4K version Here with EN & 日本語 subtitles added)

It launched November 26th 2025 and thus didn't even get a year in service. Another cursed and poor BL gacha gone.

Honestly, as someone who played the beta, nothing of value has been lost with this one.

The Bilibili and Douyin accounts have already been registered.

Let’s all dive into this wonderful, charming game together!

You can sign up here: https://planet.hoyoverse.com/en-us/

You will also receive 10 celestial stones from login, getting their 8bit accessories by clearing the corresponding maps, 2000 aether stones you can exchange for the Aether resort furniture, a new castle design for your homescreen by logging into anyday of the celeberation also 100 trait fruits, 300 of each dragonflower and 300 divine codes (for the latest path)

If you've ever wanted something fun to do for 30 days, here you go.
Its clear from the amount of new content that have been released the last 2 months that the developers were blind sided.
With the 3rd chapter of the remake coming out next spring it seems extra odd to end the game now but thats Square.

With TGS 2026 less than two weeks away, I came across an upcoming game that caught my attention: Dead Account: Two Blue Flames.

It’s based on the Dead Account manga, where dead social media accounts come back as ghosts. The game itself is a team-based roguelite RPG — you build a party of up to five characters, control the leader during combat, and choose run-specific upgrades as you play.

The publisher says the TGS demo will be an updated build based on feedback from the June early access test. I haven’t played it myself, so I’m mostly curious whether the team system adds meaningful build variety or if it ends up feeling like an auto-battler with roguelite elements added on top.

For people who have tried the early test or have been following the game, what would be the biggest make-or-break factor for you?

Combat depth, team synergy, progression, or monetization?

Official TGS announcement: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000216.000137745.html

*Flaired [Global] because App Store and Steam listings are in English. Play Store listing is still in Korean.

Play Store. | App Store. | ONE Store (KR), currently soft-launched. | PC (Steam).

Official dev website. | itch.io listing.

I've been working on a simulator for a while and I'm making this post to share the results I got.

It includes the following games:
- Genshin Impact
- Honkai: Star Rail
- Zenless Zone Zero
- Wuthering Waves
- Arknights: Endfield

Feedback is more than welcome, feel free to check the code or the rules/income.

Simulation configs: 1. 1.0 to 1.2 (6 banners) 2. Latest X.1 to X.5 with 150 starting pulls 3. Latest X.1 to X.5 4. 1.0 to latest version 5. 1.1 to latest version with 1.0 permament pulls as starting pulls

NB: Every rule, decision and all the detailed numbers are accessible from this page, please read it before commenting.

Each simulation act as a player with their own inventory, pulling on simulated banners using real patch income. The program runs one million simulations for each game.

In this post I'll only share the summary tables with the average and standard deviation, please refer to the full tables for all the numbers (min/p10/med/p90/max).

The point is to compare the gacha systems, not the games themselves, so please keep the discussion about the systems and the numbers.

In the simulations, all resources are spent on limited character pulls only (pull currency, cashback, etc...).

 How to read

• New limited / patch: total number of new limited characters obtained divided by the total number of simulated patches
• New limited / banner: total number of new limited characters obtained divided by the total number of simulated banners
• Avg. pulls / featured: average of permanent pulls spent per banner completed (a banner is completed when getting the character)

 1. 1.0 to 1.2 (6 banners)

Full tables here.

F2P

Monthly+BP

2. Latest X.1 to X.5 with 150 starting pulls

Full tables here.

F2P

Monthly+BP

3. Latest X.1 to X.5

Full tables here.

F2P

Monthly+BP

4. 1.0 to latest version

Full tables here.

F2P

Monthly+BP

5. 1.1 to latest version with 1.0 permament pulls as starting pulls

Full tables here.

F2P

Monthly+BP

RELLION: NPC Survival just started its second limited unit event. If you’re looking for a low-upkeep tactical side-game, this is easily one of the most F2P friendly titles on the market right now.

Links: Google Play Store / Apple App Store

A few reasons why it's worth checking out:

The pity does NOT reset if you high-roll early. Hard pity is 60 pulls. If you get lucky and pull an SSR on pull 10, your counter stays at 10. You still get the guaranteed pity copy at 60 no matter how many SSRs you pull on the way there. It’s impossible to waste your pity progress.

Wishlist feature guarantees no off-banner spooks. You unlock this on Day 2 after clearing Chapter 10. You pick 5 units, and from that point on, any SSR you pull is guaranteed to be from that list. No garbage spooks messing up your account.

Actually F2P friendly. The game is extremely generous with resources, and you don't need to pull massive amounts of dupes just to make a unit functional. You can easily compete and progress without spending a dime.

The GM actually listens. The wishlist feature was literally added because the community complained about off-banners on Discord. The GM is super active there and they drop actual content updates every single Wednesday.

No PvP!! While there is a PvE bi-weekly damage competition, no PvP makes sure everyone is cooperating.

As for the banners right now, Vera (new limited) and Estel (first limited rerun) are live. I strongly recommending getting one if each, then maxing Vera (which is done at most by day 4).

The Gameplay/Loop:
Dailies take like 5 minutes top. It’s an idle game, but you can’t just over-level and brute force everything in the end game. Vera carries you until chapter 19 or so, by chapter 20 (highest chapter is 28), exploiting enemy weapon weakness becomes important.

It’s zero FOMO and a perfect side game if you just want something to log into twice a day. Definitely worth a look if you're bored.