The MMORPG market has significantly changed here in Europe and the USA. Few new games are coming out. However, MMORPGs are booming in Asia. This is partly due to 2 mobile MMORPGs that are extremely successful there, which hardly anyone knows here.
What games are they? They are 2 mobile MMORPGs from the “Lineage” brand.
Lineage 2 Revolution is an action MMORPG where much runs on autoplay. You grind and equip your character. However, you don’t necessarily have to play the game yourself – you can let it run like a “MMORPG Manager”. You only check occasionally to see what the hero is currently slicing away on the mobile.
Many mobile games from Netmarble are successful in this pattern, which is considered a mobile pioneer in South Korea. The boss there is seen as the Korean Steve Jobs.
Lineage 2 Revolution is based on the MMORPG license Lineage. It reportedly came into being under such great time pressure at the end of 2016 that an employee supposedly worked themselves to death.
Lineage M is the mobile port of Lineage, a PC MMORPG from 1998 and thus a classic MMORPG.
Lineage M comes from the “traditional” MMORPG company NCSoft, which had only made PC games for years (Aion, Blade & Soul, WildStar, Guild Wars 2), but then reinvented and revitalized itself overnight with Lineage M.
$4 billion generated in less than 3 years
How successful are the games? According to a new report from Sensor Tower, the “Lineage” franchise has now generated $4 billion on mobile. And that in less than 3 years on iOS and Android:
- Lineage 2 M has earned $2.3 billion – the game was only released on June 21, 2017.
- Lineage 2 Revolution has earned $1.7 billion, it was released on December 14, 2016.
Most of the revenue from both games comes from Android.
A player of Lineage M spends on average $279 – a player of Lineage 2 Revolution only spends $57.
Huge in Asia – Big in Japan
Where are these games successful? Both MMORPGs are almost exclusively successful in the Asian market. In South Korea, the PC franchise “Lineage” is even bigger than WoW here.
Lineage M:
- made 89.5% of its revenue in South Korea – $2 billion
- earned $203 million in Taiwan, about 9%
- and generated $23 million in Hong Kong, about 1%
As can be seen from NCSoft’s business reports, mobile games currently earn about twice as much per quarter as PC games.
Lineage 2 Revolution:
- earned $993 million in South Korea, about 57%
- was successful in Japan, making $410 million there – 23.6%
- generated about $112 million in Taiwan – 6.4%
These figures are based on estimates from Sensor Tower.
What other games are successful? Some of the super hits on mobile in Asia in recent years include:
- Honour of Kings – a kind of “Mobile LoL” that is particularly successful in China
- Fate/Grand Order – a hero-collecting game that Japan is addicted to
- and Black Desert Mobile – which has made Pearl Abyss a “global player”
Asia-Mobile Games flop in the West
What about us in Europe? Lineage 2 Revolution came to the USA and Europe but apparently could not establish itself here. Despite an advertising campaign featuring Conan O’Brien and many influencers from the Hearthstone environment, the game fizzled out here.
Lineage M is planned for Europe, but so far, there’s hardly any news. Other markets seem to be more valuable.
Black Desert Mobile is also surprisingly slow in coming to Europe.
In Asia, they ride the wave of mobile games. Lineage 2 M is already in the starting blocks. It is even supposed to be playable on PC.
Honour of Kings tried it as “Arena of Valor,” but failed.
What effect does success have? These two games are considered examples of how it has been possible in Asia to bring the “core gamer” market to mobile.
This has led to hardly any PC MMORPGs being developed in Asia – new PC MMORPGs used to be regularly released.
In Europe and the USA, the development of AAA PC MMORPGs had already stopped beforehand.
The success of mobile games is now prompting western publishers to bring their major core brands to mobile, as Diablo Immortal, Call of Duty Mobile, or LoL Mobile shows.
Many gamers here in the West view this warily. They perceive this change as negative and have made it clear to Blizzard, for example, when Diablo Immortal was presented at BlizzCon.
In Asia, they ride the wave of mobile games. Lineage 2 M is already in the starting blocks. It is even supposed to be playable on PC.
