The Anime-style Mobile Game Ecosystem Is Undergoing a Structural Shift

In the first half of 2025, the anime-style mobile game market demonstrated significant new trends across player demographics, gameplay design, user engagement, and product lifecycle.

Based on in-depth analysis of user profiles and behavioral data from representative titles in China, Japan, and South Korea, we observe that the development trajectory of anime-style games is shifting — transitioning from a focus on visual appeal to immersive experience, and evolving from niche subcultural appeal to broader emotional resonance.

This marks a profound ecosystem transformation driven by deepening user preferences.

Female dominance is no longer a rising trend—it's the new market baseline

Once the silent driving force behind the anime-game community, female players have now become the primary demographic shaping the category landscape.

In traditional RPGs such as Fate/Grand Order and Genshin Impact, female users now account for over 65% of the player base.

In female-targeted romance games like Love and Deepspace, the proportion rises to an impressive 85%.（from FoxData）

Gender and Age Demographics in Love and Deepspace

Similarly, simulation and character-raising games like Uma Musume Pretty Derby also show a dominant female player base of over 75%.

This indicates that user preferences for aesthetic appeal, emotional engagement, and personalized companionship are increasingly shaping design direction—shifting away from traditional “cold” narratives toward warmer, more emotionally resonant experiences.

Moreover, the influence of middle-aged female players should not be overlooked.

For example, in South Korea, the proportion of female users aged 35–45 in titles like Love and Deepspace and Uma Musume Pretty Derby is significantly higher than in China or Japan. This suggests that anime-style mobile games, once largely driven by youth subcultures, are now expanding into much broader age demographics.

This demographic shift raises an important challenge for developers:

How can they continually respond to the complex and evolving content value expectations of multi-generational female players—from character development and narrative arcs to community engagement and emotional resonance?

Content Has Become the Battleground for Long-Term Retention — Novelty ≠ Sustainability

Several new titles, such as Zenless Zone Zero and Wuthering Waves, experienced major initial buzz following launch, but failed to sustain player engagement in terms of daily active users or average session length.

The daily active user (DAU) analysis tools provided by FoxData reveal a common underlying issue behind the rapid rise and fall of many new titles.

The core reasons likely include:

• Strong initial novelty, but insufficient content depth and weak update cadence;
• A lack of immersive progression pathways, resulting in poor retention and accelerated player churn.

These findings reinforce the necessity of a content-driven product strategy.

For example, Reverse: 1999 maintained an average play session exceeding 15 minutes in both the Japanese and Korean markets—demonstrating the long-tail value of a high-quality, narrative-driven single-player RPG experience.

Conclusion

A dynamic content update cycle, an ever-expanding and sustainable worldbuilding framework, and well-paced interactive experiences are essential components for any breakout title to evolve into a long-term success story.

Localization Is No Longer Just Translation—It's About Telling the Right Story for the Right Market

In the face of global competition, relying solely on visual consistency or an established IP is no longer sufficient to win over deeply diverse player bases.

The success of Genshin Impact stands as a clear example of how narrative and emotional localization can be achieved:

• Story arcs are crafted with cultural resonance, incorporating distinct theme regions such as Inazuma and Sumeru to reflect different real-world influences;
• Characters and world-building are tailored to establish emotional relevance with local audiences;
• Localization goes beyond text and voice—it extends to voice actor casting, community dynamics, and even cultural event integration.

One clear marker of advanced localization is this: it's not just linguistically accurate—it's emotionally authentic.

In the past year alone, Genshin Impact generated over $100 million in revenue, underscoring the effectiveness of its global localization strategy.

This approach has also proven successful in Love and Deepspace.

By collaborating with local voice actors, synchronizing in-game events with regional holidays, and tailoring character traits to align with local aesthetic preferences, the game has significantly increased its acceptance and popularity in both the Japanese and South Korean markets—providing sustained momentum and cultural relevance across regions.

Nostalgia Alone Isn’t Enough — Content Updates Define the Long Game for Legacy IPs

In 2025, Fate/Grand Order (FGO) celebrates its ten-year anniversary—a milestone that marks not just longevity, but a full narrative and operational cycle comparable to a major life stage. Throughout its decade-long journey, FGO has undergone spectacular early success, mid-cycle upheavals, content revamps, and now, a phase of steady long-term operation.

Data shows that over this ten-year span, user retention on the App Store in mainland China has remained almost flat (+0.17%), with only minor fluctuations seen in Japan and South Korea—a rare level of stability in the fast-moving, high-churn mobile game landscape.

This data doesn't necessarily suggest that FGO is still at the peak of its vitality. Rather, it illustrates something arguably more remarkable:

even amid a noticeable decline in user immersion and daily playtime, a large portion of the player base continues to stay anchored in this familiar world.

What sustains FGO is not just its core gameplay, visual design, or gacha mechanics—it's the emotional symbiosis that has developed over ten years between the game and its audience.

As Nasu Kinoko, the game’s creative director, stated in a recent interview marking FGO’s tenth anniversary:

“These ten years have changed the course of my life.”

To Nasu and the development team, FGO is not merely a commercial product—it’s a journey undertaken side by side with players. And for the players, they are no longer just “end users,” but co-authors of the world being built.

This depth of connection and shared narrative resonance is a form of emotional capital that newer titles rarely achieve in short development cycles.While FGO has faced increasing challenges including aging systems and slower content updates, its longevity stems from a deeply built emotional foundation—players remain for the characters, the interconnected arcs, and the stories they’ve experienced and contributed to over the years.

From the Camelot arc in Chapter 6 to the Three Goddess Alliance in Chapter 7; from the creatively liberating 1.5 arc to the ideological clashes of the Lostbelt saga—each chapter has become a place of pause, a moment of memory, and a shared point of meaning for longtime fans.

This is no longer just a mobile game—it is a living, evolving world bound by companionship.

Conclusion: Three Critical Questions in the Genre's Transformation

The anime-style mobile game genre has already entered a new phase defined by high-quality content, deeper user narratives, and culturally adaptive evolution.

1. To thrive in this next era, every publisher must ask themselves three critical questions:My core users are evolving—am I meeting the value they seek today, not yesterday?
2. Does my worldbuilding offer enough immersion and emotional relevance to engage users across generations?
3. Can my release cadence sustain a narrative flow that's worth logging into every day, every month, every season?

Anime-style mobile games are no longer confined to niche enthusiast circles—they are now a significant force shaping mainstream digital storytelling.

Only those who truly understand the shifting desires of their audience will emerge as long-term leaders in this content-driven battlefield.