Wuthering Waves, a new free-to-play gacha title from Chinese studio Kuro Games, launched globally last week. Let’s take a closer look at its revenue, downloads, and other metrics on mobile.
- According to AppMagic, Wuthering Waves generated $9.78 million in IAP revenue (reduced by platform fees and inclusive taxes) on iOS and Android in the first five days of its May 22 launch.
- China is currently the number one region by revenue, accounting for 39% of the total. It is followed by the US (17.6%), Japan (16.6%), South Korea (8%), and Taiwan (5.3%).
- On May 24, the game’s IAP revenue peaked at $2.7 million, with the two following days bringing in $2.5 million and $2.3 million respectively. At this rate, it is likely to surpass the $14 million mark by the end of its first week.
- Wuthering Waves has already generated 5.93 million downloads globally. China accounts for 25% of all installs, followed by the US (18%), Indonesia (8%), Japan (5.5%), and Russia (5%).
- On its launch day, May 22, the game generated almost 1.5 million installs, and the number of daily installs dropped below the 1 million mark on May 26.
- Interestingly, the majority of both downloads (54%) and revenue (84%) come from the App Store.
- Wuthering Waves has a $1.65 RpD (revenue per download) globally. Hong Kong boasts the highest RpD at $5.32, followed by Japan ($5.25), Taiwan ($4.16), South Korea ($3.53), and Singapore ($3.09).
- Given the huge popularity of anime-style games with gacha mechanics in Asia, it is no surprise that players in this region are the most active spenders.
- Like Genshin Impact and its other rivals, the game is also available on PC, but it is difficult to make any estimates on the platform.
Wuthering Waves is the second large project from Chinese developer Kuro Games. Its previous game, action RPG Punishing: Gray Raven, generated over 13.5 million downloads and $111 million in lifetime IAP revenue on mobile (via AppMagic). Despite its success, the studio is definitely betting big on Wuthering Waves, which is similar to other cross-platform free-to-play titles like Genshin Impact, but with a greater emphasis on the combat.
Given the successful launch and all the comparisons to miHoYo’s products due to the similar art style and monetization mechanics, it will be interesting to see whether Kuro Games manage to retain the audience in the long run.