AFK Arena celebrates seventh anniversary and over $1.5bn in lifetime earnings

• AFK Arena has generated 32% of its mobile revenue from China.
• At its peak, 82% of monthly revenue came from the game's home country.

Lilith Games' idle RPG AFK Arena is celebrating its seventh anniversary today after surpassing $1.5 billion in lifetime player spending, according to AppMagic estimates.

The mobile game launched globally on April 9th, 2019 to immediate success, from $12.1 million in its first month to $469.8m in its first year.

Player spending grew for four consecutive months after launch and rocketed in early 2020 with a record spending peak that January when AFK Arena earned $105.4m in a single month.

Despite monthly spending peaking during that first year, AppMagic estimates suggest annual spending reached its highest during the pandemic. The game’s second year commenced in April 2020 and went on to generate $528.3m.

The title verged on its first $1bn in just two years, therefore.

Chinese dominance - for a time

AFK Arena has found the most success in its home country, China. Over the years, 32% of mobile player spending is estimated to have come from China, followed by 24% from the US.

South Korea is further behind at 11%, followed closely by Japan’s 10% spending share.

Critically, AFK Arena didn’t launch within China until January 2020. A significant 81% of player spending came from the country that month. Despite launching later there than most of the globe, China went on to account for 47% of overall mobile player spending during the game’s first year.

Sequel AFK Journey followed a similar pattern, having launched outside of China first and establishing itself in Western markets before surging to success in its home country.

In AFK Arena’s case, China’s contribution to global player spending fell to 31% in year two and has continued to decline since, as the game overall has also fallen in earnings for five consecutive years. Since the sixth anniversary in April 2025, AFK Arena has picked up another $28.8m globally, of which $4.2m of this came from China.

It should be noted that AFK Arena’s overall revenue is likely higher when including the Steam version and earnings from mobile stores outside Google Play and the App Store, especially considering its success in China.

Lilith Games monetises AFK Arena with gacha mechanics, subscriptions, bundles and more. It also runs in-game ads, further adding to its lifetime revenue beyond what player spending estimates reflect.

To celebrate the seventh anniversary, a new version update was launched on April 7th bringing "an unprecedented astral phenomenon" and the five-star ranger Serennia to the land of Esperia.

New game mode Otherworld Fishing has been added, as has a year in review for players - able to view stats like enemies defeated, total voyages and EXP earned while AFK.

Despite its declining revenue, AFK Arena remains Lilith’s second most-lucrative mobile game in its portfolio on a lifetime basis, only beaten by Rise of Kingdoms. Sequel AFK Journey has been outearning AFK Arena since its 2024 release and almost doubled the original title’s revenue in 2025.