Arknights: Endfield makes $46m in first month on mobile

• Arknights: Endfield generated $46 million in its first month on mobile, led by Japan and China.
• Player spending peaked on January 23rd, one day after global launch.

Gryphline’s gacha RPG Arknights: Endfield has generated $46 million in its first month on mobile.

According to AppMagic estimates, iOS players have accounted for the bulk of that spending at $28.3m, or 61%. Google Play gamers have spent the remaining $17.7m.

Geographically, the majority of spending has come from players in Asia, with Japan and China totalling 39% and 28% of global spend respectively. Notably, Japan’s percentage share has grown while China’s has fallen over the past fortnight.

Currently, the US market follows in third at 10% of global player spend.

The action title launched worldwide on January 22nd across mobile, PC and PS5, meaning its total earnings are likely higher still when including other platforms. The game also has an online web shop.

A small amount of spending was also recorded on January 21st, as it appears some Western users gained access to play and spend before the official release date.

Back with a bang?

After picking up $2.5m between the major mobile stores at launch, Arknights: Endfield’s most lucrative day yet quickly followed on January 23rd. Players spent $4.2m on this second day globally, up 70% from the day prior.

Spending proceeded to decline over the next two weeks with 13 consecutive days of decline, but a sudden spike on February 7th aligned with the first new gacha banner post-launch. The banner introduced six-star character Gilberta, a nature-element support unit currently considered among the most valuable in the game.

In Arknights: Endfield, six-star characters have a pull rate of less than 1% and players are only guaranteed someone of this rarity after 80 attempts on a banner. However, this could be any six-star. They aren’t guaranteed a banner’s flagship character - Gilberta in this case - until 120 pulls.

Evidently, this low chance for the new teammate, but promised a guarantee with high investment, led to an increase in spending often seen from gacha games. Player spending surged from $1.1m on the 6th to $2.4m with Gilberta’s release on the 7th, a rise of 107%.

The brief increase lasted for just three days before returning to pre-banner levels, indicating the beginning of a trend observed across hits like Genshin Impact, Love and Deepspace and Wuthering Waves.

It is likely, therefore, that the next banner featuring Yvonne on February 24th will trigger another short spending spike.

February 7th was considered "phase two" of Arknights: Endfield version 1.0, with limited-time events, combat drills and a weapons banner also introduced. Tomorrow will commence "phase three", seeing players through to version 1.1 in March.

"Phase one" had a problematic start for Gryphline, as Arknights: Endfield launched with a PayPal bug which wrongly charged certain players for others’ purchases. This resulted in some users being charged in multiple currencies, unwittingly paying for transactions they did not make.

Gryphline became aware of the issue on launch day and has disabled PayPal as a payment option until the issue is resolved.