Love and Deepspace hits record low with 68% spending decline after Valko controversy

• Love and Deepspace version 6.0 went ahead despite controversial character Valko's removal.
• The update launched in early July, which went on to be the game's least lucrative month ever by far.

Infold Games's Love and Deepspace has seen a dramatic decline in player spending following player backlash, resulting in its worst month ever this July.

According to AppMagic estimates, the dating simulator earned $10.3 million in gross player spending between Google Play and the App Store last month, a decline of 68% month-over-month.

The game had picked up $32.4m in June, already a 20% decline from May. While June revenue peaked around the middle of the month, it ended with controversy around planned new love interest Valko.

Negative feedback around the character came from hundreds of thousands of players. Concerns included increasing the number of love interests from five to six, speculation that Valko wasn’t designed with female players in mind and theories around the real-world Imperial Japanese Army Unit 731 which conducted human experiments during the Second World War.

The latter concern was founded upon an in-game file labelled A-0731, originally discovered in April.

A record low

Despite the major update early in July, Love and Deepspace recorded its worst month for revenue ever. This status was previously held by May 2024’s $21.4m, but July 2026 failed to match even half the earnings of that prior low.

On the release of version 6.0, daily spending did rise by 177% but reached just $906,000, the peak of the update. By contrast, the version 5.0 update launched on December 31st, 2025 with a 427% daily boost, generating $6.7m on the day of its release.

Infold Games had originally planned to introduce Valko as a major part of the version 6.0 update on July 9th. The update went ahead as scheduled but without the love interest due to his last-minute removal, meaning Love and Deepspace missed out on a key hook for the new content.

It’s possible that the record-low earnings were a result of not just the backlash but an impaired update overall.

Rewards and limited-time celebratory content were still distributed and an AR photobooth feature was introduced, bringing more flexible and interactive photography options.

The update also brought a new noise reduction option to Love and Deepspace’s Sleep feature. Originally introduced last year in version 4.0, players can choose to fall asleep in real life with the game still open, soothed by their virtual love interest’s whispers, heartbeats and breathing.

As of version 6.0, players have more control over volume levels for voices and more in Sleep mode.

New features like cooking were also added, meanwhile gardening received an upgrade.

While fans in China and even state-owned media criticised Valko’s planned inclusion in version 6.0, after his cancellation global players formed a petition arguing that Valko should return "as was originally intended". This also reached hundreds of thousands of signatures.

However, Infold Games claimed in a public statement that the studio will not introduce any additional love interests in the future of the game, instead focused on expanding the stories of the five existing romance options.

It should be noted that declines in player spending don't include alternative Android stores, such as those available in China, or direct-to-consumer platforms.