Gacha shooter Goddess of Victory: Nikke has surpassed $400m in mobile revenue, putting it within spitting distance of other heavyweight titles such as half-billion-beating Diablo Immortal.

That’s according to Japanese data from Sensor Tower. Given that Goddess of Victory: Nikke was released in November of 2022 compared to July 2022 for Diablo, the title has a few months to catch up.

Goddess of Victory: Nikke, a gacha title, has seen intense interest mainly due to the levels of fanservice (read: risque or titillating content) contained within the title, and discussions around its gacha mechanics and use of “pity pulls”. Sensor Tower previously reported that Nikke had blazed past Diablo Immortal’s initial revenue targets as it reached $70m within its first month of release.

Risque Revenue

Giving credit where it's obviously due it’s worth noting how Goddess differs in terms of gameplay to many other gacha titles. Whereas most sit comfortably in the RPG genre, Nikke offers an over-the-shoulder shooter experience not unlike what you might find on console or PC. Add onto that the generous gacha mechanics which offer rewards even to players who fail to score valuable items after a certain number of "pulls" and any apparent mystery behind Nikke's success disappears.

But the fact that it’s within a few hundred million of Diablo Immortal, a title backed by an equally massive company but from a much longer-established franchise is an important metric for analysts to observe. It’s not yet clear whether it will manage to surpass Diablo Immortal in revenue, which has a head start, but if it does it could present a new major case study on how to succeeded with radical content.

When November rolls around and full year results are in we'll see just who comes out on top.