As September began, the summer traffic dividend gradually faded, but the new-game market did not cool completely. Domestic supply remained stable, with Tencent, Lilith Games, and Bilibili still appearing among publishers and data growing steadily. Overseas markets, meanwhile, showed active regional performance and revenue concentration in hardcore genres. Overall, not all genres grew in tandem; mature IP, regional publishing, and lightweight gameplay jointly sustained momentum in selected markets.

First, let us review domestic titles launched in the middle and second half of August that entered the subsequent statistical period covered by this ranking. NetEase’s Fantasy Westward Journey: A New Chapter continued the classic turn-based gameplay and social ecosystem of the Fantasy Westward Journey series. Leveraging the user base accumulated by its mature IP, it generated estimated first-month revenue of more than $4.22 million. Unlike products that create market attention through new themes or gameplay, this title did not significantly change the core experience. Instead, it fully embraced the nostalgia route, using classic characters, schools, equipment progression, and guild-based social play to bring back veteran users and attract new ones. Stable reactivation and continued spending by core users jointly supported a relatively steady revenue curve after the initial launch peak.

Released around the same time by Tanzhi Universe, Lord of Mysteries displayed the typical characteristics of a new IP adapted into a mobile game when viewed through its first-month revenue trend. After entering September, as the launch benefits and concentrated-exposure effect gradually weakened, overall revenue moved into a downward channel. The new auto-chess mode “Fool’s Game,” launched in the middle of the month, partially reversed the decline but had not yet formed a sustainable growth pillar. Ultimately, estimated first-month revenue settled at approximately $10.26 million, driven mainly by recognition of the popular IP, concentrated exposure during launch, and periodic live operations. Whether it can sustain momentum will depend on the effects of new gameplay and continued content updates.

Returning to September’s new-game data, six titles met the statistical criteria for inclusion in our ranking. Both the number of products and their performance across the two platforms improved notably. With major IPs entering the market, leading-title data also achieved a clear breakthrough over previous periods. This issue continues to rank key domestic releases in September primarily by estimated monthly revenue and provides a brief analysis.

First is the hero-strategy battle game Honor of Kings: Chess, released by Tencent’s TiMi Studio Group on the foundation of the mature Honor of Kings IP. In September, it recorded more than 4.06 million downloads and $10.84 million in estimated revenue, clearly leading other releases from the same period on both downloads and revenue. It became one of the few new games in recent months to deliver a phenomenon-level performance. Before launch, the product continuously accumulated users through reservations, friend invitations, community attention, and task-based raffles. The reservation campaign was also connected to benefits in Honor of Kings and the Honor of Kings Camp. After launch, activities including free collection of all chess players, free skins and boards, and an exclusive skin for Gongsun Li further lowered the barrier for IP audiences to enter and experience the game. Continuous benefits and cross-channel IP coordination efficiently converted reservation traffic.

At the gameplay level, Honor of Kings: Chess did not simply reproduce the traditional auto-chess model. While retaining the composition-building and strategic-battle framework, it removed the complex gold economy, replaced it with fixed-energy progression, and added chess-player abilities, unlimited-level progression, random talents, and effect cards to increase match playability and strategic depth. The product’s outstanding first-month performance therefore came not only from large-scale traffic diversion generated by the Honor of Kings IP ecosystem, but also from its high-density launch-event design and innovative gameplay.

Next came the overseas-return product Tata Adventure Team, published by Lilith Games’ Farlight Games. Its overseas version, Clash of Critters, had already launched in multiple global markets since May this year, topping the U.S. iOS free chart on its first day and entering the free charts in multiple countries and regions. By the end of September, the overseas version had generated more than $65.18 million in estimated revenue. The product combines pachinko, pet collection and progression, vertical tower defense, and camp management. Its theme, art style, and core loop have already been validated overseas. The China version also drew on overseas operating experience in areas such as seasonal structures, match duration, and leaderboard rules. As a result, it achieved a strong China launch, with estimated first-month revenue exceeding $8.57 million (approximately RMB 57.41 million).

Lumi Master, a vertical, healing-oriented pet-catching and management mobile game published by Bilibili Games and developed by Shanghai HuanDian Information Technology, generated more than $3.25 million in estimated revenue in September. It uses a 2D hand-drawn picture-book style and is not positioned as a traditional hardcore RPG. Instead, it is designed as a “secondary game,” centered on pet catching, collection, progression, and home management. Auto-exploration, resource collection, and offline production reduce the need for repetitive and continuous operation, while trading and guild world bosses add long-term progression space beyond the lightweight gameplay. For domestic promotion, Bilibili expanded content distribution through creator incentives on Douyin, Xiaohongshu, TapTap, and other platforms, while announcing future IP collaborations to sustain UGC-community momentum. These initiatives helped the product establish an initial foothold in the currently hot pet-catching category.

The final domestic releases were Immortal Inversion: The Original and two titles launched at the end of the month, Shell Fighter! and IMA. Compared with the first two leading products, all three lagged to some extent in download scale and revenue, but their differences also reflect the clear divergence in the current domestic new-game market. Immortal Inversion: The Original, released by Zhiwan Games, leverages the Immortal Inversion IP and follows a more idle, lightweight-strategy approach, lowering the entry barrier through a familiar worldview, characters, and progression system. More than 780,000 downloads in its first week proved that the IP has meaningful influence, but its revenue performance compared with leading IP products from the same period also shows that launch traffic does not necessarily convert into revenue at the same scale.

Shell Fighter!, published by Xingqiu Technology, and IMA, published by Qule Tang Network, launched relatively late, so their first-month performance requires further observation. However, their differing emphasis in downloads and revenue reflects the gap between initial acquisition and monetization conversion for lightweight new releases.

Turning overseas, eight new titles entered our field of view last month. Compared with the domestic market, the number and data scale of overseas new releases remained higher, although the gap was less pronounced than in previous months. In terms of product types, new supply showed clear regional and IP-driven characteristics. Korean MMOs continued to arrive and demonstrated strong dominance in their home market. At the same time, Chinese publishers continued expanding overseas through global publishing, regional versions, and lightweight products.

Among overseas new releases launched at the end of August, Com2uS’s Korean MMORPG Zeus: God of Arrogance continued to demonstrate strong revenue retention in South Korea after entering September. The official team continued releasing PvE and PvP content, including guild dungeons, boss challenges, siege battles, and arenas, gradually enriching the product’s competitive and social experience. The asynchronous PvP mode Arena, launched around September 9, lowered the barrier to real-time matching by generating AI clones of players and created a new revenue window. By the end of September, estimated first-month revenue had settled at $30.03 million.

Clash of Critters, which entered Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, China, Macao, China, and South Korea at the end of August, achieved estimated first-month revenue of more than $10.74 million, initially validating its payment potential in Asian markets. In these markets, Lilith Games localized its messaging around the positioning of a “relaxed, healing, cute-pet” product. It offered regional benefits such as the Skycage Rat upon download and invited Taiwan, China singer Hsiao Huang-chi and South Korean entertainer Jeon Eun-bi to film promotional shorts together, packaging the core “one-shot stress relief” gameplay as content closer to everyday life. Compared with simply emphasizing combat and numerical progression, this localized marketing strengthened the product’s casual identity and made it easier to reach broad audiences.

Duck Survival, published by Joy Net Games for Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, China, and Macao, China, did not begin operations from zero. Its international version had already launched in multiple global markets in May and had undergone a relatively long period of overseas operations and user acquisition by the previous month. The Traditional Chinese version was repackaged regionally. Before launch, the publisher warmed up the market around selling points such as generous opening benefits, ducks fighting with guns, and a screen full of zombies. Supply boxes, draw rewards, and exclusive weapons after launch, combined with mature lawn-mower shooter gameplay and Roguelike skill combinations, further sustained its momentum and revenue.

Efun Company’s Log W: Remains of God, released in South Korea, collaborated with the popular Naver Webtoon IP Tower of God shortly after its launch events, in early September. Collaboration characters, limited UR+ hero outfits, and emotes injected new momentum into first-month revenue, ultimately generating more than $3.26 million in estimated revenue.

In addition, two products launched overseas at the end of August, Real Gangster: Open World 3D and MiniMuse, delivered particularly strong download performance. Both exceeded 4.58 million downloads in this ranking period. The former expanded its reach through its open-world theme and advertising model, while the latter met users’ expressive needs through highly customizable creation and social sharing. Both achieved large-scale global acquisition through low onboarding barriers and clear content selling points.

Returning to the new releases that ranked in September, we continue to divide overseas products by revenue. The first tier consists solely of the Korean MMORPG Eclipse: The Awakening, published by Smilegate and developed by NPIXEL. It officially launched in South Korea on September 10 and generated more than $18.78 million in estimated revenue that month, mainly from South Korea, making it the strongest-revenue overseas new release in this issue.

Eclipse: The Awakening positions itself as “MMO Lite.” It does not completely abandon the traditional MMORPG systems of character progression, dungeons, and competition, but lowers users’ time commitment through a series of burden-reduction designs. Its Sanctuary system handles offline experience, progression materials, and summon resources, allowing players to continue growing without staying online for long periods. Its AI mode also supports continued hunting after players go offline, reducing the burden of repetitive auto-play and long online sessions in traditional MMORPGs. The product also expanded exposure through local offline brand collaborations, supporting its first-month performance.

The second tier is occupied by World of Water, published by Yi World’s publishing brand Just Game. The product uses differentiated names and localized packaging for different markets, emphasizing disaster survival, crazy adventure, or an ocean world in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, China, Macao, China, and Europe and the United States. Advertising creatives were also adjusted for local markets. After launch, benefits and events including 210 consecutive draws, SSR crew members, and R-level equipment sustained retention. With its close operational execution, the product ultimately generated more than $5.24 million in estimated first-month revenue.

The third tier consists of two titles with revenue around $3 million. The first is Lumi Master, launched by Bilibili Games and corresponding to the domestic title Lumi Master. Its overseas version generated more than $3.7 million in estimated revenue in only two weeks after launch, with the United States, Japan, and Taiwan, China as the main sources. Global reservations exceeded 3 million before launch. During the opening period, the S1 “Knight and Dragon” season added an exclusive map, limited outfits, and a season pass, providing ongoing retention goals during the first month. Operationally, it also adopted domestic creator incentives and social-media campaign strategies. By comparison, the product performed better overseas.

The second is Aniimo, the overseas version of the domestic title IMA, published by Pawprint Studio. On the overseas publishing side, Aniimo places greater emphasis on global brand exposure and multi-platform coverage. The product announced launch information through international game shows such as Gamescom, reached core players simultaneously through PC and console platforms including Steam and the Epic Games Store, and accumulated launch attention through global pre-registration and milestone rewards. After launch, the official team also planned to expand content reach through celebrity promotion and offline restaurant-brand collaborations. Its overseas performance was therefore also better than its domestic performance.

Finally, BanG Dream! Our Notes, published by Bushiroad for Japan and developed by FROMTOKYO, relies on the mature BanG Dream! female-band IP. Rather than simply continuing the previous title’s rhythm-game content, it adds the multiplayer competitive mechanism “Exciting Live” and brings three existing bands together with two new bands, Millsage and Dumb Rock!, in the same product. It also offers Live2D, music videos, lightweight modes, and an assist mode to lower the barrier for new users approaching rhythm games. In fewer than 10 days after launch, it generated more than $1.69 million in estimated revenue in Japan, with strong payment conversion.

Beyond the titles above, several products in the September overseas ranking also performed strongly on downloads, including the classic hyper-casual title Snow Race and Castlevania, KONAMI’s port of the classic title marking the series’ 40th anniversary. Overall, whether a product acquires users through IP traffic, lightweight gameplay, or high revenue through hardcore progression systems, the key factor determining whether it can maintain a certain scale of revenue is whether it can convert launch momentum into stable retention and long-term spending.