37 Interactive Entertainment (37 Games) is celebrating a strong start to 2026. On January 16, CEO Li Yifei announced via social media that top MMO producer Chen Xialin—known for hits like Sword of Archangel, Eternal Saga, One Slash to Become Immortal, and A Mortal’s Journey to Immortality: Mortal Realm (launched in 2023, now generating ~$1.11M monthly on iOS China)—has returned to the company with her 180-person "Phoenix Studio," signaling a potential revival of 37 Games’ traditional strength in the MMO genre.

Beyond talent additions, 37 Games has delivered impressive product performance. The casual game Survival 33 Days quietly launched on domestic app stores, with steady revenue growth reaching nearly $4M in its first month on iOS. Shortly after, the MMO title Ragnarok: World Journey—a key focus as the genre regains attention—debuted in Chinese-speaking regions (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau of China), grossing over $10.9M in two weeks.

Below, DianDian Data analyzes the gameplay, market data, success factors, and 37 Games’ future strategic layout.

01 Survival 33 Days: "Honglonglong-Like" Framework + "Search-Fight-Retreat" Innovation

Stable Top 5 on Mini-Games, $3.85M iOS Revenue in Debut Month

Survival 33 Days adopts the mature post-apocalyptic survival theme: a mysterious virus has devastated the world, and players act as survivor leaders to fight zombies, explore ruins, build alliances, and restore human civilization. Core gameplay includes squad-based hack-and-slash, exploration, and hero development.

Officially positioned as a "open-world post-apocalyptic RPG with search-fight-retreat mechanics," the game’s underlying structure draws from the popular "Honglonglong-like" casual game model (a streamlined, accessible gameplay framework prevalent in Chinese casual games). Its innovation lies in integrating the highly trending "search-fight-retreat" element—enriching early-game exploration with diverse and engaging content.

Specifically, the game features rich sandbox maps and various "search-fight-retreat" dungeons (e.g., supermarkets, apartments, hospitals). Players navigate semi-foggy environments to defeat monsters for experience, loot supplies, and open treasure chests. Three evacuation scenarios are available, each requiring unique strategies and challenges.

Far from a hasty trend-chaser, Survival 33 Days reflects meticulous development. Public records show it was first revealed in early November 2025 and launched on Douyin (TikTok’s Chinese counterpart) on November 20, gaining traction through UGC content from influencers. It debuted at No. 72 on WeChat Mini Games’ Top-Grossing chart on November 26, 2025, and quickly climbed—topping the chart on January 3, 2026, and maintaining a Top 5 position ever since, supported by significant WeChat advertising.

Building on its mini-game success, Survival 33 Days quietly launched on iOS/Android app stores on January 1, 2026 (having secured its game license in October 2025, demonstrating 37 Games’ forward-looking market research).

After stabilizing its influence on the mini game platform, the game was quietly launched on the APP platform on January 1, 2026 (the game version was obtained in October 2025, indicating the foresight of Sanqi's market research and development). On the same day, it reached the 28th place on the iOS game free list, and the next day it reached the 139th place on the iOS game bestseller list. Since then, the bestseller list ranking has begun to fluctuate and is currently at the 40th place on the iOS game free list and the 55th place on the bestseller list.

In terms of specific market data, the iOS download volume in the first month was about 870000 (with a peak of 64000 daily downloads on the 7th day of launch, currently 15000), and the daily revenue on the iOS side increased from 110000 yuan on the first day to over 1.2 million yuan. The estimated iOS revenue for the first month is around 28 million yuan.

Overall, the emergence of "Survival 33 Days" has filled the gap in the "search, play, and withdrawal" elements of small game IAP, and is likely to significantly reduce the cost of purchasing volume. These have quickly gained a huge traffic pool on the small game side, and the high completion rate and appropriate excitement of the game have maintained its strong performance.

In addition, the linkage mode of small games first and then apps allows the latter to achieve better market performance with relatively restrained advertising when launched.

02 World Journey: Large-Scale Marketing + Nostalgic, Streamlined Gameplay $12.6M in 18 Days, Sustained Dominance

While Survival 33 Days focuses on the domestic market, Ragnarok: World Journey delivers a strong global debut in Chinese-speaking regions.

Developed in-house by 37 Games, this open-world MMORPG follows the company’s previous title Douluo Dalu: Soul Hunting World.

Dian Dian data shows that "Douluo Continent: Soul Hunting World" will be publicly released in China on July 11, 2025. In the first month, its iOS revenue reached 50.82 million yuan, but the data has been declining since then. Currently, the monthly revenue on iOS is hovering around 5 million yuan.

The background of the previous new game's high opening and low decline, the overall shrinkage of the MMO track, and the current situation of high-frequency and low success of the "Legend of Wonderland" IP mobile game have all cast a layer of uncertainty over the future of "Journey to the World", but the fact seems to be completely opposite.

Generally speaking, the domestic "Fairyland Legend" IP mobile games will give priority to Southeast Asia and China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as the first launch market. "Fairyland Legend" can fully rank among the national level games of the former in the end game era. The market share of Thailand once reached 85%. The latter also has a huge influence. It is the first game in Taiwan, China, China with more than 200000 online players. This time, "World Tour" will choose the latter.

On January 15, the public beta of the work was launched in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, China. On the same day, it topped the list of free iOS games in three regions, and at the same time, it reached the top of the list of best-selling iOS games in Macao, China, the second in Taiwan, China, China, and the third in Hong Kong, China. Up to now (February 5), it still ranks 26th in Taiwan, China, China, on the iOS game free list, 2nd in Taiwan, China, 4th in Macao, and 3rd in Hong Kong, China, on the iOS game best seller list. The list performance is very strong.

In terms of specific market data, in terms of download volume, the game started pre downloading one day in advance and achieved a download volume of 23000 on the same day. On the third day of official testing, the daily download volume increased to a peak of 44000, and then began to rapidly decline. Currently, the daily download volume is less than 5000.

In terms of daily revenue, the game earned 2.92 million yuan on the first day and rapidly increased to 5.44 million yuan the next day. Since then, the daily revenue has fluctuated between 4.5 million and 5.8 million yuan, currently around 4.6 million yuan.

Up to now, the game has been launched for 18 days, with a cumulative download of more than 300000, of which Taiwan, China accounts for 79.87%, followed by Hong Kong with a contribution of 19.51%; The total water flow is estimated to be 92.5 million yuan, with Taiwan, China and Hong Kong accounting for 81.64% and 17.3% respectively; The RPD (Single Download Revenue) is as high as 305.73 yuan.

It is worth mentioning that "Legend of Wonderland", as a classic IP, has been adapted into mobile games since 2016.

Currently, there are nearly 10 related games in operation in the Chinese Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan markets, including "RO Wonderland Legend: Guarding Eternal Love", "RO Wonderland Legend: Love Like First Encounter", "RO Wonderland Legend: Dawn", "RO Wonderland Legend: Rebirth", etc. "The performance of" World Tour "can be described as" unparalleled ", followed closely by" Guarding Eternal Love ", which was launched in 2017. The current monthly revenue is only about 6 million yuan, and the monthly revenue of other products is basically below 5 million yuan.

The outstanding performance of "Journey to the World" is undoubtedly due to the natural bonus of the IP. The synergistic effect is formed by the official large-scale advertising and promotion. According to extensive big data, the game started material advertising three months in advance, which is mid September of 2025. At that time, the scale was very small, but it began to explode during the public beta. In the past 30 days, the number of creative ads on the Apple app reached over 2000, and on the Google app it was close to 3000.

The latter invited Lin Yichen as a spokesperson, invited well-known live streamers to promote, conducted intensive lottery activities on social media, exposed resources, and conducted large-scale promotion, etc.

In addition, in terms of gameplay content, the game takes a nostalgic and burden reducing route. In addition to restoring the core experience of the PC game, the highlight is the game presentation of 3D open world gameplay, removing the combat power value system, allowing players to return to skill matching and equipment item selection. At the same time, a series of adjustments have been made to follow the current trend of reducing liver and spending in MMOs, such as significantly reducing daily task duration and providing free offline AFK function, etc.

Through horizontal comparison, "Journey to the World" is currently the best performing mobile game product in the same IP. As for its medium to long term performance, due to its excellent quality and continued strong trend in revenue, it is worth looking forward to overall.

However, it should be noted that in 2026, the "Fairyland Legend" IP mobile game market will usher in the year of outbreak. Recently, South Korean game company Gravity announced four new works at the global strategy conference. In addition to the "World Tour" mentioned in this article, there are also the actions of tower man network development, such as "RO Fairyland Legend Abyss" from MMO, "RO Fairyland Legend: The Battle of Midgaz" from ByteDance's GameAle, and "RO Fairyland Legend 3" from JoyMaker's orthodox sequel.

Therefore, in the face of ongoing challenges in the external environment, it is not easy for Journey to the World to remain at a high position and requires continuous iteration while optimizing operational strategies.

03 Summary

As a well-established game manufacturer founded in 1995 and listed on the A-share market in 2014, Sanqi Interactive Entertainment's development trajectory is almost completely synchronized with the commercialization wave of the Chinese gaming market, perfectly crossing all important nodes from page games to mobile games, from domestic to overseas, from traditional tracks such as MMO and simulation management to new trends such as casual SLG and timely layout of small games, truly achieving a leap across cycles.

Recently, Sanqi held its annual investor day in Guangzhou, during which it was clarified that the company will focus its resources on three high potential categories at the strategic level.

One is the small game that is still in a high-speed growth stage, hoping to maintain its leading market position in China for a long time. The performance of "Survival for 33 Days" confirms that with the support of non IP, the company has the ability to integrate the three elements of "theme packaging+prototype gameplay+long-term business model" for project approval. The company has simultaneously promoted multiple products under development internally, including mature IP projects such as "Breaking the Sky";

The second is SLG, which Sanqi regards as the "key to leap forward" and will continue to layout around the two core defense lines of "lightweight" and "big themes". Currently, it has multiple new SLG products under testing;

The third is the overseas leisure track. The company has been laying out for three years, and its focus will be on the "three consumption" and "two integration" fields. It is expected that new products will be launched intensively in the second half of the 26th year.

Regarding the large-scale MMO track, Sanqi stated that although it is still a key track and will choose to play steadily in the future, its strategic importance has slightly decreased compared to previous years. Product design no longer pursues high-intensity numerical driving, but will lean towards socialization and fragmentation, while shifting towards target globalization and long-term operation. As the core product of the 26 year track, "Journey to the World" will adopt a gradual distribution route starting from China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, and then Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, Europe, and America.

DianDian Data (https://app.diandian.com/?utm_lan=en) is a leading global provider of mobile app and gaming market intelligence, covering 276 countries and regions with real-time monitoring across the top 8 app distribution platforms. Leveraging our high-caliber data infrastructure, we deliver comprehensive, reliable decision-support tools to mobile developers, publishers, fintech enterprises, listed companies, and investment institutions—encompassing key metrics such as app downloads, revenue, user behavior, competitor performance, and SDK integration data. We also provide specialized growth services focused on App Store Optimization (ASO) and Apple Search Ads (ASA). Our solutions empower businesses to pinpoint growth opportunities and accelerate performance in the highly competitive global mobile market.