Goddess of Victory: Nikke hits $1bn on mobile during Romantic Valentine event

Shift Up’s action shooter RPG Goddess of Victory: Nikke has surpassed $1 billion in lifetime player spending on mobile, joining the unicorn club in just under two-and-a-half years.

After launching on November 4th, 2022, the title raced to $553 million in gross mobile player spending during its first year.

Revenue slowed down somewhat in year two, with $344.3m spent by players, but that rate of spending accelerated again during the second anniversary in November 2024, kickstarting year three.

According to AppMagic estimates – comprising player spending on Google Play and the App Store – Goddess of Victory: Nikke has since crossed the $1bn gross mark on February 15th, 2025.

It should be noted that the title is also available on PC, which these revenue estimates do not include.

Victory road

The title’s launch month remains its most lucrative to this day, having generated $106.8m in November 2022. That marks the only time it has hit nine figures on mobile and is its only month above $70m.

Goddess of Victory: Nikke gained attention quickly for its sometimes controversial, often suggestive illustrations, with characters Rupee and Yumi having received design changes early on. This led to fans voicing their complaints online around censorship from publisher Tencent, but far from halted its fast march from milestone to milestone.

The game’s second strongest month followed immediately after its launch month with December 2022 seeing $68.4m in player spending – though this marked the beginning of a five-month decline down to $33.6m in April 2023.

Lifetime earnings surpassed $500m in September and year one ended with another $23.3m earned in October 2023.

This was followed by a 93% spike to $44.9m during the first anniversary one month later. As a result, November was again Goddess of Victory: Nikke’s most lucrative month in year two, driven by celebratory gacha characters like the rare SSR Red Hood.

Monthly player spending often dipped below $20m in the game’s second year, but the second anniversary again proved lucrative in November 2024, even outperforming the first with $50.4m spent by mobile players. It was the game’s best month since January 2023, driven in part by antagonist Cinderella’s addition to the gacha as an SSR character.

The anniversary also revisited the villain’s story from her perspective, giving players a fresh look at earlier events. Furthermore, they were incentivised to log in each day until November 28th to unlock a free recruit to play with, likely contributing to the increased player spending throughout the month.

Fast-forward to February 2025 and Goddess of Victory passed the $1bn mark during the Romantic Valentine event, which saw players run a pirate-themed maid café with temporary minigames like cleaning tables, organising waitresses and serving customers the correct orders.

The event itself didn’t cause any significant spike in player spending, having peaked at just $843,000 on its first day, January 30th.

Taking a victory lap

Goddess of Victory’s $1bn achievement has come predominantly as a result of Japanese players, who have contributed 58% of lifetime mobile spending or $592.3m.

The US market has been the game’s second most lucrative with $175.4m spent in-game, approximately 17% of worldwide earnings, while South Korea is at a close third with $170.8m – also roughly 17%.

No other single country has contributed more than 1% of the game’s global earnings.

With $1bn behind it, Goddess of Victory: Nikke’s second collaboration with hit anime Evangelion is currently in progress, the first part of which helped shift the game up Japan’s revenue charts.