Gacha Games: Everything You Need To Know

What Is Gacha Gaming And Why Are They So Popular?

Gacha games, gained popularity in the early 2010s, particularly in Japan. Gacha dominates the top-grossing iOS game charts in Japan. In 2010, the first gacha game known as the “Dragon Collection,” was released on the Japanese social platform GREE.

It is a type of videogame that uses toy vending machine mechanics and has monetization schemes. Similar to a kinder surprise toy and loot boxes, gatcha games are based on gachapon (vending machines) that have small pods or shells.

These pods contain gifts for the players. The game has an element of mystery which is what makes the gacha game popular.

Players have to make in-game purchases. You can obtain in-game currency through game play. This game encourages users to spend money to collect cards, weapons, special powers, boxes, and characters.

Players can use the cards and characters to battle other players and complete their quests or challenges. The cards and characters are of different kinds – some are low-level, while others are star-level. It is quite difficult and rare to obtain top-ranking and powerful collectible cards.

Let’s look at the data below. The consumer spending on in-game purchases i.e purchases made in the mobile gaming app besides the app download. The spending is continuously increasing and by 2025 the value will be 74.45 billion US dollars.

How Do Gacha Games Work?

Many gacha games are available for you on PC and mobile. Mostly, users are free to play the game and it works smoothly on both platforms – pc and mobile.

Gacha games are quite addicting as they have the same attraction, one has of gambling. The gacha system employs users using their virtual currency in the machine to obtain powers or weapons. Users can buy these digital currencies with real-life money.

Gacha games are simple to play. Players complete missions by engaging in combat with challenging opponents and other players while using monster cards they acquire throughout the course of the game or randomly choose from treasure chests, which is where the game’s gacha mechanic comes into play.

Players can only open a certain amount of chests when they complete tasks, but they can also pay some money to go on a chest-opening binge and receive random goodies.

In mobile gaming, gacha works by spinning a wheel or rolling a dice to obtain a random item. There are in-app purchases for this game. You will need payment of in-game currency which you get by playing or buying from real-world money to purchase digital currency. From these digital currencies, you can collect items. You can also buy gacha characters using gacha elements.

Different Types Of Gacha Games In Mobile

Now that you know what a gacha game is and how it works, I will talk about the different kinds you can play on mobile phones.

Listed below are the different types of games under gacha genre that you can play on your mobile:

Complete Gacha

This type of gacha is also known as Kompu gacha. In this type of gacha, users have to collect a set of rewards. They often promise rare “grand-prize” items to gamers who gather a specified set of items, which motivates players to spend lots of money on randomized gacha draws to finish their collections.After they have finished their challenge of collecting the series of items, they are rewarded. Getting the reward is quite rare because the process involves paying certain amounts of money which can eventually cost thousands of yen.

Box Gacha

Box or package gacha contains a box with an unknown item inside. The odds of getting a rare prize technically rise after each pull because the game’s rewards are limited. The player is aware that each reward is marked as “received”, and they are able to estimate the cost of each pull and the possibility of receiving a larger reward.Due to its greater transparency for players, Box gachas are a top choice among developers.

Sugoroku Gacha

This gacha concept is named after the Japanese board game Sugoroku and entails moving a character across a grid of squares. Each of these squares offers the players a particular reward. The more the distance between the squares, the greater the rewards.Sugoroku gachas use dice rolls to advance through the game board, therefore it’s best to think of this gacha mechanic as a miniature board game.

Step-up Gacha

This is one of the most widespread gacha systems seen in Japanese mobile games, and it requires players to move through “steps”—multiple gacha stages—that offer higher rewards with each subsequent gacha spin.The step-up gacha is therefore most preferred by high rollers. The stakes in the gacha increase as they roll it more, which keeps people spending.

Scratch Gacha

The Scratch Gacha, also known as consecutive gacha, makes use of bulk purchasing by providing tickets to the player while rolling multiple times at once (bigger purchases). Once a predetermined amount is reached, these tickets promise rarer items.

Gacha Games For Android, IOS, PS4 and PC

Video games like gacha are predominantly on mobile phones. They are ideal on phones because of their rich graphics. In fact, the games showcase huge brands like Marvel, Disney, Star Wars, and more, it may very well be the most popular genre on iOS, PC, and Android.

My top five favorite gacha games for PC and mobile are Marvel strike force, Tears of Themis, Arknights, Dungeon Hunter Champions, and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.

The best gacha games that you can play on iOS (iPhone or iPad) are Destiny Child, Illusion Connect, Another Eden, Touhou Lostword, Fire emblem heroes, etc.

Some of the games in this genre can also be played on Switch and PS4. The gatcha game “Dawn of the breakers” is available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch which makes it special. Final Fantasy Brave Exvious is another gacha game that can be played on PS4.

Like I already said, most of these games are made to play on mobile phones so you won’t find many options on other gaming devices such as switch and PS4.

Top Gacha Games 2022

Below are the top gacha games for 2022:

Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact’s continued popularity can be explained by its high quality. The fact that it is the most mentioned game on Twitter in 2022 is likely due to its quality.

Azur Lane

Azur Lane is a side-scrolling shooter that emphasizes ship-based combat by drawing inspiration from the Pacific War during World War II. Through the gacha system, you can collect more than 500 different battleships, allowing you to recreate some of that era’s most famous conflicts.When Azur Lane was first launched, it enjoyed popularity in Japan, and it quickly surpassed 5 million users worldwide. The continuous updates that keep Azur Lane up to date will draw more and more gamers to this game.

Epic Seven

Gacha game Epic Seven takes place in a fantastical setting. You gather and unlock heroes representing different elements. Every character, map, and event is beautifully illustrated to adhere to the aesthetic of the anime genre. All heroes with four or more stars have distinct special effects with their powers.

Fire Emblem Heroes

It is a strategic role-playing game that is turn-based, just like the other games in the series. For touch controllers, the gameplay streamlines the strategic components. Plus, it reinstates the series’ trademark rock-paper-scissor approach to weapon strength in combat.Additionally, Heroes brought in more than $29 million in just the first three months of 2022. 

Granblue Fantasy

This is a classic turn-based role-playing video game from Japan. Due to the turn-based combat, raid combat, job classes, recruitable characters, and extensive story content, it is well-liked.

Are Gacha Games Considered Gambling?

Numerous factors need to be taken into account when determining whether or not gacha games can be classified as gambling. First and foremost, it seems a lot like gambling because all you’re doing is spending money in the hopes of receiving a reward that is worth a lot more than what you gave.

Gacha does, at first glance, appear to be gambling, but users are not required to invest real money in order to take advantage of the features available in Gacha. Some gacha is a free-to-play game. You are not required to spend money in order to play this game.

Many games provide gamers access to quite a lot of randomized loot boxes for completely free, so there’s definitely a difference between how gambling operates in the real life and how you’re obtaining stuff in these Gacha games.

So, I cannot argue that Gacha can be called gambling but, at the same time, I can’t say otherwise either because, as mentioned earlier, users effectively spend cash in hopes that they will gain a greater prize.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Now It’s Your Turn

Well, that’s it from my side. I hope this article helped you in knowing everything you wanted to know about gacha gaming to get started. So which Gacha game you are going to try out? Let me know in the comments below.

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