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| An image of NCSOFT's mobile game 'Lineage 2M' / Courtesy of NCSOFT |
By Baek Byung-yeul
NCSOFT's new game "Lineage 2M" overtook its predecessor "Lineage M" with the role-playing game becoming the top-grossing mobile game, four days after its release, the company said Monday.
"Lineage 2M placed first in Google Play's top-grossing chart on Dec. 1, four days after its release. It outdid the previous leader Lineage M, which was at the top of the list from June 23, 2017, to Dec. 1, 2019," an NCSOFT official said.
"Lineage 2M" is a mobile version of popular PC online game "Lineage 2," which was released in 2003. The mobile version received a lot of attention from gamers before its release, with more than 7.38 million pre-registering for it.
The highly anticipated game was launched on Nov. 27 and soon topped the top-grossing rankings of Apple's App Store on the initial launch date. It took a while for the game to top the Google Play chart as the two app stores use different algorithms to calculate the rankings.
Though "Lineage 2M" ranked first in the Apple App Store a few hours after its release, all eyes were on the Google Play chart where companies generate the most revenue. According to data by the Korea Mobile Internet Business Association, Google Play had the largest market share at 63.2 percent in 2018, followed by Apple with 24.8 percent.
The performance of "Lineage 2M" comes as a surprise as its predecessor "Lineage M" had been at the top of the Google Play's top-grossing chart for about 30 months since the game was released in June 2017.
In order to retain the top spot, NCSOFT released a massive amount of new content for "Lineage M" Nov. 7 and enabled users to use new character classes in the game. A day before the launch of "Lineage 2M," the company launched a contest event to find the best guild in "Lineage M."
"Lineage 2M" will likely retain its popularity going forward as the mobile game's full 3D graphics and wider map is expected to appeal to younger gamers compared with "Lineage M," which is popular among gamers in their 30s and 40s.
NCSOFT said it will focus on quality control so that players enjoy the newly launched game without stress. "As it has not been long since the company rolled out 'Lineage 2M,' we will keep concentrating on providing the best quality to users," the official said.
