Infinity Nikki developer Papergames earned almost $1 billion in 2024.
As spotted by director of research and insights at Niko Partners, Daniel Ahmad, the Chinese firm has been “credited with the rise of Chinese otome games” – that is, romance games written primarily for women – both nationally and overseas.
According to Forbes, Papergames – which also developed dating simulator game, Love and Deepspace, which boasts over six million monthly active users and is available in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean – is so successful, it generated sales of around $850 million worldwide last year, generating a $1.3bn fortune for Papergames’ 37-year-old founder, Yao Runhao.
Though both developed and published by Papergames in China, in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, Infinity Nikki is published by Fearless, and elsewhere – including the US and Europe – Infinity Nikki is published by Infold Games.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Infinity Nikki – which is the fifth instalment of the dress-up game – will soon make its debut on Steam.
Infinity Nikki developer Papergames ushered in the new year with word on a range of improvements and optimisations it’s working on for the dress-up-themed free-to-play gacha hit.
The plans for the open-world action-adventure were formulated after gathering “millions of suggestions” from players. A significant chunk of these fall into the “optimisations” bucket, starting with improved game performance on mobile devices – which the developer says it recognises as a “significant challenge that must be addressed”.
Our Jessica had good things to say about Infinity Nikki in her four-star review last year, calling it a “true step forward for open-world gacha games” that “finally brings some much needed competition to the miHoYo monopoly”.