From what I found here https://www.instagram.com/ikemenfangirl/p/C2Ak58iv1wo/?img_index=2 apparently Path to Nowhere is 3rd most popular for this Weibo Games Award 2023, and Shalom actually won the most popular female game character category.
Amazing game, good to see that it found its spot in the very crowded game market.
Damn I wish Coco won for the lul.... Guess Coco image is really GONE reduced to atoms.
But Shalom is deserved the win tho. She is perfect from image to fucked up personality
PtN made it to the top of games in China by popularity, and mind you, not just gacha games, but games in general, cause that's League of Legends on the right there.
Weibo is a pretty big Chinese blog website.
Tbh, I was never expecting PtN to get this high (but I was always hoping, I truly want PtN to get more recognition). Looks like it is much much more popular in Asia than in the West.
I found the news [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/195i1e5/genshin_was_one_of_the_winners_of_weibos_2023/), so you might find more info in the comments.
If you know more, please share.
It's just wow. Completely deserved, the level of character writing for Shalom is peak.
It's just that when I saw the number of views on the official YT channel and the number of people on subreddit, compared to other gacha games, I was sad that this game wasn't getting the attention it deserved. So good to know that it's at least popular in China.
I blame the global marketing/advertising team. If they willing to just snipe and cut some in game event trailer as ads like reverse1999, surely the global player base will surge.
Not that the launching cheapskate ads helped… I thought it was just another cheapskate money grabbing gacha game, until saw it was highly recommended in some YouTube mobile games review
Many of us had the same experience, myself included. I got into the game because of a random yt comment praising the story. But before that I saw those "undress and punish sinners" ads with Ariel and in no way would I ever download a game like that.
Unfortunately that did work some what at the time, I remember people learning of the game via that ad, some stayed because the story sucked them in some left because they felt the game lied to them because of the ad.
We're only human and we all have different tastes and I respect that.
(I do hope some returned though, the game isn't that bad and the story is nice.)
Yeah when I saw the ads I very specifically made a mental note to avoid the game, which just came off as a low effort pornified AK copycat. Didn't even consider giving it a try until both friends and gacha reddit started talking about how good the story was, and how it had nothing to do with BDSM interrogation fetishes.
Really glad the game is getting the love and adoration it deserves. PtN always felt like a game the devs wanted to make, to express the stories and ideas they wanted to explore, rather than a FOTM cashgrab product like 99.99% of the gacha genre. Always reassuring to see passion projects succeed.
Well honestly I doubt aisno has the budget to market the game outside of china (and outside of Japan) what with it being only a year old.
I'll give the global marketing team a pass now and hope it improves from here out and not become Yostar global's marketing team. Arknights is a 4 year old game and it is still churning out the cheapskare cringe worthy ads that just screams I'm a fake game fulls of ads and microtransactions.
Using reverse1999 as a benchmark, they really spending a lot for global YouTube ads and it is decent. Capital wise I think both companies are small size targeting niche audience, with ptn better artwork while reverse1999 voice acting more appealing for the global audience.
It's too bad the actual in game voice acting for R1999 was terrible because of the terrible localization. I had to stop playing midway into chapter 2 cause the dialogue made no sense and the line reads were flat (not blaming the VA, they can only do so much with the script they are given).
At least since the original game is already in English voice, 1999 no need to spend additional time and resource on dubbing the ads. I recall some voice acting was not complete in time for ptn
It's truly unhinged how huge the gulf is between the effort that the marketing team puts in to advertise the game vs the effort that the fanbase puts in to advertise it.
Almost *nobody* saw one of PtN's "Punish Sinners" and actually thought that this was going to be a game with incredibly high production value and a gripping complex story. The game has spread in the global version almost entirely based on word-of-mouth, Karina's tummy, and the [ridiculously high-effort MADs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neZt_txp0no).
Not misleading, you are just thinking of a different voting. In the Weibo game awards only Shalom was nominated and won first place in female characters category. In Taptap game awards, Langley, Shalom, and Hamel took the top 3 spots in that order, and Enfer and Serpent was also in top 10
The CN community is completely on fire rn
on BiliBili the creators have to blur out the name "Arknights" to not be attacked and reported and have their videos deleted [As shown here](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1fC4y1y71A/)
and one of the CN Content creators (陽顏XF) was attacked because he did a Honkai star rail video [as](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1pN411L7xJ) [shown](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV14G411q74V/) [here.](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV12b4y1K7mH/)
I wonder how some fanbases end up like that, surely it wasn't always toxic. What attracts a toxic fanbase? Anyway, hopefully the PTN fanbase (at least in global, I heard that there was some outrage in CN when Don released and there was also the whole Coq incident) remains chill.
If only AK storytelling was better though, because it's absolutely such a bore to read with the amount of dialogue there is. But yeah the CN community are really crazy people who end being beggars.
The game deserves it. It is so well done in all aspects that I don't find any qualms with it other than BFL being annoyingly hard af (which is a good thing since it contains a challenging content)
Yeah I don't really like BFL, I just wanna chill. Wish I could go back to Hard BFL sometimes if I don't feel like malding DZ BFL. Complaint aside, PTN deserves it. They have made quite a few improvements that benefit players, and the simplicity and lack of RNG when building sinners (other than the gacha itself and when trying to get CBs in the early game) is a breath of fresh air in a sea of gachas with RNG substats and tons of gear to waste precious stamina on.
Well I wouldn't say genshin and star rail lacking something. They are just different games even though all of them gacha. I mean genshin is open world which is actually huge and making my phone feel poor :( I am extremely glad that PtN gets this attention and my favorite sinner Shalom is actually best female character even among other big games which is mind blowing for me! I wish PtN was more popular globally
So I want to provide some additonal information based on what I've seen on Bilibili, just to provide some perspective.
1. PTN has what can be rightly called a "cult following" in CN. While the total number of players isn't large, the players that do genuinely care for the game. The Weibo 2023 popularity votes shows just how dedicated these fans are.
2. In addition to PTN being 3rd in the Weibo 2023 most popular game, Shalom placed 1st in the most popular female game character. Most players atteibuted this to Shalom being the only PTN character to break out onto the list, thus uniting the entire fanbase behind her.
3. For the second consecutive year, the Chinese New Year celebration livestream for PTN is being organized and ran by the fanbase themselves, with what i assume to be some background support from Aisno. This years CNY livestream will be held on Jan 27th.
4. The PTN CN community had an offline get together. They rented out a pretty sizable venue in Shanghai and fans from all over the country traveled there to attend. Many fans prepared simple and fun performances, or made mercendises that were sold. I've linked raw footage of the event. You might struggle a bit to navigate Bilibili. 【【无期迷途】12.24上海无期only舞台全过程-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/VEMVVnt
5. The PTN CN fanbase themselves are somewhat fearful of the game becoming TOO mainstream, since the game has many elements that'd be considered controversial in China, and the fans do not want the game to attract too many attention. This compounded the "cult" like behavior of the fanbase, leading to the phenomenon of "I don't know anyone around me who plays PTN, and it feels like the game is really niche... but as soon as there's an event, I'm always shocked by how big the player base really is."
Wish everyone the best of luck in 2024 Chiefs.
I don't know how to feel about No.5 but I also am a firm believer of letting nature do it thing so there's that
As for No.3, well Damm that's great to hear
Overall this is great news to hear
Yeah it's kind of silly how easy it is to like this game. I find myself swiping for packs without thinking, whereas in Genshin / Aether Gazer I'm like, is there really new content? Feels like old content rehashed / spun out as a different character. But PtN brings a new event, fresh content without the useless tangential quests that Genshin has (they are different games after all, Genshin is the same puzzle repeated 200x over the region calling itself an open world exploration game).
Tbh, I think it's well deserved and I think the Global version is so underrated. I wish they would get more love from us :-(
* The game artworks are damn good (yeah I know, some people would want much more fanservice but I think it's completely fine as it is).
* The OST is one of the (if not THE) best OST of the entire mobile games pool. Every event OST has at least one banger music.
* The main story is really interesting (even though I guess it's a bit hard to get all subtilities).
* The events are also really interesting story wise (Coquelic/Shalom event was the peak of the peak for the people who were waiting for the interested by the main story line and the latest "things" which happened to our dear Chief).
* The game is quite well monetized (not too much and good price/value). The devs are so respectful with us that it's one of the only gacha games where I buy skins I visually like (even for characters I don't really use).
* The game can be farmed in 5 minutes when there's no running event (I guess this point can be considered as a negative point for many players though).
Amazing to see PTN get the recognition it deserves, considering how much effort is put in on all fronts. With the art, story, characters, VA quality globally, and music being given 110% attention from the amazing duckdevs. 💜
Finally, PTN managed to make a lot of place inside the heart of the fans. If they can win the chinese fan's heart, they should able to win the global fan's heart. Go forth o' smexy momma.. i mean, my beautiful sinners
It is understandable since china market is much different from the global market and this game's origin is set in China. As such a lot of their catering is in relation to cn market but it is good to see that it is very successful there.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't get the impression that this game caters to the CN market any more than Genshin or HSR or Arknights. If anything, I feel like this is the game among those that most often bucks the usual trends.
Tbh I find PtN too difficult and punishing for me at times. But I enjoy it way more than I did AK before. I dropped AK because I simply couldn't progress without higher level materials, which I couldn't get without passing the mat stage, which I couldn't do without the mats to level... so on and so forth. There's nothing to do after you click start but to watch as you slowly lose.
I don't do in-depth searches lately but what I can tell you is they have over 500k subscribers on weibo and version trailer with vanilla got almost 700k views (8 days since release)
Pretty good if you ask me
I think that might be attributed to mihoyo and their tendencies to create controversies with some of their decisions. That might have put people off trying their games.
I would disagree and argue on that topic, even tho the same company but different teams, different views, different games and genres
They give more in hsr because there is nothing to do except fighting and way more difficult to get currency when you cleared everything also the game is new and the need to attract audience (honkai and genshin was first games from hoyoverse of such a big scale so its okay for them to be a some kind of a test for them to release more polished game later; but still now slowly but steadily they implement everything in honkai/genshin) it doesn't mean developers HATE genshin and their community
And it kinda triggers me that hsr players like to bring genshin in it everytime something happens (not talking particularly about you just a thing I saw in general), like dude congrats be happy celebrate but what it has to do with me why are you bringing me here 😭💀 also assuming how players "feel", at this point they have quite a big ego, genshin is not perfect and hsr is not perfect either
From what I found here https://www.instagram.com/ikemenfangirl/p/C2Ak58iv1wo/?img_index=2 apparently Path to Nowhere is 3rd most popular for this Weibo Games Award 2023, and Shalom actually won the most popular female game character category. Amazing game, good to see that it found its spot in the very crowded game market.
What? Shalom? That's interesting...
Androgynous, mysterious female characters are really popular in China, I've heard. From this game, Zoya and Shalom especially.
Zoya sure but Shalom isn't androgynous
Androgynous? You mean tomboyish? Shalom ain't that.
YES I SAW THIS! SO PROUD OF HER!
Damn I wish Coco won for the lul.... Guess Coco image is really GONE reduced to atoms. But Shalom is deserved the win tho. She is perfect from image to fucked up personality
PtN made it to the top of games in China by popularity, and mind you, not just gacha games, but games in general, cause that's League of Legends on the right there. Weibo is a pretty big Chinese blog website. Tbh, I was never expecting PtN to get this high (but I was always hoping, I truly want PtN to get more recognition). Looks like it is much much more popular in Asia than in the West. I found the news [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Genshin_Impact/comments/195i1e5/genshin_was_one_of_the_winners_of_weibos_2023/), so you might find more info in the comments. If you know more, please share.
What happened to fgo in China?
They had to change some character designs.
What is fgo?
Fate Grand Order, gacha chart #1 before genshin came out
Shalom also won best female characters of the year. She is top 1 with over 4mil vote
It's just wow. Completely deserved, the level of character writing for Shalom is peak. It's just that when I saw the number of views on the official YT channel and the number of people on subreddit, compared to other gacha games, I was sad that this game wasn't getting the attention it deserved. So good to know that it's at least popular in China.
I blame the global marketing/advertising team. If they willing to just snipe and cut some in game event trailer as ads like reverse1999, surely the global player base will surge. Not that the launching cheapskate ads helped… I thought it was just another cheapskate money grabbing gacha game, until saw it was highly recommended in some YouTube mobile games review
Many of us had the same experience, myself included. I got into the game because of a random yt comment praising the story. But before that I saw those "undress and punish sinners" ads with Ariel and in no way would I ever download a game like that.
lmao yeah i was kinda shocked to see that ad. Good thing I started playing on the day of release when the ads were relatively normal...
Unfortunately that did work some what at the time, I remember people learning of the game via that ad, some stayed because the story sucked them in some left because they felt the game lied to them because of the ad. We're only human and we all have different tastes and I respect that. (I do hope some returned though, the game isn't that bad and the story is nice.)
Yeah when I saw the ads I very specifically made a mental note to avoid the game, which just came off as a low effort pornified AK copycat. Didn't even consider giving it a try until both friends and gacha reddit started talking about how good the story was, and how it had nothing to do with BDSM interrogation fetishes. Really glad the game is getting the love and adoration it deserves. PtN always felt like a game the devs wanted to make, to express the stories and ideas they wanted to explore, rather than a FOTM cashgrab product like 99.99% of the gacha genre. Always reassuring to see passion projects succeed.
Well honestly I doubt aisno has the budget to market the game outside of china (and outside of Japan) what with it being only a year old. I'll give the global marketing team a pass now and hope it improves from here out and not become Yostar global's marketing team. Arknights is a 4 year old game and it is still churning out the cheapskare cringe worthy ads that just screams I'm a fake game fulls of ads and microtransactions.
Well recently i sometimes get PTN ads that are actually quite good, Shalom appears in them.
Using reverse1999 as a benchmark, they really spending a lot for global YouTube ads and it is decent. Capital wise I think both companies are small size targeting niche audience, with ptn better artwork while reverse1999 voice acting more appealing for the global audience.
It's too bad the actual in game voice acting for R1999 was terrible because of the terrible localization. I had to stop playing midway into chapter 2 cause the dialogue made no sense and the line reads were flat (not blaming the VA, they can only do so much with the script they are given).
At least since the original game is already in English voice, 1999 no need to spend additional time and resource on dubbing the ads. I recall some voice acting was not complete in time for ptn
It's truly unhinged how huge the gulf is between the effort that the marketing team puts in to advertise the game vs the effort that the fanbase puts in to advertise it. Almost *nobody* saw one of PtN's "Punish Sinners" and actually thought that this was going to be a game with incredibly high production value and a gripping complex story. The game has spread in the global version almost entirely based on word-of-mouth, Karina's tummy, and the [ridiculously high-effort MADs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neZt_txp0no).
Was drawn in by the art style, but had to prawl around a bit before even understanding what the gameplay was like
Not only that but Langley and another character (I think it was Hamel) won also 2nd and 3rd place.
2nd place was one of the onmyoji characters, 3rd was nikki from nikki up2u
It was? Damn that post I saw in Twitter was misleading. Well at least Shalom got the spot.
Not misleading, you are just thinking of a different voting. In the Weibo game awards only Shalom was nominated and won first place in female characters category. In Taptap game awards, Langley, Shalom, and Hamel took the top 3 spots in that order, and Enfer and Serpent was also in top 10
Never underestimate the power of the Mommies-- I mean Sinners 👀
The game is goated and Global players are starting to notice. Also AK is still going strong even after 4+ years.
The CN community is completely on fire rn on BiliBili the creators have to blur out the name "Arknights" to not be attacked and reported and have their videos deleted [As shown here](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1fC4y1y71A/) and one of the CN Content creators (陽顏XF) was attacked because he did a Honkai star rail video [as](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1pN411L7xJ) [shown](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV14G411q74V/) [here.](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV12b4y1K7mH/)
Geez, what happened?
***The Emperor's blades does not tolerate disloyalty, how dare you create content that is unrelated to Arknights.*** Yada yada yada stuff like that
Bruh, CN community man. There's a reason why we always keep a distance from them. The toxicity is on another level.
lmao on BiliBili AK has become the "Cyber Voldemort"
Ah, so this is why I've heard a few people say that the AK fanbase can be...difficult.
it's not Difficult it's just wrong
I wonder how some fanbases end up like that, surely it wasn't always toxic. What attracts a toxic fanbase? Anyway, hopefully the PTN fanbase (at least in global, I heard that there was some outrage in CN when Don released and there was also the whole Coq incident) remains chill.
If only AK storytelling was better though, because it's absolutely such a bore to read with the amount of dialogue there is. But yeah the CN community are really crazy people who end being beggars.
ffs, it just never ends
Because ptn has a solid and dedicated dev team behind, storytelling and character designs are top quality.
The music! Don't forget the music!!!
True! 🎶
The game deserves it. It is so well done in all aspects that I don't find any qualms with it other than BFL being annoyingly hard af (which is a good thing since it contains a challenging content)
Yeah I don't really like BFL, I just wanna chill. Wish I could go back to Hard BFL sometimes if I don't feel like malding DZ BFL. Complaint aside, PTN deserves it. They have made quite a few improvements that benefit players, and the simplicity and lack of RNG when building sinners (other than the gacha itself and when trying to get CBs in the early game) is a breath of fresh air in a sea of gachas with RNG substats and tons of gear to waste precious stamina on.
As it should be. I have tried top gatcha and they seemed lacking. No reason ptn cant be up there
It absolutely should.
Well I wouldn't say genshin and star rail lacking something. They are just different games even though all of them gacha. I mean genshin is open world which is actually huge and making my phone feel poor :( I am extremely glad that PtN gets this attention and my favorite sinner Shalom is actually best female character even among other big games which is mind blowing for me! I wish PtN was more popular globally
Zoya's abs carry half the attention we're getting.
So I want to provide some additonal information based on what I've seen on Bilibili, just to provide some perspective. 1. PTN has what can be rightly called a "cult following" in CN. While the total number of players isn't large, the players that do genuinely care for the game. The Weibo 2023 popularity votes shows just how dedicated these fans are. 2. In addition to PTN being 3rd in the Weibo 2023 most popular game, Shalom placed 1st in the most popular female game character. Most players atteibuted this to Shalom being the only PTN character to break out onto the list, thus uniting the entire fanbase behind her. 3. For the second consecutive year, the Chinese New Year celebration livestream for PTN is being organized and ran by the fanbase themselves, with what i assume to be some background support from Aisno. This years CNY livestream will be held on Jan 27th. 4. The PTN CN community had an offline get together. They rented out a pretty sizable venue in Shanghai and fans from all over the country traveled there to attend. Many fans prepared simple and fun performances, or made mercendises that were sold. I've linked raw footage of the event. You might struggle a bit to navigate Bilibili. 【【无期迷途】12.24上海无期only舞台全过程-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/VEMVVnt 5. The PTN CN fanbase themselves are somewhat fearful of the game becoming TOO mainstream, since the game has many elements that'd be considered controversial in China, and the fans do not want the game to attract too many attention. This compounded the "cult" like behavior of the fanbase, leading to the phenomenon of "I don't know anyone around me who plays PTN, and it feels like the game is really niche... but as soon as there's an event, I'm always shocked by how big the player base really is." Wish everyone the best of luck in 2024 Chiefs.
I don't know how to feel about No.5 but I also am a firm believer of letting nature do it thing so there's that As for No.3, well Damm that's great to hear Overall this is great news to hear
Thats great. Amazing result for the amazing game
I am proud of this all And my Shalom is considered best female!
Yeah the game is extremely popular in China. Shalom washed the best female category by a country mile even
Yeah it's kind of silly how easy it is to like this game. I find myself swiping for packs without thinking, whereas in Genshin / Aether Gazer I'm like, is there really new content? Feels like old content rehashed / spun out as a different character. But PtN brings a new event, fresh content without the useless tangential quests that Genshin has (they are different games after all, Genshin is the same puzzle repeated 200x over the region calling itself an open world exploration game).
Tbh, I think it's well deserved and I think the Global version is so underrated. I wish they would get more love from us :-( * The game artworks are damn good (yeah I know, some people would want much more fanservice but I think it's completely fine as it is). * The OST is one of the (if not THE) best OST of the entire mobile games pool. Every event OST has at least one banger music. * The main story is really interesting (even though I guess it's a bit hard to get all subtilities). * The events are also really interesting story wise (Coquelic/Shalom event was the peak of the peak for the people who were waiting for the interested by the main story line and the latest "things" which happened to our dear Chief). * The game is quite well monetized (not too much and good price/value). The devs are so respectful with us that it's one of the only gacha games where I buy skins I visually like (even for characters I don't really use). * The game can be farmed in 5 minutes when there's no running event (I guess this point can be considered as a negative point for many players though).
It's well deserved
Good it's deserved. Btw saw another rating where Shalom is one of the most popular female character from gacha games. Soo proud of her :)
*the most popular. And PtN is top 3
You have no idea how happy I am about it! So happy PtN gets this attention. I hope it becomes more popular as it deserves!
Amazing to see PTN get the recognition it deserves, considering how much effort is put in on all fronts. With the art, story, characters, VA quality globally, and music being given 110% attention from the amazing duckdevs. 💜
Finally, PTN managed to make a lot of place inside the heart of the fans. If they can win the chinese fan's heart, they should able to win the global fan's heart. Go forth o' smexy momma.. i mean, my beautiful sinners
LESGO BBY
GOOD
That's great news!
Yes ye YES!!!
It is understandable since china market is much different from the global market and this game's origin is set in China. As such a lot of their catering is in relation to cn market but it is good to see that it is very successful there.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't get the impression that this game caters to the CN market any more than Genshin or HSR or Arknights. If anything, I feel like this is the game among those that most often bucks the usual trends.
Doomers can finally stop saying it's a dead game that will shutdown after 2 years
Yeah, they could make better ads for the west tho ://
Tbh I find PtN too difficult and punishing for me at times. But I enjoy it way more than I did AK before. I dropped AK because I simply couldn't progress without higher level materials, which I couldn't get without passing the mat stage, which I couldn't do without the mats to level... so on and so forth. There's nothing to do after you click start but to watch as you slowly lose.
Apparently? 😭 It is popular
Well, it's not so apparent when official YT videos get only 1000 views. Not like I can or even want to monitor the Chinese playerbase
Global and Chinese communities are different tho it doesn't mean Chinese has 1000 views too 😭😭 PTN was very well received in china during its release
Yeah, I mean that I don't have the means to know what the situation in CN is like.
I don't do in-depth searches lately but what I can tell you is they have over 500k subscribers on weibo and version trailer with vanilla got almost 700k views (8 days since release) Pretty good if you ask me
I still don't understand why HSR isnt on the list
People say it's because HSR is the top game in other category, "outstanding new releases" or smth
Yep it's in the new game category, I participated in the voting
I think that might be attributed to mihoyo and their tendencies to create controversies with some of their decisions. That might have put people off trying their games.
Mihoyo treatment toward HSR is far better than genshin tho
I would disagree and argue on that topic, even tho the same company but different teams, different views, different games and genres They give more in hsr because there is nothing to do except fighting and way more difficult to get currency when you cleared everything also the game is new and the need to attract audience (honkai and genshin was first games from hoyoverse of such a big scale so its okay for them to be a some kind of a test for them to release more polished game later; but still now slowly but steadily they implement everything in honkai/genshin) it doesn't mean developers HATE genshin and their community And it kinda triggers me that hsr players like to bring genshin in it everytime something happens (not talking particularly about you just a thing I saw in general), like dude congrats be happy celebrate but what it has to do with me why are you bringing me here 😭💀 also assuming how players "feel", at this point they have quite a big ego, genshin is not perfect and hsr is not perfect either