Neverness to Everness Hits $280M as Anime Gacha Slips 8.97%
A new game with RMB 2 billion in revenue and a parent company RMB 118 million in the red — that is the anime games business in 2026. Neverness to Everness (异环) launched globally in late April and passed RMB 1.4bn by June 30 and RMB 2bn by August 18, with over 60% of that revenue coming through Perfect World's own PC and Android channels. The accounting mismatch swallowed the profit: RMB 1.03bn in selling expenses, up 213% year-on-year. Meanwhile China's anime mobile game market fell 8.97% to RMB 13.27bn in H1 2026.
## 一、The hard numbers: RMB 2bn in revenue, RMB 118m in losses ### Revenue is not recognised revenue Perfect World's 2026 half-year report shows revenue of RMB 2.751 billion, down 25.47% year-on-year, and a net loss attributable to shareholders of RMB 118 million (non-GAAP net loss of RMB 211 million), against a profit a year earlier. Games revenue came to RMB 2.639 billion, down 9.19%, with film and TV revenue at RMB 103 million, down 86.56%. Neverness to Everness is the whole story. The supernatural urban open-world RPG entered global open beta in late April, passed RMB 1.4 billion in cumulative revenue by June 30 and, by the company's own figure, RMB 2 billion by August 18 — with more than 60% of that flowing through official PC and Android channels rather than third-party stores, which reduces platform cuts. The gap sits in accounting rules: launch-window marketing spend is expensed immediately, while player top-ups are recognised over the player lifecycle. Selling expenses hit RMB 1.032 billion for the half, up 213.05% from RMB 330 million a year earlier, driven by the Neverness to Everness launch campaign. Perfect World says the title's contribution will begin flowing through from Q3 2026. ### Legacy titles decline while the new game ramps The second pressure is ordinary product decay: several live titles passed the peak of their lifecycles and, despite content updates and fine-tuned marketing, saw revenue decline against H1 2025. Whether the financials recover now depends on how fast the next game in the pipeline takes over. ## 二、The anime market shrank 8.97% to RMB 13.27bn in H1 2026 ### Declining flagship titles, new games failing to fill the gap According to the H1 2026 China Games Industry Report, domestic anime mobile game revenue reached RMB 13.269 billion (about $1.87bn), down 8.97% year-on-year, because several flagship long-running anime titles declined while new releases failed to cover the shortfall. It is not a single-quarter wobble: Diandian Data's review found 2025 anime mobile revenue already down sharply year-on-year, with the top-grossing anime title sliding to 9th on the overall mobile grossing chart. Competition has moved from art, resolution and worldbuilding to gameplay depth and the perceived value of monetisation. ## 三、A Queue at the Trough: ANANTA and Azur Promilia Are Closing In on Neverness to Everness *Neverness to Everness* won't be fighting for long-term retention in an empty field. NetEase's **ANANTA** runs on the same urban open-world premise but sidesteps the traditional gacha fatigue by monetizing character cosmetics instead of character pulls, while Manjuu's **Azur Promilia** is also in preparation or testing. NTE's answer is to widen its monetization surface — leaning on city-management gameplay to reduce its reliance on gacha as a single revenue pillar. Since global launch, the game has repeatedly reached the top five of the iOS games grossing chart in multiple regions, and has topped the PS best-seller charts in markets such as Japan on several occasions. ## 四、September's Biggest Anime-Gaming Leak: Steam Spilled the Achievements for Persona 6 and Kingdom Hearts IV On September 9, 2026, Steam's weekly maintenance window was followed by a major bug in the achievements system, which let aggregator sites such as Exophase and SteamDB pull achievement lists for a large number of unreleased — and in some cases unannounced — games. The two names anime-game players care about most on that list were ***Persona 6*** and ***Kingdom Hearts IV***, alongside titles including *Fable*, *Control Resonant* and *Ace Combat 8*. Simon Carless, founder of GameDiscoverCo, said Valve had "unfortunately rolled out a major bug on the achievements feature." Coincidentally, the same day's Nintendo Direct confirmed that *Persona 6* is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 (no release date yet), and that *Persona 4 Revival* is scheduled for May 20, 2027. ## 五、The bright spot: overseas revenue up 178% The best line in Perfect World's report is not revenue but geography. Domestic revenue fell 36.14% to RMB 2.24 billion, while overseas revenue jumped 178.11% to RMB 511 million (about $72m), raising the international share from 4.98% to 18.59%. Group senior vice president Yidi said during ChinaJoy that Neverness to Everness is self-published across Japan, Korea, Europe and North America, and that several future titles will launch overseas before China. The caveat is that this growth is built on a low base and one product. ## 六、My take The valuable part of Neverness to Everness is not the RMB 2 billion — it is the proof that an anime game can monetise beyond gacha pulls. RMB 1.03 billion in selling expenses bought that revenue, which is a wound this quarter and a user-asset invoice next quarter. My read: the anime market has shifted from chasing growth to fighting over a fixed pool, and the winning levers are now version cadence, community operations and monetisation design. When a new game needs RMB 1 billion in marketing to buy launch volume while the market contracts 8.97%, every revenue milestone deserves one question: did those users stay, or were they bought? Come discuss in the [Gghubs](https://www.gghubs.com/en) comments. ## 七、FAQ: About Neverness to Everness and the anime-gacha market: the 3 questions we most want answered ### Why is Perfect World losing money if Neverness to Everness earned RMB 2bn? An accounting mismatch. Roughly RMB 1.03bn in launch marketing costs were expensed immediately (up 213.05% year-on-year), while player top-ups are recognised over the player lifecycle. Perfect World says the game's contribution starts flowing through in Q3 2026. ### Is the anime gacha market actually shrinking? On revenue, yes. Domestic anime mobile game revenue was RMB 13.269 billion in H1 2026, down 8.97% year-on-year, because flagship long-running titles declined and new releases did not cover the gap. ### Which upcoming anime games should players watch? NetEase's Ananta (urban open world, cosmetics rather than gacha) and Manjuu's Azur Promilia are the most watched. Nintendo has also confirmed Persona 6 for Switch 2 and dated Persona 4 Revival for May 20, 2027.