On May 13, Tencent released its Q1 2026 earnings report. Alongside the steady performance of its established franchises, Roco Kingdom: World, which launched at the end of March, shared its first official performance figures: an average DAU of over 13 million in its first month.
The game’s explosive start was already visible early on—over 15 million new users within the first 13 hours of launch, hitting the top of the iOS top-grossing chart the following day, and surpassing 30 million total registered users by day nine.
For a reboot of a classic IP, there’s a familiar script: nostalgia drives the initial rush, then the core audience burns through the content and the numbers drop off. An average DAU of 13 million through the first month suggests something different happened here. A lot of players didn’t just show up. They stuck around. That kind of retention is rare for an IP adaptation.
A Laid-Back Feel—No Mandatory Grind, No Gacha
If there’s one phrase that captures why, it’s probably “laid-back.”
Roco Kingdom: World takes a different approach to monetization compared to the rest of Tencent’s portfolio: no stat-based purchases, no gacha system. Spending is focused entirely on cosmetics—skins, mount appearances, that sort of thing. Players aren’t locked into a rigid daily checklist.
Different types of players find their own rhythm here. Competitive players dive into a PvP system built around rotating lineups of up to 12 spirits. Collectors roam the open world filling out their bestiary. And a large chunk of the player base is perfectly content just strolling through the shopping district with a spirit in tow, snapping photos. If you want to grind, you can. If you’d rather kick back, that works too.
AI Under the Hood, Quietly Doing Its Job
Beyond the headline numbers, the earnings report held another signal worth noting: reinforcement learning is now being systematically applied to the game’s underlying experience.
During beta testing, NPC battles were criticized for being rigid and mechanically reliant on elemental counters. Since then, the development team has trained the AI to make real-time decisions based on historical match data—it now evaluates whether to attack or stack buffs depending on HP advantages, and looks for workarounds when facing elemental counters. The result is that PvE battles no longer feel like a script you can memorize. They now carry flickers of the unpredictability you’d expect from a real opponent.
AI is also used for balance testing. With over 300 spirits and a vast number of skill combinations, manual testing can only cover so much. An automated battle simulation system runs large-scale virtual matchups between different spirit compositions, estimating a new spirit’s power range before it goes live and flagging potential balance issues early.
Beyond Tech, Emotion Plays a Role Too
The bond between players and their spirits is another retention anchor that’s hard to quantify.
In a player story video released by the developers on May 13, two moments stood out. One player ran into a young Unicorn at a magic spring, didn’t hesitate to use a rare Prism Ball on it, and kept it by their side all the way until they ascended to Spirit Mage. Another, after seeing their Sonic Hound roll over and show its belly, decided to do everything they could to make up for its stat weaknesses—eventually reaching the top 1,000 of the Master Duelist rankings.
“I’m nothing special, talent-wise. But the fact that we met—that’s something remarkable.” That line, spoken by an actual player in the video, explains better than any data why an IP that started over a decade ago has managed to regain momentum today.
A New Pillar for Tencent?
Roco Kingdom: World may not be the next Genshin Impact, but it’s carving out a unique spot within Tencent’s lineup. IP-driven emotion draws people in. A laid-back feel keeps them around. And AI handles the technical heavy lifting beneath it all. Within Tencent’s current portfolio, it sits somewhere different from both competitive multiplayer titles and stat-driven progression games.
Whether 13 million DAU is the peak of a nostalgia wave or the start of something evergreen won’t be settled anytime soon. But in a year packed with major mobile releases, Roco Kingdom: World has already carved out its own lane.
All game screenshots, character designs, and related assets referenced in this article are the property of Tencent Morefun Studio. The article itself is an original work of commentary and curation. Please credit the source if reposting. For copyright concerns, contact yomiqo@126.com.
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