Launched in March 2024, AFK Journey is a mobile-first idle-RPG developed by Lilith Games. It is the successor to Lilith’s hit game in the same genre, AFK Arena, which launched in 2019 and has grossed over $1B in lifetime revenue.

AFK Journey iterates on the proven idle-RPG formula by introducing high-quality visuals typical of traditional RPGs and a deeper combat system based on autochess mechanics.

Since its release, AFK Journey has had over 12M downloads and generated $128M in IAP, tracking more than 20% ahead of AFK Arena seven months into launch. This is particularly impressive given how much more competitive the idle-RPG market is today, with over 70% growth in the number of games available since 2019.

The successful launch of AFK Journey is also a huge milestone for Lilith Games, which has been facing a secular decline in its largest titles — Rise of Kingdoms and AFK Arena — and has not seen a similar level of success with new launches since IDFA. (We covered Lilith’s Rise and Fall in detail here.)

Gameplay Overview

AFK Journey consists of two key elements: idle-RPG and team battler. The idle-RPG centers on exploration, allowing players to automatically journey through a visually rich 3D world and experience its broader narrative and characters. This design sets it apart from competitors, which typically offer lower-fidelity, 2D experiences with limited world-building.

The second core component of the gameplay is the team battles, triggered during combat, in which outcomes are determined by a streamlined autochess mechanic.

These two mechanics are integrated into a typical RPG core loop in which players explore and encounter enemies, defeat them in combat to gather resources, and then use those resources to power up and face increasingly challenging foes.

During onboarding, the gameplay emphasizes the idle-RPG elements, drawing players into the story. As players progress, exploration becomes increasingly gated by power progression within the team battle system. At the same time, the game introduces a series of daily tasks offering valuable progression resources based on the team battler mechanic. There’s also an idle resource generation system that creates another speed bump to prevent players from rushing through content, giving them a reason to regularly check back in on the game.

As players complete the exploration elements, the gameplay shifts toward completing daily tasks and collecting idle resources. (It took me roughly 30 days of consistent play to reach this point.)

AFK Journey taps into its players’ competitive instincts by locking end-game progression resources behind rankings in daily activities against other players. This reward system pits the most hardcore players against one another and is ultimately the biggest driver of spending.

The key takeaway from the gameplay is that the game uses a visually appealing, casual hook to draw players into a deeper, hero collection-based team battler. This combination of genres isn’t new, and AFK Arena employs a similar formula, but it is yet another example of successful genre mashing to bring core games to a broader audience.

Economy

Overlaying the gameplay is a gacha-based economy for upgrading and unlocking heroes used in the team battles. There are a host of ancillary power progression systems tied to investing time into the game, but to compete in the end game, players must build teams of complementary high-tier heroes.

The early game rewards are extremely generous, giving players a strong sense of progression while also fostering investment into specific characters. Players are also targeted with low-dollar, high-value beginner bundles to whet their spending appetite.

As these rewards slow down, players are pushed toward higher-cost bundles and less efficient battle passes. Ultimately, the game is targeting whales who are willing to dive deep into the gacha system to climb to the top of the rankings — it costs more than $1,000 to max out a hero from scratch.

To balance out the power creep that comes with this economy design, AFK Journey uses seasons to reset player progression to a baseline commensurate with the end of the main campaign every four months. Spending players still get to keep the power progression that comes with having high-tier heroes, but the seasonal reset prevents runaway power inflation. It also gives existing players a reason to race to the top each season while also incentivizing churned players to reengage by placing everyone on relatively even footing.

Each season comes with new content, and the game ties this to monetization by offering limited-time gacha packs that provide higher odds of obtaining newly introduced heroes (the same strategy as Genshin Impact).

High Production Value as a Differentiator

AFK Journey’s distinctive art style is one of the biggest reasons it was able to have a successful launch in an increasingly competitive idle-RPG market. While this high production value sets the game apart from its peers, it has its drawbacks, the most important of which is the pacing of new content releases.

This is especially pertinent after the success of Legend of Mushroom, another idle-RPG launched around the same time, which has taken the opposite approach. Legend of Mushroom focuses on simplicity in both art and gameplay, relying instead on a wide range of progression systems and frequent live ops to engage players.

In its first seven months post-launch, Legend of Mushroom generated $243M in IAP and also generated revenue through in-app advertising. In the same timeframe, AFK Journey hit $128M, but it doesn’t contain ads.

Both games target similar audiences, show comparable spending depth and have similar ARPDAU, which raises the question of whether Lilith Games took the right approach with AFK Journey.

While the revenue numbers currently put Legend of Mushroom ahead, we believe AFK Journey’s high production value is a meaningful long-term differentiator. The value of this is evident in both the user acquisition and retention numbers, with approximately 70% of AFK Journey’s downloads coming from organic traffic versus 50% for the market, and 48% for Legend of Mushroom. AFK Journey also has D60 retention of 7% versus 4% for the market (and 4% for Legend of Mushroom). The long-term retention numbers are particularly important for a game focused on retaining high-value players who drive the bulk of spending.

AFK Journey also benefits from being the first mover into the high-end subsegment by securing a foothold in UA. The costs of developing a comparable, high-quality game also make it more challenging for competitors to follow suit. In contrast, the lower end of the market continues to see a growing number of new entrants. For instance, Habby’s recent release Capybara Go!, which bears a strong visual resemblance to Legend of Mushroom, generated 3M downloads within its first three weeks.

Using Social Subsystems to Drive Spending

While much of AFK Journey’s core gameplay centers around a single-player experience, the game cleverly borrows social subsystems from other genres to appeal to players’ competitive instincts and drive spending.

The most important of these social subsystems is the game's use of servers to separate old and new players, a system commonly found in 4X games. When new players join the game, they’re automatically assigned to (and locked into) a fresh server where all the other players have similar progression levels. This setup fosters a balanced competitive environment where all players have a chance of vying for top ranks without being overwhelmed by long-standing, high-spending players. This structure also encourages local rivalries, allowing different "whales" to rise to the top of their respective servers, creating a strong sense of achievement and reinforcing player engagement.

In addition to segmenting players into different groups, AFK Journey leans heavily into social status as another motivator for player engagement. For example, top-ranked players in each game mode (both PvE and PVP) are prominently featured on the entry screen of all events. Players are also rewarded with limited-time cosmetics for achieving high rankings, providing these players with more ways to signal their status and tying them to their rankings. The increased visibility also opens ancillary revenue streams, such as the broader cosmetics system.

The guild system builds on social status by displaying all the players in the guild hall, even when they’re offline. This creates a sense of a larger community and provides another platform for players to showcase their progression and cosmetics.

Combined, these features transform a primarily single-player game into a socially engaging experience, enhancing the satisfaction of power progression and driving higher player spending.

Conclusion

In an increasingly crowded idle-RPG market, Lilith Games created a market leading game by making a bold bet and investing in a visually distinctive, high-quality title that stands out from its competition. While this high-quality bar has its drawbacks (namely the pace of content production), the UA and retention benefits should offset those costs over time.

The game combines high-quality gameplay, intelligent economy design, and various social subsystems to drive strong monetization. We’re optimistic these design choices will set the game apart over the long term, which in turn will provide much-needed support in Lilith Games’ hopeful turnaround.

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