Kakao Games' 'Odin' Tops Taiwan App Store... A Positive Signal for Global Market Entry

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Kakao Games' "Odin: Valhalla Rising" (hereafter Odin) has reached the number one spot on the Taiwan App Store. Even before its official release, it topped the popularity rankings through pre-downloads alone, signaling a positive start for its global expansion.

According to mobile game ranking analysis site Gamevolution on the 29th, as of the 28th, Kakao Games' "Odin: Shinban" (오딘: 신반) ranked first in popularity on the Taiwan App Store. Odin, officially released that day, had started pre-downloads on the 28th and quickly rose to number one.

Odin, which was released domestically in June, received significant attention as the first game to properly surpass NCSoft's "Lineage," which had long dominated the domestic mobile game market for the past four years. It recorded 7 billion KRW in sales on its first day and achieved cumulative sales of 500 billion KRW within 180 days, making it the top contributor to Kakao Games' annual revenue reaching 1 trillion KRW.

Odin's entry into the Taiwan market is the first project under Kakao's "Beyond Korea" initiative, and the success of Odin in Taiwan is expected to be a major benchmark for the company's global business performance.

In this regard, Kakao Games CEO Jo Gye-hyun expressed confidence. At the 9th regular shareholders' meeting held at GB-1 Tower in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, the day before, Jo said, "We are about to launch Odin in Taiwan, and while I don't know if it will reach the level of Lineage M locally, I believe it can achieve results comparable to Lineage 2M."

According to Taiwan Google Play rankings, Lineage 2M is ranked 4th in sales. Lineage W is first, followed by Lineage M in second place. This essentially means that Odin has declared its intention to enter the top 4 in Taiwan App Store sales.

Earlier, Kakao Games participated in the "Taipei International Game Show" with Odin in January and conducted a closed beta test (CBT) at the end of February to gauge local user reactions. The company explained that the large number of participants in the pre-registration character name and server reservation events led to additional server expansions, confirming high expectations.

Meanwhile, at the 9th regular shareholders' meeting, Kakao Games passed six agenda items as originally proposed, including ▲appointment of directors ▲partial amendment of the articles of incorporation ▲appointment of audit committee members ▲approval of director remuneration limits.

CEO Jo Gye-hyun was reappointed as an inside director, and Kim Ki-hong, head of Kakao's finance group, was appointed as an outside non-executive director. Jo Hyuk-min was newly appointed as Kakao Games' Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Professors Oh Myung-jeon of Sookmyung Women's University Business Administration Department and Choi Young-geun of Sangmyung University Business Administration Department were named outside directors.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.