Blue Archive, Celebrating Two and a Half Years in Japan, Achieves Number One in Sales

Blue Archive 2.5th Anniversary Key Visual

Nexon Games announced on the 25th that the subculture game "Blue Archive" has once again ranked first in sales in the Japanese game market, following its achievement in January.

During a live broadcast held on the 23rd to celebrate the 2.5th anniversary of the service, update information was shared along with the reveal of the TV animation production company, director, and key character design images, which attracted much attention from fans. The live broadcast took place at Tokyo TFT Hall 1000 (TFT Hall Sen) with 800 fans in attendance. The peak concurrent viewers exceeded 140,000, more than double the number during the 2nd anniversary live broadcast on January 22.

To welcome summer, popular swimsuit-themed characters such as "Hanako," "Hinata," "Ui," and "Koharu" were released in Blue Archive. An event story titled "In Search of Hidden Heritage," featuring students from the in-game "Trinity" academy exploring ruins, was also unveiled.

News about content and merchandise releases as well as collaboration plans also caught fans' attention. "Blue Archive Comic Anthology Vol.3," containing 13 original comics, and the fourth original soundtrack will be released. Merchandise such as pedometers printed with various charming character illustrations from the game will also be introduced. Additionally, a collaboration with "Toshimaen Niwanoyu," a famous hot spring facility in central Tokyo, is planned.

New information related to the animation was also shared. It was announced that the TV animation "Blue Archive The Animation" is in production. It was revealed that "Yamagishi Daigo" will direct the animation, and setting images of popular game characters "Shiroko" and "Arona" for the animation were also unveiled.

Blue Archive is asserting its presence in Japan, the birthplace of subculture. A barometer to gauge its influence is the activation of "secondary creations." The number of Blue Archive works submitted on the secondary creation platform "Pixiv" has surpassed 230,000. The number of circles (secondary creation work sellers) participating with Blue Archive IP at the "Comic Market" (a festival for secondary creators and fans) starting on August 12 this year is about 1,000 or more, ranking it among the top IPs at the Comic Market overall.

Blue Archive has steadily expanded its IP by offering diverse merchandise such as comics, OSTs, figures, and acrylic dioramas. Moreover, the production of the TV animation, considered the "ultimate" content, is underway.

Meanwhile, Blue Archive is also set to launch in the Chinese market on August 3. It has secured nearly 3.7 million pre-registrations, and during the beta test period, it ranked first in popularity on app market platforms such as TapTap and Bilibili.

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