📈 Make that Money! Two-Tier Gacha Systems in Games (Call of Duty Mobile)
Call of Duty Mobile has a strong focus on liveops monetization perhaps the most effective of which are their Two-Tier Gacha events
Hey Gamemakers,
Happy Thanksgiving!
A lot of our readers like liveops content. Last week’s Call of Duty Mobile liveops calendar analysis was one of our most read episodes.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
This week, we continue our examination of Call of Duty: Mobile (CODM) by analyzing the game's monetization. Word on the street is that most of the money in the game is generated from the gacha systems, of which their two-tier gacha implementation seems particularly effective.
Read our feature highlight to find out more about two-tier gacha systems!
Oh, there was a notable correction from our post about CODM last week. We wrote:
“According to AppMagic, the game has earned over $1.7 billion in revenue and has 390 million downloads.”
According to a reader from the Activision team:
“We actually have over 1BN downloads :)”
In this newsletter:
Top Revenue: At #1 Worldwide, Honor of Kings reclaims the throne. At #10 Worldwide, Pokemon Go returns to the top 10 worldwide charts. Note that new IP game launches often have a halo effect on other games in the market with the same IP (Pokemon TCG Pocket → Pokemon GO).
Top Downloads: Block Blast jumps to #1 Worldwide. The game is similar to Tetris, except players manually place the Tetris blocks on a board rather than moving and rotating them as they fall.
Top Steam Revenue: At #1, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a hardcore, single-player FPS blending survival horror and immersive simulation.
Highlight: Continuing our study of Call of Duty Mobile (CODM), we investigate the game's use of two-tier gacha, which helps drive significant revenue. Check out our analysis from Shilpa Gaur below!
Top 10 Mobile Revenue (Worldwide, US, and China)
At #1 Worldwide, Honor of Kings reclaims the throne.
At #10 Worldwide, Pokemon Go returns to the top 10 worldwide charts. Note that new IP game launches often have a halo effect on other games in the market with the same IP (Pokemon TCG Pocket → Pokemon GO).
At #7 in China, Genshin Impact makes a big jump up the charts, climbing 32 ranks.
At #1 Worldwide, Block Blast is a Tetris-like game, except players manually place the Tetris blocks on a board rather than moving and rotating them as they fall.
At #3 Worldwide, WinZO: Ludo, Carrom, Cricket is a collection of 100 casual games similar to other high download titles like Mini Games and Offline Games.
At #4 USA, Capybara Go! is the latest Habby game, as discussed by Matej Lancaric and the 2.5 Gamers: Capybara GO! Defining a new genre.
At #5 USA, Dream Games launches Royal Kingdom. Let’s see how well this game will do relative to Dream’s mega-hit Royal Match.
At #1 in China, 无尽梦回 (aka Endless Dream) is an anime-style roguelite ARPG.
Top 10 Steam Charts by Revenue
At #1, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a hardcore, single-player FPS blending survival horror and immersive simulation.
At #6, Path of Exile 2 was released as a coop, largely PVE ARPG with some PVP elements.
Baldur’s Gate 3's Financial Success: Financial records reveal the significant commercial impact of Baldur’s Gate 3, highlighting how its success has influenced the video game industry. This news underscores the game's role in pushing forward Dungeons & Dragons themed games. [IGN]
New Dungeons & Dragons Game: Following the success of Baldur's Gate 3, Hasbro is developing another Dungeons & Dragons game, signaling a potential resurgence or continuation of interest in D&D-based video games. [wccftech, IGN]
Xbox Handheld Plans: Microsoft Gaming's Phil Spencer has confirmed plans for an Xbox handheld device, though it's noted that it's years away from release. This indicates Microsoft's continued investment in expanding gaming platforms. [IGN]
xAI's AI Game Studio: Elon Musk announced xAI's intent to create an AI game studio to combat what he sees as corporate and ideological decline in game quality. This initiative stirs discussion on AI's role in creative industries like gaming. [Polygon]
💰 Two-Tier Gacha Systems in Mobile Games: Analysis of Call of Duty: Mobile's Implementation
Two-tier gacha systems represent an advanced monetization mechanic where players must progress through two separate but connected gacha systems. Using Call of Duty: Mobile (CODM) as a case study, we explore how these systems are implemented and their financial implications.
Key Insights
In CODM, approximately 60% of live operations events focus on monetization.
Two-tier gacha systems can generate $300+ per player from a single event.
Revenue also depends on regional pricing, with up to 60% lower costs in developing markets.
Chase items such as Mythic rarity weapons or characters often have extremely low drop rates (0.08% in CODM).
In CODM, players must spend significantly on both gacha tiers (Tier 1 and Tier 2) to acquire and upgrade premium chase items.
System Structure in CODM
Tier 1: Base Gacha
Players draw from an initial pool of 10 items
Implements a "box gacha" system where items aren't replaced after being drawn
Features three rarity levels: Epic (6 items), Legendary (3 items), Mythic (1 item)
The mythic item has a 0.08% initial drop rate
Costs escalate with each draw, from 50 CP to 6,700 CP for the final draw
Tier 2: Upgrade Gacha
Unlocked only after obtaining the Tier 1 mythic item
Requires a special currency (Mythic Coins/Cards) obtained through additional gacha
Provides deterministic upgrades but with randomized currency acquisition
Total upgrade cost: 1,875 Mythic Coins (characters) or 1,975 Mythic Cards (weapons)
Box Gacha Explained
In CODM, many (but not all) of the gacha systems in the game are in the form of box gacha. Tier 1 gacha in CODM generally takes the form of a box gacha. Box gachas have limited rewards, which can only be earned once. Hence, all items in a box gacha will be earned one at a time until no rewards remain.
Box Gacha Diagram:
Implementation in CODM
In season 10 of 2024, CODM introduced two types of two-tier gacha: 1. Cosmic Traveler (Mythic Character acquisition: Spectre T-3) and 2. Interdimensional Mythic (Mythic Weapon acquisition: USS 9 Fusion).
We examine both in turn below.
1. Cosmic Traveler: Character Gacha Implementation
Cosmic Traveler Tier 1
This gacha system features a Mythic rarity character, the Spectre T-3, and a Legendary rarity weapon as part of the Tier 1 draw. See 1 and 2 below.
Ten rewards: The Tier 1 gacha for Cosmic Traveler includes ten drawable rewards, including the Spectre T-3 mythic character as the primary Tier 1 reward chase objective.
Advance to Tier 2: Once a player has drawn the Mythic Spectre T-3, they can advance to the Tier 2 gacha system, which upgrades the Spectre T-3 character.
Cosmic Traveler Tier 2
Cosmic Traveler Tier 2 Mechanics:
Three upgrade categories:
Battle Tech (combat animations)
Arm Tech (visual features)
Color Tech (appearance customization)
Sequential upgrade path within each category
Final upgrade unlocked after 7 previous upgrades
Requires special currency to upgrade: Mythic Coins
In this system, while upgrading Tier 2 is deterministic, the input costs (Mythic Coins or Crates) must be randomly acquired using gacha crate draws.
In this example, players will need 1,875 Mythic Coins to fully upgrade the Mythic Spectre T-3 character.
The table below shows the upgrade levels and costs (in Mythic Coins) for Tier-2 upgrades:
2. Interdimensional Mythic: Weapon Gacha Implementation
Interdimensional Mythic Tier 1
This gacha system features a Mythic rarity weapon, the USS 9 Fusion, and a Legendary rarity character as part of the Tier 1 draw. See 1 and 2 below.
Ten Rewards: This draw also has 10 rewards in Tier 1
Advance to Tier 2: Acquiring the Mythic reward, the USS 9 Fusion, unlocks the Tier 2 gacha.
Interdimensional Mythic Tier 2 Mechanics:
The Mythic USS 9 Fusion weapon reward has five upgrade levels.
Upgrades are deterministic and not based on gacha draws.
Requires special currency: Mythic Cards (not Mythic Coins)
The upgrade inputs (Mythic Cards and Coins) must be randomly acquired using gacha crate draws. See “Currency Gacha: Obtaining Mythic Cards and Coins” below.
Once Mythic Cards are obtained through currency gacha crates, the player can upgrade the Mythic USS 9 Fusion weapon. The table below shows the upgrade levels and costs (in Mythic Cards) for Tier 2 upgrades:
In this example, players will need 1975 Mythic Cards to fully upgrade the Mythic USS 9 Fusion weapon shown above.
Currency Gacha: Obtaining Mythic Coins and Cards
Mythic Coins (for upgrading characters) and Mythic Cards (for upgrading weapons) can only be acquired by purchasing gacha crate draws.
The following image shows the gacha odds for the Mythic Coin crate and Mythic Card crate:
Note that this gacha is not box gacha, as all drop rewards can be duplicated.
Mythic Coins (Upgrade Characters):
When players draw gacha for Mythic Coins, they can win one of 6 coin bundles (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, or 80). Further, the more coins they obtain progress towards a progress milestone at 10, 40, 80, 110, and 140 Mythic Coins that give further rewards.
Mythic Cards (Upgrade Weapons):
Mythic Card draws are very similar to Mythic Coin draws, except the milestone progress only has three milestones at 20, 50, and 100 Mythic Coins.
Tier-1 Reward Distribution & Odds
The following table shows the reward draw probabilities for Tier 1 gacha of Cosmic Traveler (character draw) and Interdimensional Mythic (weapon draw).
Both two-tier gacha events (character and weapon) have the same pattern of reward distribution. Out of 10:
1 Mythic item (0.08% initial probability)
3 Legendary items
6 Epic items
Tier 1 Gacha Cost Estimation
The following table shows the cost for Tier 1 gacha system draws. Since Tier 1 offers 10 items, players can draw up to 10 times. The table below shows cost data for the US, the region with the highest cost globally.
The total cost for the Mythic character (Spectre T-3) Tier 1 draw is 18,000 CP, which is higher than for the Mythic weapon (USS 9 FUsion) Tier 1 draw at 14,730 CP.
Tier 2 Gacha Cost Estimation
Let us see how many Mythic Coins are required for tier-2 upgrades-
How many draws are needed to get these 1,875 Mythic Coins required for Tier 2 upgrades?
As calculated from the probability distribution for the Mythic Coins gacha rewards along with milestone stone rewards (shown below), we need 100 draws, which cost 14,400 CP.
How many draws are needed to get 1975 Mythic Cards required for Tier 2 upgrades?
Mythic Weapon upgrades for the Tier 2 gacha require Mythic Cards to upgrade. Let us see how many Mythic Cards are required for Tier-2 upgrades-
Total Cost of Two-Tier Gacha in CODM
We estimate the total cost of two-tier gacha for Cosmic Traveler (Mythic Character) and Interdimensional Traveler (Mythic Weapon) is $324 and $305, respectively, in the highest ARPU regions (e.g., countries like the USA).
Interestingly, in both of these gacha systems, while the base tier cost for a gacha pull is higher in Cosmic Traveler, the upgrade cost of Interdimensional Mythic is much higher, making the fully loaded costs similar.
Costs based on $1 = 100 CP.
Regional Pricing Strategy
CODM has three kinds of pricing for these gacha systems based on geographical region of operation. We have taken the highest costs for analysis, applicable to high ARPU countries like the USA, UK, etc. The lowest pricing tier applies to emerging geos like India, Southeast Asia, Africa, etc.
The following charts show the Tier 1 costs for three region brackets for Cosmic Traveler (Mythic Character) and Interdimensional Traveler (Mythic Weapon).
Best Practices & Recommendations
Clear Progression Path
Make upgrade benefits visible and desirable
Provide milestone rewards during the upgrade process
System Design
Create a clear value proposition for each tier
Balance randomization with guaranteed rewards
Design compelling upgrade paths
Economic Planning
Implement regional pricing strategies
Consider total cost thresholds for target markets
Balance between character and weapon monetization
Player Experience
Provide immediate value in Tier 1 rewards
Create visible upgrade benefits
Maintain a reasonable progression pace
Conclusion
Two-tier gacha systems represent a sophisticated approach to mobile game monetization. CODM's implementation demonstrates how combining multiple gacha layers with clear progression paths can create significant revenue opportunities while maintaining player engagement. Success depends on carefully balancing monetization goals with player value perception across different market segments.
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Shilpa Gaur: Feature post.
Joseph Kim: News, feature editor, market data commentary.
Shikha Singh: Market data.