Gacha game

A gacha game (Japanese: ガチャ ゲーム, Hepburn: gacha gēmu) is a game, typically a video game, that implements the gachapon machine style mechanics. Similar to loot boxes, live service gacha games entice players to spend in-game currency to receive a random in-game item. Some in-game currency generally can be gained through game play and staying up-to-date, and some by purchasing it from the game publisher using real-world funds.

Most common gacha games are free-to-play (F2P) mobile role-playing games with an emphasis on strategy, such as team building, synergizing and player improvisation.^[1][2]

The gacha game model has been around since the early 90s with strategy trading card games such as Magic: the Gathering, but began to be widely used in the early 2010s in mobile gaming by Japan.^[1][2] Gacha mechanics have become an integral part of Japanese mobile game culture as well as pop culture in general.^[3] The game mechanism is also increasingly used in Chinese and Korean games, as well as European and American games.^[3][4][5][6]

Digital gacha games have been criticized for being addictive, and are often compared to gambling due to the incentive to spend real-world money on chance-based rewards.