Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle

Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle
Developer(s)	Akatsuki Inc.
Publisher(s)	Bandai Namco Entertainment
Producer(s)	Toshitaka Tachibana
Series	Dragon Ball
Platform(s)	Android iOS
Release	JP: January 30, 2015 (Android) JP: February 19, 2015 (iOS) WW: July 16, 2015
Mode(s)	Single-player

Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle (Japanese: ドラゴンボールZ ドッカンバトル) is a free-to-play mobile game based on the Dragon Ball anime franchise. Developed by Akatsuki and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, it was released in Japan for Android on January 30, 2015 and for iOS on February 19, 2015. Dokkan Battle was eventually released worldwide for iOS and Android on July 16, 2015. The game has exceeded 300 million downloads worldwide, and has grossed over $2 billion in worldwide revenue.

Gameplay

The game includes elements of board game, collectible card game, and puzzle genres. The main game is made up of levels that work similarly to board games, with spots dedicated to items, power-ups, traps, and fights. During the fights, the player's characters fight with an enemy via a puzzle system similar to match-3 games. Multiple orbs of different colors are placed between the player's character and the enemy, and the player can match different kind of orbs to do attacks or use other abilities. The characters with which to fight in game are unlocked via either in-game items or in-app purchases.

Development and release

DualShockers had an interview with the game's producer Toshitaka Tachibana in July 2017, discussing the development and release of the game.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	71/100

Review score

Publication	Score
TouchArcade

The game reached 15 million downloads within three months when it was released in Japan. The game reached 100 million downloads worldwide in November 2016. In April 2017, it topped the iPhone gross revenue chart in the United States, where it had close to 1.5 million downloads and grossed more than $26 million from nearly $18 average revenue per user. By July 2017, the game had released in 50 countries, reaching number 1 on the App Store in 16 countries, reaching 200 million downloads worldwide. By August 2018, the game had exceeded 250 million downloads worldwide. As of August 2019, the game has exceeded 300 million downloads worldwide.

In Japan, the game grossed at least ¥73.9 billion ($673 million) between 2017 and 2018, including ¥27.8 billion between January 2017 and October 3, 2017 (the year's fifth top-grossing mobile game), and ¥46.1 billion in 2018 (again the year's fifth top-grossing mobile game). In China, the game grossed ¥2.8 billion ($26 million) in 2017. In the United States, the Google Play version grossed $6.18 million in November 2017, and was the month's seventh top-grossing Play Store app. By July 2018, the game had amassed over $1 billion in worldwide revenue, including approximately $400 million from outside of Japan, and about $200 million in the United States. In December 2018, the game grossed $46 million in worldwide monthly revenue, including $35 million in Japan, and $11 million overseas. As of November 2019 , the game has grossed over $2 billion worldwide.

Gacha scandal

On November 14, 2017, a new character Kefla (ケフラ) was advertised to be added into the gacha (loot box) pool, but only a few players were able to draw her successfully. The majority failed to spot her presence in the list of possible drops. This led to suspicion that the developer intentionally manipulated her drop rate so most players would pour a lot of money to attempt drawing her in vain while sustaining the illusion that she was still in the gacha pool. Soon after the rumor went public, the developer halted the gacha function and denied user access to the list of gacha drops temporarily, explained the issue was an unintentional mistake.