On the day Fall Guys and Legends of the Three Kingdoms launched on the Nebula Games platform—
Tons of players rushed to download them.
Since Legends of the Three Kingdoms was free, there was no reason not to get it.
Even though Fall Guys was a paid game, its cute cartoon style and fun gameplay made a lot of people excited for it.
And there was one more big reason.
During the expo, Fall Guys was available to try for free—just for a day, but still free.
Whether it was a good fit or not, players figured they might as well try it out first.
If it turned out to be fun, then just buy it—simple as that.
Also, based on what happened with Overcooked before, games made by Nebula Games usually get some kind of discount when sold on their own platform.
And looking at the level design of Fall Guys, many players have already guessed that this game will most likely support a creative workshop in the future.
Compared to Steam in the previous timeline, the creative workshop feature on the Nebula Games platform hasn't made much of a splash in the gaming world yet.
That's mainly because it's not just up to the platform—it also needs the participation of both players and game developers.
But for players who've experienced the fun of creative workshops, they're really looking forward to it.
Right now, Overcooked still reaches up to 100,000 concurrent players at peak times on Nebula Games' platform.
That's largely thanks to the creative workshop.
Even though Overcooked is available on other platforms too, using mods there is a bit more of a hassle.
Very soon, the first-day download numbers for both Fall Guys and Legends of the Three Kingdoms were released.
Legends of the Three Kingdoms broke 1.2 million, while Fall Guys hit a massive 3.1 million.
This data really shocked many people in the game industry.
Even though Legends of the Three Kingdoms is free forever and Fall Guys was free just for that day—and both were riding the hype from the gameplay expo…
Even so, those numbers still caught everyone off guard.
Especially because all of this was just on the Nebula Games platform!
That means the platform gained millions of users overnight.
Sure, the actual user engagement may not be that strong.
But the numbers alone are crazy impressive.
Compared to giants like NetDragon and SkyNova, or even the official app stores that already have hundreds of millions of users, or secondary platforms with tens of millions—Nebula Games obviously can't compete at that level.
But for an independent platform to pull in this many users? That's insane.
And looking at the current data, it's clear that both Fall Guys and Legends of the Three Kingdoms still have room to grow—they're not done yet.
The only question is how far they can go from here.
............…
The stats from Legends of the Three Kingdoms and Fall Guys have clearly made a lot of game designers jealous.
On industry forums, alongside the optimistic and impressed voices, there were also plenty of skeptical ones.
"It's still too early to say whether Fall Guys and Legends of the Three Kingdoms will really succeed, don't you think?"
"Yeah, even though they're popular and being talked about a lot, Legends of the Three Kingdoms is a free-to-play game and depends on in-app purchases, while Fall Guys is only free for a day—we don't know the actual sales yet."
"Exactly, their success depends on two key numbers: player retention and revenue. Saying they've 'made it' now is kind of premature."
"Right. If either number flops, both games could crash just as fast."
But these kinds of comments weren't the majority.
There are always some people who are more excited to see others fail than they are to succeed themselves.
Meanwhile, the regular players had a completely different mindset.
They just thought both games were fresh and fun.
As two of the hottest games at the moment, once Lucas gave the green light, a lot of streamers across different platforms started broadcasting Fall Guys and Legends of the Three Kingdoms.
But Fall Guys basically steamrolled Legends of the Three Kingdoms in terms of popularity.
From a player's point of view, the two games are pretty different and each has its own charm. It's hard to say one is clearly better.
But for streamers and content creators, the gap was more obvious.
That's because Fall Guys is just way more fun to watch than Legends of the Three Kingdoms.
So across all the major streaming sites and video platforms, Fall Guys content was everywhere.
And both players and streamers noticed one thing:
Playing Fall Guys is just a lot more fun.
Sure, the game has some rage-inducing moments too.
Like when some troll stretches out their evil little hand and grabs you right at the finish line, just to keep you from making it through—and you end up getting knocked out.
In an instant, Fall Guys turned into a full-on chaos simulator.
But unlike Overcooked, where it's easy to start yelling at each other, Fall Guys is more about teaming up against everyone else.
So sure, it raises your blood pressure,
But the mood is completely different—way more fun and lighthearted.
This kind of variety-show obstacle course game is basically one of a kind right now.
It gave players a totally fresh experience.
The internet was full of laughter and jokes from players.
Most Fall Guys forums and communities were focused on social topics—
Mainly people looking for others to play and voice chat with.
Because the first impression this game gives is just so fun and silly.
Meanwhile, over on the Legends of the Three Kingdoms side, even though it looked like Fall Guys totally overshadowed it in popularity—
Its community forums were filled with all kinds of strategy guides.
Because most people still didn't know how to play, and the game itself had more depth compared to Fall Guys,
So things like card effect breakdowns or character skill guides were very popular.
Of course, there were also some funny posts too.
The game had just launched on the Nebula Games platform—
But there were already plenty of unlucky players posting their "famous moments":
"I wanna ask—am I being punished by the system because I didn't buy the Legends of the Three Kingdoms skins? Why can't my Zhen Ji see black cards? Why does my Da Qiao have no diamonds?!"
"That's nothing—I used Zhuge Liang's lightning stargazing skill and zapped myself. Beat that!"
"Please, your characters at least triggered their skills. I played Sun Shangxiang, had four female characters on the field, and not once did I draw a weapon card. I basically played a blank slate!"
Online, whether it was Legends of the Three Kingdoms or Fall Guys, players were chatting nonstop.
For a while, the whole player base was just having a good time.
On Lucas's official blog, plenty of people also left comments saying they had misjudged him—"the warrior of love" lived up to his name.
Even though both games had frustrating and unlucky moments, most of the time they were pure fun.
Some players even joked that if Fall Guys had launched back on Valentine's Day, it would've been perfect timing.
(End of the chapter)
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