They say money can't buy happiness, so I guess Meccha Chameleon creators lemorion_1224 and Haganeiro will have to get a yacht instead. Much has been said about the ludicrous success of the hide-and-seek game, but a recent figure from Newzoo (shared by GamesIndustry.biz) further puts things into perspective: for June revenue on PC in a handful of western countries, it came second only to Fortnite.
Newzoo analyst Mert Şahin told GamesIndustry.biz that the game's sudden and huge success "shows that lower-budget, socially driven multiplayer experiences can achieve significant commercial results." The game's low barrier to entry, both price and spec-wise, alongside all the viral popularity it experienced on social media sites like YouTube, certainly helped it along.
The full list offers the top 20 games by revenue in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy, and after Meccha Chameleon comes Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, and League of Legends. There's a list for console games as well that looks quite different, though Fortnite is the uncontested king of both rings. Other common threads include usual suspects like Minecraft and Marvel Rivals.
Whether you have any interest in these sorts of low-budget party games or not, there's no denying their broad appeal. It's hard not to think of the sudden ubiquity of Among Us in 2020, which just got a TV show and continues to enjoy collab after collab six years later, as Meccha Chameleon puts up such astonishing numbers and teases its own first collaboration.
It might have to deal with cheating problems and sloppy AI ripoffs, but ignore the noise and there's a genuinely great game waiting for you. In his review, PC Gamer's Lincoln Carpenter called it "a delightfully elevated take on hide-and-seek … Meccha Chameleon's game of competitive camouflage is a multiplayer experience that exceeds its friendslop trappings."
