Internet hype comes fast and fades fast.
Generally speaking, a trending news topic dies down within three to five days.
But the heat around the Plants vs. Zombies leak hadn’t faded much by the 23rd.
That was because Sister Shan kept dropping bits of gossip from time to time, keeping netizens hooked.
The onlookers were enjoying the drama immensely, and the hype stayed strong right up until the game’s release.
“Er Ming, our company’s official website won’t crash from too many netizens, will it?”
“What are you worrying about?! It won’t.” Luo Ming said grumpily.
“But the hype online is so high—what if a ton of people show up?”
“Even so, no problem. With me here, nothing will go wrong!” Luo Ming said confidently.
But when midnight hit on December 24th, Luo Ming got slapped right in the face.
At exactly 0:00, over 40,000 IPs flooded Zhuoguang’s official website in an instant.
The main page visibly started lagging.
“Holy crap! There really are this many people!” Luo Ming exclaimed, his fingers flying across the keyboard to stabilize the site.
Fortunately, only the first wave of IPs was that heavy. People kept coming to Zhuoguang’s website afterward, but there was never another sudden surge of 40,000+ IPs like that.
Outside the office, everyone—especially Zhao Ningyuan—was nervously watching the backend data.
Plants vs. Zombies was tied to his career. The game leak had happened just days before launch, and if anything went wrong with this game, it would be a huge blow to both the company and Zhao Ningyuan’s career.
So during this period, Zhao Ningyuan had been under enormous pressure, his nerves constantly on edge.
At that moment, Zhao Ningyuan’s eyes were locked onto the backend data, afraid of missing any movement.
Xu Jiale noticed Zhao Ningyuan’s state, walked over, put an arm around his shoulder, and handed him a cigarette. “What are you so nervous about, team lead? You made the second half of the game and you handled testing. Don’t you know the game’s quality better than anyone?”
Zhao Ningyuan didn’t say anything—he just took the cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag.
Seeing this, Xu Jiale didn’t push further. At a time like this, nothing could comfort him more than Plants vs. Zombies’ performance.
“Holy crap! Why are so many people coming all at once!”
One of the tech team members who’d been staring at the backend couldn’t help but exclaim, cigarette still in hand.
“Whoa! It broke ten thousand just two minutes after downloads opened?”
Xu Jiale immediately leaned over. “For real? Downloads just opened, and it’s already past ten thousand?”
As the two of them spoke, the download counter was climbing rapidly: 12,000, 14,000, 16,000!
In less than ten minutes, the game’s downloads broke 30,000!
“Holy shit! We’re set, we’re set—this is in the bag!” Xu Jiale couldn’t help but shout.
“This isn’t just ‘in the bag’—these numbers are insane!”
“Woo! We’re taking off!”
The people in the art team who couldn’t see the data got swept up in the tech team’s excitement and jumped up cheering.
For a moment, the office building was filled with bursts of excited shouts.
Zhao Ningyuan, who’d been so serious earlier, was now smiling too—half the weight on his mind had lifted.
“How about it? Feeling a bit better, team lead?” Xu Jiale asked.
“Half relieved, I guess!” Zhao Ningyuan said with a smile.
“Why only half? What’s the other half?”
“Our game isn’t a success just because people download it—what matters is how many actually pay for activation codes. The other half depends on seeing the paid ratio tomorrow morning. If the paid ratio is decent and we sell 500,000 copies in the first month, then my other half can relax too.”
“Why is your goal only 500,000, team lead? President Luo is thinking 1 million copies!”
“A buy-to-play game selling 500,000 copies in a month in China is already a massive hit. I wouldn’t even dare dream of 1 million.”
After confirming the leak hadn’t hurt Plants vs. Zombies sales, the Zhuoguang staff all went home.
Luo Ming decided to stay in the office overnight just in case, lying down on the office sofa.
Just as he lay down, Lin Shuwen called.
“How are Plants vs. Zombies’ numbers? Is there a chance of selling 1 million copies in the first month?” Lin Shuwen’s anxious voice came through the receiver the moment Luo Ming picked up.
“It’s hard to say right now, but it should be close. More people downloaded than I expected—thanks to Sister Shan’s promotion.”
“Then I can relax.”
“If you’re relaxed, go to sleep! It’s fine for me to stay up, but if you stay up you’ll get migraines and it’ll affect your voice. How are you going to record that song I left you tomorrow?”
“I know, I know! I’m going to sleep now. Remember to send me the numbers tomorrow morning.”
“Okay.”
Hearing Luo Ming agree, Lin Shuwen finally hung up, satisfied.
Luo Ming tossed and turned on the sofa, constantly tempted to check the backend data. By the time he finally drifted off, it was already past 4 AM.
At 8 AM, Luo Ming was jolted awake by his phone alarm. The moment he opened his eyes, he rushed to the computer and pulled up the backend data.
Then a smile spread across Luo Ming’s face.
Downloads: 76,437
Activations: 51,422
Over fifty thousand!
That meant Plants vs. Zombies had earned over 2.5 million in just one night!
By the standards of his previous life—the era when mobile and PC games were booming—this result would’ve been utter garbage.
Take Onmyoji, for example. In its first year after launching in 2016, it raked in 3 billion in revenue, with 400 million in the first month and nearly 100 million on day one.
Not to mention top mobile games like Honor of Kings, Peacekeeper Elite, and Genshin Impact.
But by today’s standards, Plants vs. Zombies’ numbers were undeniably excellent.
And Plants vs. Zombies was a buy-to-play game. With free-to-play games dominating China, buy-to-play titles actually had a hard time.
You have to remember that in his previous life, the 2019 domestic indie hit The Invisible Guardian only sold 1.4 million copies in a whole year.
Yet Plants vs. Zombies sold over 50,000 copies in one night. Based on typical sales decay curves, domestic sales alone could hit over 2 million in the first month—not to mention overseas channels.
Thinking about this, Luo Ming clenched his fists in excitement.
“Bang~” Suddenly, Luo Ming’s office door was pushed open.
“Holy crap! Er Ming, guess how many copies of Plants vs. Zombies our online store sold yesterday?”
Luo Ming glanced at the beaming Rong Mu and threw out a bold number: “2000?”
Rong Mu’s excited expression froze on his face.
“Did I guess right?”
“Damn! How did you know? Did you secretly install cameras in my house?”
“No, no—it’s because a father knows his son best.”
“You mother—”
After teasing Rong Mu for a bit, Luo Ming told him the official website sales data.
Rong Mu was so excited he went numb—he didn’t even have the energy to take issue with Luo Ming promoting himself to father.
Then Luo Ming took a deep breath to calm his excitement and sent the overnight download and sales data to Lin Shuwen and Sister Shan.
Lin Shuwen had just arrived at the office. When she saw Luo Ming’s message on WeChat, a radiant smile spread across her face.
“Sis Wen, what’s got you so happy?” Chen Sichu asked curiously.
“What else? Today’s the day President Luo’s game launches—must be doing pretty well, right?” Chen Junmiao said from the side.
Lin Shuwen nodded. “Miaomiao’s right. Luo Ming’s game is doing pretty well indeed.”
