Big in Japan? Now Line’s Disney licensed game is big everywhere.
Line Corporation’s messaging and free call app doubles as a social gaming platform, with several free in-client titles available to users. The latest from the company is a puzzler based on Disney’s character toys, called Line: Disney Tsum Tsum. The free-to-play iOS and Android game Line: passed 40 million worldwide downloads on Feb. 10. This is a new milestone for the Japan-based company in its journey to expand their global reach in a mobile game business that could hit $30 billion in 2015.
Line: Disney Tsum Tsum launched in Japan in early 2014, but its popularity soon led to an English localization as well as releases in 40 countries around the world. It currently ranks as the No. 1 game in Apple’s App Store in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Laos, and Hong Kong. Line says that the game has a significant and growing fan base in the United States as well.
The match-3 popping puzzler is every bit as cute as Disney’s popular line of collectable plush toys, called Tsum Tsum. The round, small, stackable toys bear the likenesses of Disney’s most popular characters, and they regularly sell out of stock at Disney’s retail stores.