Faster than Puzzles & Dragons or Monster Strike, BrainWars crosses 10 million downloads

BrainWars, the brainpower competition app from Translimit, was never just a Japanese phenomenon. Though well-known and respected in tech circles, the game does not have the same cultural significance as standouts like Puzzles & Dragons or Monster Strike. But guess what – BrainWars reached 10 million downloads more quickly than either of them.

Today, Translimit announced the milestone achievement, exactly one year to the day from its founding. The key? Only 4.3 percent of users are from Japan. BrainWars is a global hit, particularly loved in America where about 25 percent of its users reside.

The company is not resting on its laurels, however. Founder and CEO Hiroki Takaba tells Tech in Asia that he will release two new games by the end of this year. Both will be like BrainWars in the sense that they will be built for a global audience. “In the summer, we will release one that is being co-developed with Line, with which we have a business partnership. The other will be an original title for release in the fall or winter,” he says.

In the meantime, his team is planning to give BrainWars a major update in February. Though the game is known for its one-on-one battles, a new single-player story mode will be added. Takaba explains that this will help increase monetization and continuous usage.

All these advances are currently being carried out by a lean team of just eight full-time employees. Though the game is scaling rapidly, Takaba is confident in his company’s talent. “We minimize the effort put into operations by developing along the principle of ‘Make something once, make it last forever,’” he explains.

BrainWars is looking like a world-beater but it still has some work to do. Puzzles & Dragons might be slowing down but it is still the gold standard with 40 million users worldwide. Mixi’s Monster Strike, is also sitting pretty at 20 million users.

Even so, Takaba might have the last laugh. The scoreboard does not lie. Puzzles & Dragons took 13 months and Monster Strike took 11 months to reach 10 million downloads. BrainWars needed only eight and shows no signs of slowing down.

See: How BrainWars escaped Japan and won over users worldwide