Revision history: Granblue Fantasy

Granblue Fantasy is a free-to-play menu-based RPG by Cygames, launched in Japan on March 10, 2014 for browsers and mobile devices. [1] For most of its life it had no separate international release; an official English language option was added to the Japanese service in 2016, and a worldwide Steam version (fresh accounts, no transfers, unavailable inside Japan) launched on the game's twelfth anniversary, March 10, 2026. [1]

The game matters to gacha history mainly because of what happened in January 2016.

Pull system

Main article: Premium Draw

Single draws cost 300 Crystals. The SSR rate is 3%, doubled to 6% during the recurring Premium Gala and Flash Gala promotions, which is when most serious pulling happens. [2] There is no hard pity and no rate escalation; the safety net is the spark, below.

The Anchira incident and the birth of the spark

Main article: Cerulean sparks and the Anchira incident

During the year-end 2015 to New Year 2016 Legend Festival, Cygames featured Anchira, a Year-of-the-Monkey zodiac character. Availability windows and rate-up behavior led players to spend very large sums chasing her. The case that made national news: a streamer spent about 700,000 yen (roughly US$6,065 at the time) on 2,276 draws in about a day before obtaining her. Complaints reached Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency, and Bloomberg reported that the fallout knocked over US$1 billion off Japanese mobile game company shares. Western coverage named the affair "Monkeygate". [3]

Cygames apologized in January 2016 and granted compensation, and on March 10, 2016 shipped two structural changes: [1]

1. Individual per-item drop rates were disclosed for premium draws, ahead of any legal requirement.
2. Every premium draw began granting one cerulean spark, and 300 sparks (300 draws, 90,000 Crystals, roughly 90,000 yen if fully paid) can be exchanged for any item on the banner's exchange list, including the rate-up character. Sparks expire when the promotion ends. [2]

The following month, Japan's industry body CESA adopted guidelines requiring member companies to disclose gacha rates or spending estimates, formalizing the norm across the industry. [4] The 300-draw ceiling became the template that the whole genre now calls the spark; Cygames later reused a 200-pull version in Umamusume: Pretty Derby.

Service status

Main article: Release history

The game is in active service as of July 2026, having marked its twelfth anniversary in March 2026 with the launch of the worldwide Steam version. The 3% base rate, Gala doubling, and 300-spark ceiling are unchanged.

Granblue Fantasy is a free-to-play menu-based RPG by Cygames, launched in Japan on March 10, 2014 for browsers and mobile devices. [1] For most of its life it had no separate international release; an official English language option was added to the Japanese service in 2016, and a worldwide Steam version (fresh accounts, no transfers, unavailable inside Japan) launched on the game's twelfth anniversary, March 10, 2026. [1]

The game matters to gacha history mainly because of what happened in January 2016.

Pull system

Single draws cost 300 Crystals. The SSR rate is 3%, doubled to 6% during the recurring Premium Gala and Flash Gala promotions, which is when most serious pulling happens. [2] There is no hard pity and no rate escalation; the safety net is the spark, below.

The Anchira incident and the birth of the spark

During the year-end 2015 to New Year 2016 Legend Festival, Cygames featured Anchira, a Year-of-the-Monkey zodiac character. Availability windows and rate-up behavior led players to spend very large sums chasing her. The case that made national news: a streamer spent about 700,000 yen (roughly US$6,065 at the time) on 2,276 draws in about a day before obtaining her. Complaints reached Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency, and Bloomberg reported that the fallout knocked over US$1 billion off Japanese mobile game company shares. Western coverage named the affair "Monkeygate". [3]

Cygames apologized in January 2016 and granted compensation, and on March 10, 2016 shipped two structural changes: [1]

1. Individual per-item drop rates were disclosed for premium draws, ahead of any legal requirement.
2. Every premium draw began granting one cerulean spark, and 300 sparks (300 draws, 90,000 Crystals, roughly 90,000 yen if fully paid) can be exchanged for any item on the banner's exchange list, including the rate-up character. Sparks expire when the promotion ends. [2]

The following month, Japan's industry body CESA adopted guidelines requiring member companies to disclose gacha rates or spending estimates, formalizing the norm across the industry. [4] The 300-draw ceiling became the template that the whole genre now calls the spark; Cygames later reused a 200-pull version in Umamusume: Pretty Derby.

Service status

The game is in active service as of July 2026, having marked its twelfth anniversary in March 2026 with the launch of the worldwide Steam version. The 3% base rate, Gala doubling, and 300-spark ceiling are unchanged.