With over 200 trending searches, why does everything related to *Peacekeeper Elite* become a hit?

Text by: Guofu

It seems that "Peacekeeper Elite" always manages to "go viral" unexpectedly.

For example, a few days ago, they held an "Airdrop Festival Annual Fashion Show" at Bailu Stadium in Sanya, Hainan. They not only invited four real - game - playing celebrity spokespersons, Hu Chengyu, Song Qian, Tian Xiwei, and Yu Shuxin, but also snagged over two hundred hot searches across multiple platforms on the entire internet afterwards.

Of course, "Peacekeeper Elite" didn't just put on a show this time.

A few days before the show, on August 6th, "Peacekeeper Elite" updated its version and launched a collaboration with "Ne Zha: Rebirth of the Demon Child". It included the skin appearances of four characters, Ne Zha, Ao Bing, Ao Run, and Shen Gongbao, as well as a collaborative map that replicated the design of the Yuxu Palace from the movie.

On the same day, they also staged a collaborative - theme fireworks show over Phoenix Island in Hainan. According to official statistics, this show attracted over 100,000 viewers. Even the staff of "Peacekeeper Elite" couldn't squeeze in during the show that day.

Fireworks show of "Peacekeeper Elite"

Taking this opportunity, they also carried out in - depth cooperation with Sanya's cultural and tourism department. For example, they set up check - in points around multiple scenic spots such as Sanya Silk Road Happy World and Luhuitou Scenic Area, simultaneously launched several one - month summer activities, and held a theme flash mob performance at Sanya Phoenix Airport.

Previously, we've also discussed the promotional effect of game IPs on cultural and tourism. The "Island" map in "Peacekeeper Elite" also has some similarities with Hainan, which can be regarded as a win - win cooperation. However, Sanya itself has a strong tourism attribute, and what "Peacekeeper Elite" does is more like icing on the cake, focusing on pure and sincere experiences - Since you're here, why not have a great time.

Come to think of it, "Peacekeeper Elite" passed the stage of relying on marketing to gain popularity and attract players a long time ago. Regardless of how many players the game has accumulated and how many people it has accompanied over the years, they recently provided a rather profound proof: The "Subway Escape" mode in "Peacekeeper Elite" has a DAU of over 37 million, leading by a large margin among search - fight - evacuate products. Two months ago, we even published an in - depth article specifically discussing this.

The "Subway Escape" mode in "Peacekeeper Elite" exceeds 37 million DAU

Nowadays, they are more concerned about how to provide better content for everyone.

For example, they cooperated with "Harper's Bazaar" and gradually launched many more costly and better - looking outfits. At the show, they also invited many celebrities to cosplay and walk the runway together.

But if you're an old player of "Peacekeeper Elite", you'll find that these are no longer just simple fashion items or appearances. Huang Xinlong, the planning director, also said that now, the idea behind creating divine outfits in "Peacekeeper Elite" is no longer to define them as just a piece of clothing or a character, but to build them into a living, story - and - personality - filled figure. For this purpose, they even create a large amount of short - film and performance content around these characters.

Videos of "Peacekeeper Elite" on Bilibili

Just looking at the gameplay, these contents may not seem to contribute much to the game, like a thankless task. But in fact, it targets everyone's most fundamental need - emotion.

This is the same as traveling. When a person spends thousands of yuan to visit a city where others grew up, looking around here and there, aren't they seeking a kind of spiritual emotional satisfaction?

Similarly, how to create an interesting world is also a proposition that "Peacekeeper Elite" is particularly concerned about nowadays.

As we all know, the collaborative products of "Peacekeeper Elite" are all - encompassing. For example, you probably won't see such a strange yet harmonious scene as "Ultraman riding a horse and fighting Evangelion Unit - 01" in other games on the market, but they can make it happen.

However, in fact, the collaborations of "Peacekeeper Elite" are not just a crude transplantation or introduction. They really try to capture the underlying preferences of young people, covering multiple fields such as anime, film and television, luxury cars, fashion, trendy toys, and music.

Take the collaboration with "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" as an example. They didn't simply stuff the original images of the characters into the game. Instead, they extracted the key elements, created doll costumes for each character, and presented them in a clothing style that young people like. In the collaboration with "Ne Zha: Rebirth of the Demon Child", they chose to directly put Ne Zha's original image into the game, creating another kind of cross - dimensional scene - after all, isn't Ne Zha's most prominent feature his demon - pill image with dark circles under his eyes?

On this basis, good designs often give rise to some interesting user - generated content, which in turn promotes dissemination. For example, the user - generated content of Ne Zha wearing a helmet has probably amused many people recently.

User - generated content of Ne Zha in "Peacekeeper Elite"

Based on these design foundations, two days before the show, relevant collaborative topics such as "I'm Cultivating Immortality in 'Peacekeeper Elite'" went viral on multiple platforms like Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Kuaishou, accumulating over 300 million topic views.

In many people's eyes, "Peacekeeper Elite" may just be reaping the benefits of having a large user base, so whatever they do becomes a hit. But they themselves also emphasize that when innovating the game, the team first considers not what to create, but how these things can meet the players' needs. Based on this, the team then further considers breakthroughs and high standards to ensure that each time they do better than the last.

After a lot of trial - and - error in the previous years, they have now naturally developed a unique content - creation approach.

However, it's probably not easy for other products to imitate what "Peacekeeper Elite" is doing. After all, as one of Tencent's pillar games, they have real resources and confidence to try, research, and find the next path for "ever - green games" and IP products.

But one thing is definitely common, that is, only developers who are willing to find out what players like can truly gain recognition.

This article was first published on "36Kr Games".