With its DAU surpassing 58 million within two years, there is no standard answer to Delta's "win".

On October 8, *Delta Action* announced its latest daily active user data — 58 million.

On the occasion of its 2nd anniversary, the daily active users of *Delta Action* Chinese server have exceeded 58 million

According to official disclosure, the average daily active users of the game's Chinese server have reached a new high and exceeded 58 million, continuing the growth momentum after the Chinese server's DAU broke through 50 million earlier this year. At the 2nd anniversary celebration in Chongqing not long ago, the Linyun Shang team once again unveiled a heavy R&D blueprint: the 5v5 turn-based bomb disposal gameplay "Black Tide Blast" Beta season is launched from now on, the UE5 engine upgrade will be launched in November, and the breakthrough cross-difficulty new map "Valkyrie Under Siege" and the long-term narrative "Stellar Project" were also announced.

Data from the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association shows that the scale of domestic game users reached 683 million in 2025, and the growth rate has slowed down to 1.35%; statistics from Gamma Data and other institutions also indicate that the revenue of old products in the TOP100 mobile game list accounts for as high as 94.8%.

Data source: China Game Industry Research Expert Committee & Gamma Data (CNG)

The entire Chinese game market has entered an era dominated by stock. For a large DAU product that has already proven its explosive power, the proposition that the industry cares more about is: why can *Delta Action* achieve true long-term success?

The answer may lie in a sentence repeatedly mentioned by producer Shadow and lead planner Ricky during the anniversary interview: "In Delta, there is no standard answer to winning."

01 A 100-million-level market cannot accommodate a "single answer"

"This product has grown together with players and the entire Delta ecosystem," producer Shadow said frankly. In the interview, he clearly sorted out the user evolution path of *Delta Action* in the two years since its launch: in the early stage of launch, the team aimed to "find itself", and first solved the problem of "who we are and what the core positioning of the product is"; since then, as DAU has soared all the way, in addition to core shooting players, content-focused users, anime fans, general public and mobile game users have poured in on a large scale. The team has increasingly realized that the user base of Delta has evolved from core shooting players to diverse general players.

The slogan of *Delta Action* in the early stage of its launch

Traditional competitive shooting game manufacturers are accustomed to "setting rules" — competing for K/D, ranks, and leaderboards. The old Delta also had a linear growth path from "Normal - Confidential - Top Secret", but in front of tens of millions of players from different backgrounds, this single path is bound to fail.

"Many users do not need us to set a fixed path for them," Shadow said. "In Delta, players have diverse concerns, not just 'What is your rank?' or 'What is your KD?', but also 'Did you get the new big rare item this season?', 'Have you completed your hidden achievement xxx?'"

When the product reaches a certain scale, the official can no longer use unified rules to constrain players, and "providing fertile soil for stories to happen naturally" is the way Delta breaks through.

02 Every gameplay we invest in is expected to be fully developed to the extreme

In this huge ecosystem, if you are a "looter player", you can search for supplies everywhere, run away when you see others, and collect the most abundant supplies at the smallest cost; if you want to "go all in", you can bring top-level combat readiness into the map to "fight fiercely" and pursue pure high-intensity exciting combat; some players are obsessed with collecting "figurines" and fill a whole wall with various colorful dolls; other players specialize in creating interesting content, do not fight or search in the game, but collectively dance the "feast dance" and say "Happy New Year" to resolve conflicts.

The "colorful dolls" counted by players

Facing the complex demands, Shadow gave the answer: "Every gameplay we invest in will be fully developed and perfected to the extreme."

Groups that crave fast-paced pure gunfights can enjoy the 5v5 turn-based Black Tide Blast; for groups that pursue game strategy and gap advantages, the new Fire Zone map "Valkyrie" with strong story themes that breaks the dimensional wall will be launched soon, dividing the inner and outer cities with a high wall, and completely returning the right to choose between risk and benefit to players; the full-scale battlefield is also continuing to increase technical investment to meet players' demands for the on-site sense of large scenes and "entertaining and exciting gaming experience".

The new Fire Zone map "Valkyrie" announced at the 2nd anniversary

From a vertical perspective, every map in the "Search, Fight and Extract" (Fire Zone) mode must also be "perfected" to meet the diverse needs of different player groups. In Shadow's words, it is to use different map characteristics and insight into user needs to build a platform in the "Search, Fight and Extract" mode. Taking the rework of the Longbow Valley 2.0 in the latest season as an example, this map, with its open scenery and relatively gentle confrontation pressure, has become a "safe haven" favored by newbies and casual players. The official keenly captured this existing player habit, introduced interactive gameplay such as fishing and harmonica playing, and turned the originally low-pressure map into a cozy social sandbox — some people sit quietly by the water all day, some people drive vehicles to run a "Didi boat taxi" business, some people pick up the harmonica and randomly meet their "bosom friend", and even some players specifically enter the map to take photos and check in.

03 The official builds the stage behind the scenes, and players direct the show in front of the stage

Hundreds of thousands of players worked together to decipher the official hidden easter egg. The final easter egg reproduced the Asara soldier playing the piano, as well as a number of community highlight memories and real messages, which moved countless players to tears; at the anniversary celebration, players' emotions were driven by the wonderful conference and concert, and they kept shouting "Happy New Year" and "Delta is awesome"; the "Top 10 Memes" generated by community voting also formally appeared on the celebration stage... These contents that are not linked to traditional FPS competitive data constitute the truly attractive part of this game.

The easter egg scene in the game

When talking about how to select these community contents to make into game easter eggs, lead planner Ricky gave the answer: "It is not accurate to say 'select'. We put the soldier playing the piano in the anniversary celebration because we were deeply moved by the video of a student cosplaying the Asara soldier playing the piano last year. We are not filtering player content, but more paying tribute. We want more people to see these beautiful moments, which is the same as paying tribute to classic works."

On the other hand, the most taboo thing in making large DAU products is to adopt a one-size-fits-all crude approach. Lead planner Ricky and Shadow do not shy away from the mistakes they have made. In order to solve the problem of ecological liquidity, the project has also set up a special team to maintain the balance of the ecosystem behind the scenes with small but fast iterations. "Users and the ecosystem are fluid and growing continuously." "We not only protect the exciting feeling of hardcore gunfights, but also allow new players or players with low shooting skill thresholds to find their favorite operators."

Shadow and Ricky often mention a sentence in interviews: "The best stories and the best experiences are created by players."

I think this sentence is probably the best annotation for Delta in the past two years: a good game provides soil for players, can accommodate the needs of players, allows all kinds of players to enjoy themselves, and the era of teaching players what the "right" way to play is has passed.

04 The "Delta" going global, the global ambition of a long-lasting IP

For a product that wants to last long, pure gameplay mechanics determine the initial explosive power, but vivid character shaping and long-term narrative ability are the ultimate magic weapons that determine the lifespan of the IP and its globalization.

Looking at the past FPS track, the vast majority of service-based shooting games (GaaS) have fallen into the awkward situation of "utilitarian" narrative. Character design serves for mechanism ranking, players choose characters more because of skills and stats, lack of emotional connection. Once the freshness of gameplay fades, the product is more likely to face user loss.

For domestic FPS games that want to "go global", high-quality IP narrative and character shaping are the "universal currency" to break cultural barriers. In mature overseas markets such as Europe and the United States, players have been nurtured by AAA masterpieces since childhood, and their demands for shooting games have long surpassed "pure gunfights" — what they consume is the sense of story and immersion of the IP. If you go global only by gameplay mechanics, you will easily encounter cultural barriers and homogeneous competition, leading to acclimatization; only through vivid and three-dimensional character images and profound world view narrative can you build emotional resonance across regions and cultures and retain users' minds.

The Stellar Project is officially unveiled

*Delta Action* launched the long-term narrative "Stellar Project" at its 2nd anniversary celebration, and made a heavy debut of 3 operator narrative PVs. The three PVs are no longer satisfied with showing skills and gameplay, but go deep into the character background, fate choices and faction entanglements of the operators. They upgrade the operators from "skill tools" to flesh-and-blood "story protagonists", which not only greatly improves the recognition of operators, but also allows *Delta Action* to transform into a distinct IP universe with strong narrative tension.

Countless players spontaneously share their feedback

With the Fire World Cup settled in Stockholm, Sweden, and the announcement of the long-term narrative plan; from gameplay breakthrough to increasingly clear IP identity, *Delta Action* proved through its strategically focused investment that what it wants to build is not only a long-lasting game with high DAU, but also a top shooting IP that can represent the domestic industrial level and conquer the global market.

Conclusion From "Play Something Great" to "I'll Play With You, You Decide How to Play"

In the early stage of launch, the Slogan of *Delta Action* was "Play Something Great". That was a strong declaration of the product on the supply side — to conquer the market with top-level picture quality, hardcore gunfighting feel and high-quality experience. Some people may think *Delta Action* has changed. From high-intensity exciting combat to all-inclusive, it has become a product that needs to meet all kinds of demands. But what it implements is still its original aspiration: "always provide players with high-quality content".

"Play Something Great" solves the problem of how the game provides players with a better experience; "I'll Play With You, You Decide How to Play" is the sign of a large DAU product moving towards maturity. It no longer defines success, but turns into a fertile and free soil, further returning the right of choice to players — you can pursue victory and excitement, you can go fishing, create interesting content and collect items, and you can also leave your own story because of the kindness of a stranger.

The game provides a world rich enough, and it is every player in this world who truly decides what this world will finally look like.

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