Few know about it stateside, but in Japan, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't heard of Puzzle & Dragons.
Part puzzler, part dungeon crawler, part monster-collecting adventure, GungHo Online Entertainment launched the mobile game in 2012, and it now claims over 20 million users -- roughly 1/6 of the Japanese population -- who have downloaded the free-to-play game and bought into its ecosystem of virtual goods. Puzzle & Dragons' success has, in turn, sent GungHo's own fortunes soaring: The company has generated $700 million-plus in profit on revenues of over $1.2 billion so far during its fiscal year, ending this month. Its stock spiked a whopping 775% in 2013.
Source: Fortune
