What does gacha mean?

The term gacha comes from Japanese capsule-toy vending machines, gachapon, where players pay for a chance to receive a random toy. The core idea is randomized rewards: you spend a currency and receive an item from a predetermined pool, but you don’t know exactly which one you’ll get.

What is a gacha game?

A gacha game is a type of online game that includes this randomness into its progression. Players collect characters, items, or cards through systems that resemble virtual gachapons.

Gacha games often appeal to players who enjoy completing collections, optimizing characters, and engaging in events or story updates.

Popoular gacha games include: 

• Genshin Impact
• Honkai Star Rail
• Seven Knights: Rebirth

Gacha as a monetization model

Gacha is also a monetization model: players use in-game currency for randomized rewards.

Variants include:

• Standard gacha (general pool)
• Limited banners (time-limited characters or items)
• Step-up gacha (improving odds with repeated pulls)
• Pity systems (guaranteed rare items after a set number of attempts)

This model encourages long-term engagement and supports frequent content updates, but it also raises concerns about spending behavior and transparency in odds.