Netmarble

The Objective

Achieving successful global new title launch for Solo Leveling

Netmarble, a leading developer in the RPG genre, launched the action RPG Solo Leveling.

Solo Leveling is based on a popular webtoon and features intense action gameplay where players take on the role of a hunter fighting against various monsters and dungeons. Players can level up their characters, unlock new abilities, and collect powerful gear, creating a deeply engaging and dynamic gaming experience. Centered around a globally renowned IP that had been featured on Netflix, the game had high expectations for its launch.

Known for leveraging popular Japanese anime and webtoon IPs, Netmarble's marketing strategy for Solo Leveling, focuses on maximizing Daily Active Users (DAU) within two weeks of launch to drive sales.

To support this goal, Netmarble invested heavily in TikTok as part of a diverse media strategy that includes consistent investment in organic content and long-term community engagement.

Additionally, TikTok's New Title Launch team, Creative team, and Product Solutions team provided support throughout the game's launch.

This collaboration helped Netmarble utilize TikTok to set global media trends.

The Solution

Implementing brandformance and creative strategies to drive user engagement and revenue

Netmarble's TikTok campaign employed a multifaceted approach, utilizing a mix of branding and performance ads. The campaign breakdown included:

• Launching Branding: TopView (50%), R&F (10%), and Video View (40%) ads to maximize reach and engagement.

• Performance Auction: Mobile App Installs (MAI) (78%) and App Event Optimization (AEO) (22%) to drive app installs and optimize user engagement through key in-game events.

Netmarble's creative strategy combined gameplay with unique, TikTok-native narratives that resonated with their target audience— anime and webtoon fans. These creatives were designed to capture attention quickly and maintain viewer interest, leveraging TikTok’s format of short, dynamic videos with strong hooks and user-generated content (UGC) elements.

By incorporating UGC elements and creating narratives that felt native to TikTok, the ads were more relatable and engaging for users. To further enhance the creative strategy, Netmarble utilized the TikTok Creative Challenge (TTCC, available in TikTok One) to get creative at scale.

The main successful creative concepts were based on emotional connections between the game and the webtoon it is based on, including hooks with clear references to the show. These strategies highlighted that the webtoon, Solo Leveling drove 14.3 billion views, and is being made into a game for the first time.

The creative approach emphasized the meticulous preparation and passion put into the game, faithfully recreating the original world, allowing players to relive the experience with high-quality battles.

The Results

Remarkable sales and global market penetration

The synergy between branding and performance strategies proved highly effective, allowing Netmarble's Solo Leveling to be ranked #1 at launch on the App Store in 79 countries and Google Play Store in 66 countries, and achieve significant results:

1. $70M in overall sales across all channels during the first 5 weeks, far exceeding initial expectations, with 70% of sales coming from KR, US, and JP

2. CPI improved by 53.49% for KR, US, and JP

3. Achieved a CTR of 1.21% with over 860M video views within the first month of launch, demonstrating strong engagement and reach.