Just as everyone had predicted before launch, the reception of 'Yu-Gi-Oh! 2' wasn't as glowing as the first game featuring Yugi Mutou, but its sales saw a massive leap forward.
This is common across many industries—follow-up titles may receive slightly lower acclaim, but their revenue jumps significantly.
Profitability and artistry are two traits that are notoriously difficult to balance.
It's not that works with both critical and commercial success don't exist—but they are rare.
After its release, 'Yu-Gi-Oh! 2' followed a similar path to what everyone had expected:
Players blazed through the main story content at lightning speed.
But the real draw came after finishing the campaign—with full collection mode and, of course, the online duel system.
While this online duel mode was technically part of the base game rather than a full MMO, it quickly became the most popular feature.
"The fake 'Yu-Gi-Oh! 2' experience: following the storyline and defeating bosses.
The real 'Yu-Gi-Oh! 2' experience: using my fully built deck to obliterate other players online!"
"Have you considered that others are thinking the same and ready to wreck you?"
"Impossible. I'm the king. I'm the god of lucky draws."
"Bro's lost his mind."
"Honestly, though, 'Yu-Gi-Oh! 2's story is nowhere near the first.
Yugi and his companions' bond, the boss designs… they blew me away. This one's meh."
"True, but the gameplay is so much better—way more side quests and a much more engaging card collection loop. Pros and cons."
"But one reason I play these 'Old Thief' games is that their stories are always better than average. Weakening that part threw me off."
"Then don't talk. You think 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' got nerfed? 'Pokémon's story got thinned out even more.
Let's wait and see if next month's 'Pokémon 2' can fix that."
"I still think you're being too picky. These games are fun! How can you find this many faults?"
"Nobody said they're bad—we're just pointing out what could improve. If we always praise the guy, he might slack off!"
Overall, 'Yu-Gi-Oh! 2' outperformed expectations across the board.
It surpassed the first game significantly.
But for it to reach the global IP status, Yu-Gi-Oh! Held in Jing Yu's past life? That would take time and growth.
And that applied to 'Pokémon', too.
Both games were undeniably some of the most talked-about titles among players worldwide in recent years.
But replicating their success from Jing Yu's past life would depend not just on quality, but also on how well BlueStar Media operated and marketed them.
No amount of capital can turn a bad game into a global phenomenon.
But a great game without the capital to back it? Also unlikely to succeed.
A truly viral IP is born from the right work meeting the right backing.
And since 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' and 'Pokémon' were already proven hits in his past life,
The real test now was whether Jing Yu's leadership and BlueStar's execution could deliver again.
November passed quietly, and December arrived.
'Pokémon's live-action drama premiered.
While the show didn't deliver wild emotional highs or lows, its excellent worldbuilding and charming Pokémon creatures won over viewers—not just in Great Zhou, but internationally as well.
Tons of foreign fans were climbing over firewalls to watch the show on Great Zhou's streaming platforms.
Much like 'Yu-Gi-Oh! 2', 'Pokémon''s merchandise sales exploded in December.
In fact, they outpaced 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' by a wide margin.
BlueStar Media's finance team updated revenue forecasts daily—
And every single day, the new numbers blew their minds.
It felt like printing money.
Before this, most of the company's profits came from licensing TV and film adaptations. That was already insanely profitable.
But now, just the merch sales from 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' and 'Pokémon' made up over 70–80% of the company's profits this month—
more than several years' worth of passive income from dozens of other shows combined.
By the end of December, 'Pokémon 2' launched, exactly one month after 'Yu-Gi-Oh! 2'.
And thanks to the boost from the ongoing 'Pokémon' drama and its larger legacy fanbase,
Its sales numbers were even crazier.
'Yu-Gi-Oh! 2' had broken 14 million units sold in one month—already insane.
But 'Pokémon 2' sold 6 million copies in its first 3 days alone.
Even though its sales slowed later, many publishers believed that the game had real potential to reach 30 million total units sold.
'Yu-Gi-Oh!''s first-gen game had reached 18 million,
'Pokémon' over 20 million—
And now, 'Pokémon 2' was showing signs of shattering both.
Across the industry, no one could understand it.
"How? How can a sequel released just one year later be on track for 30 million copies sold?!"
For other franchises, those numbers came only after decades of releases and fan accumulation.
BlueStar Media, with its massive capital and aggressive execution, was pushing the global influence of its games at a stunning pace.
Throughout the month after 'Pokémon 2' launched, the game dominated online discussions globally.
'Yu-Gi-Oh!' trailed slightly behind but still held strong in the top 4 of most forums.
And as both IPs grew hotter, merchandise prices soared.
A limited-edition Blue-Eyes White Dragon card from a 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' promo giveaway was sold at auction for 700,000 yuan.
In 'Pokémon', plushies, capsule toys, and figurines of Pikachu, Blastoise, and others sold out online instantly,
And resellers were flipping them at 10x the original price.
The world, though different in this timeline, often played out in similar ways.
Different setting, same human nature.
If people had once doubted whether BlueStar Media was a real game company—
That changed during Lunar New Year.
In an annual report by a leading international magazine listing the Top 10 Most Influential Game Companies,
BlueStar Media ranked third globally, ahead of a long list of century-old studios with hundreds of game titles.
Sure, the company was young.
It hadn't produced that many games.
It didn't even have any famous game dev personalities.
But did that matter?
The most important metric for a gaming studio was whether players liked the games.
And sales? It was the ultimate indicator.
Critics could say BlueStar only attracted talent with money, lacked a sustainable training pipeline, and had an uneven staff structure—
But the fact remained:
The games sold well
Players loved them
Critics praised them
And most importantly:
BlueStar had no debt, strong cash flow, and full creative freedom.
It was a private company, free from shareholder pressure, free from chasing quarterly profits—
free to build exactly what it wanted.
That's why its third-place ranking made complete sense.
Jing Yu's fans ate up every one of these news reports.
The moment someone praised BlueStar, Jing Yu, or the massive catalog of shows he had created—
His fans celebrated like it was New Year's Eve.
Jing Yu himself? He didn't care much for titles.
At the end of the day, Great Zhou was still in a period of rapid social and economic expansion—especially now in the digital era.
BlueStar wasn't the only company growing fast, either at home or abroad.
In fact, Jing Yu didn't release any new games, movies, or shows during the first half of the new year.
But that didn't mean he had nothing to do.
Both 'Slam Dunk' and 'Bleach' were scheduled to air in the second half of the year, and he still had to oversee their production and style direction.
At this point, he didn't need to micromanage.
Everyone at BlueStar had realized that his finished works were goldmines.
Proposals flooded his desk—
novel adaptations, game adaptations, radio plays, movies, audio dramas...
Jing Yu was a businessman, sure, but his mindset was still relatively grounded.
His staff? Far more ruthless.
If there was any value left in Jing Yu's older works, they weren't going to leave a cent behind.
And some of their proposals were actually quite clever.
After all, the Great Zhou wasn't a 1:1 replica of his previous world.
Copying past production methods wouldn't always work.
But his team—being locals—came up with more culturally appropriate solutions.
No company could entirely avoid financial risks.
Jing Yu wasn't afraid of failure.
If a proposal looked doable, he signed off on it.
"So what if we lose money? One hit pays for ten duds."
Just like in his past life, Tencent could lose money on a thousand games,
But with just 'Honor of Kings' or 'PUBG', they earned it all back.
So as the new year began, Jing Yu wasn't as busy as the previous fall, but he still wasn't exactly idle.
Production began on new games for:
'Yu-Gi-Oh!'
'Pokémon'
'Attack on Titan'
'Evangelion'
Several of BlueStar's original dramas were airing in the spring and performing well.
Jing Yu was mentally preparing for another typical year, where the first half would be quiet,
And the second half would blow up thanks to 'Slam Dunk' and 'Bleach'.
But then—
something unexpected, yet inevitable, happened.
Yu Youqing was pregnant.
"So… it's confirmed?" Jing Yu asked, looking at his wife, visibly shaken.
"Yeah. I went to the hospital today. The doctor said it's definite," Yu Youqing replied, still stunned.
She had only gone in for some general discomfort.
She hadn't expected this.
Neither of them had.
Despite being married for a while and together for even longer,
The idea of having a child still felt… surreal.
They both still felt young.
Now, suddenly, they were going to be parents.
"So… what now?" Yu Youqing asked.
"What do you mean? Step down from your company post right away. Go home and rest."
"You ready to be a dad?"
"Not really… but that's not the issue. You need to rest. Pregnancy isn't something we can take lightly."
"Wow… we're really having a baby, huh…"
Yu Youqing blinked, a bit dazed.
"It feels like… we're not that young anymore."
"What are you talking about?" Jing Yu said, amused.
"You're always eighteen in my eyes—the cutest in the world."
"Really?"
"Really."
The two talked for a long time, slowly adjusting to the idea.
Jing Yu appeared calm, but deep down, he was overwhelmed.
It had been twelve years since he reincarnated in this world.
He was now not only the CEO of a globally known entertainment company,
but also—about to become a father.
"For the first time… I really feel like I belong in this world.
When I married Yu Youqing, I felt grounded here.
And now—with a child on the way… this world finally means more to me than my old one," Jing Yu murmured, a smile unconsciously forming.
Even someone as emotionally reserved as he was couldn't stay calm after hearing he was going to be a dad.
He had to work harder.
Whether in his past life or this one, Jing Yu had never lived like a slacker.
Now with a child on the way, he had a new mission:
Make enough money so that even if his kid grows up to be a complete spendthrift—
They'll never run out.
Just thinking about that gave Jing Yu a new sense of drive.