Gran Saga is a mobile MMORPG developed by NPIXEL, a South Korean game studio. Although first released exclusively in South Korea in January 2021, the game’s global service launched later on in 2025, including the United States. Gran Saga experienced a good deal of success following and prior to its launch in South Korea. It amassed over 5 million pre-registrations prior to its release. It was a highly anticipated MMORPG due to the game’s developer, NPIXEL, already having a positive reputation after making Seven Knights, and its purported AAA production quality. In its first month, Gran Saga made it to the top positions in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in terms of earnings, garnering more than $100 million in revenue.
The game features an action-packed combat system that utilizes dodge mechanics, special abilities, and skill chaining, and allows players to switch between three characters mid-battle. Instead of traditional class-based progression, Gran Saga uses a weapon-collecting system where each character equips different Gran Weapons determining their abilities and skills. These weapons are obtained through a gacha system, which is mainly how Gran Saga maintains its business model, along with offering premium outfits, weapon skins, and exclusive rewards through paid systems.
Unfortunately, Gran Saga’s global release in 2025 was largely unsuccessful as it failed to replicate the game’s immediate popularity in South Korea. NPIXEL announced Gran Saga’s impending shutdown a few days ago on March 5 via a post on the game’s official X (formerly Twitter) account. The post states that Gran Saga’s service termination is set to occur on April 30th and provides an official notice detailing the game’s termination schedule. NPIXEL sites “difficulties in providing a continuous and stable service for users” as the company’s reasoning for its closure, thanking users for being a “part of [their] journey.”
As of now, there is no official information indicating that the South Korean version of Gran Saga will be discontinued in addition to the global version of the Gran Saga, so it may continue to exist in its original form.