61: Chapter 61 seems to have sensed an opportunity to break into the mainstream.

At 4:00 PM, someone posted on a certain "shit-yellow" game forum.

[Plants vs. Zombies has been out for six hours, ranked number one globally on the sales charts, top three in multiple countries and regions, and has 210,000 concurrent players on Steam. How is this performance?]

The replies below were quite lively. Some said it met expectations, some said it was okay but not a huge surprise, and others said to wait and see in a couple of days.

Clearly, after two very brilliant successes, it wasn't just the employees of Spark Games; outsiders were also paying close attention to the release of PVZ.

Some expected them to skyrocket and become a massive hit, wanting to see a domestic game create an unprecedented sales miracle and touch the five-million-sales mark that no one had reached so far.

There were also many who secretly hoped the game would flop upon release, providing the dull game industry with a massive source of entertainment for days.

Another post was discussing the game itself.

[I've reached 1-9. Does this game feel like it has zero difficulty in the early stages? Will it get harder later?]

In the replies, some agreed, some said it would get harder later, and some said it wasn't that difficult. The discussion was quite heated, but it was all within the core player circle.

Jiang Yuan browsed the forum for a while, then went to check the Steam review section.

Over three thousand reviews, with a positive rating as high as 99%.

Some reviews praised the art for being cute and fresh, which was refreshing. Some said the background music was catchy, echoing in their heads even when they weren't playing. Some complained it was too hard, while others said it was too easy—there was a bit of everything, but they were all players discussing the game normally.

She took out her phone again and opened Douyin.

This year could be considered the initial explosion of short video platforms, with the birth of many first-generation influencers and viral videos.

But without exception, none of these had anything to do with games.

In the current Douyin and Kuaijiao, they were far from being the major platforms for game promotion that they would become in her previous life.

At this time, short video platforms had neither a precedent for viral game videos nor any official attention from game developers. If one were to be pedantic, Spark Games might actually be the developer in the country that valued this platform the most.

She searched for "Plants vs. Zombies," and the results were sparse. There were some videos with tens of thousands of likes, and hundreds of streamers of various sizes were broadcasting it, but the viewer counts weren't high, ranging from dozens to hundreds. It hadn't really made much of a splash.

Jiang Yuan blinked and fell into thought, knowing that given the current situation of Plants vs. Zombies, it might just be lacking an opportunity to explode.

If that opportunity could appear.

Then, with the quality of this game, it might skyrocket all the way. Not to mention replicating its massive glory on Earth, becoming a title with tens of millions in sales would be effortless.

But if not.

This version of Plants vs. Zombies would most likely repeat the trend of Spark Games' previous two titles, selling a few million copies steadily during the peak period and then slowly grinding its way toward ten million sales.

But regardless of which one it was.

There was clearly no rushing it now.

After 10:00 PM, Jiang Yuan walked out of her office.

At the workstations outside, many people had not yet left work.

Zhou Ming was playing Endless Mode and had already reached over sixty rounds. Lin Zhengtao was watching from the side, occasionally offering a reminder.

Su Meng and Lin Ran were busy discussing the plant designs for the hybrid edition. The two of them were huddled in front of a computer, gesturing and whispering to each other.

As for the others, some were still staring at the Steam developer backend, while others were lying back in their chairs, intensely browsing various platforms on their phones to see all the players' reviews of PVZ.

Jiang Yuan stood there silently for a while; no one noticed her.

She originally wanted to remind everyone to go home and rest early, but on second thought, she felt that since it was launch day, they probably wouldn't be able to sleep even if they went back early. So, she simply left them to it.

She took the subway back to the apartment building where she lived.

Just as she reached the bottom of the building, a gust of cold wind blew, making Jiang Yuan shiver involuntarily. She wrapped her black coat tighter and quickened her pace toward the apartment entrance.

When she reached the security booth.

The middle-aged guard was sitting in the booth with a small radio in front of him playing Beijing Opera. Seeing her come in, he nodded and greeted her proactively.

"Xiao Jiang, coming back so late?"

"Yeah."

Giving a soft hum with her hands in her coat pockets, Jiang Yuan was about to walk past when she suddenly caught a familiar sight out of the corner of her eye, which made her pause in surprise.

Her feet in canvas shoes lightly scuffed the ground. Jiang Yuan pointed a fair finger at a small screen in the security booth and asked somewhat curiously:

"Uncle Wang, why are you playing this game too?"

It was clearly visible.

On the screen she pointed to, there were two full rows of Sunflowers, with several rows of Wall-nuts at the very front. Wasn't that exactly the Plants vs. Zombies that had just been released today?

The uncle was playing the sixth level of the daytime lawn and had already gone through several waves, accumulating a huge amount of sun.

"Oh? You mean this? I saw my son playing it today and thought it looked quite interesting, so I had him give me the computer to use for a bit. Let me tell you, this game is great for passing the time. It's much more fun than that Fight the Landlord game!"

She nodded with a look of realization. It was the first time she had seen someone she knew playing a game she had made. A complex feeling that was hard to describe welled up in Jiang Yuan's heart, but it also felt quite heartwarming.

She asked again out of curiosity:

"Why aren't you moving on to the next level? The zombies will eat their way into the house like this!"

The uncle shook his head and pointed at the zombies on the screen:

"I see them walking so slowly and leisurely; it's quite interesting. If I kill them, they'll be gone. Poor things."

Jiang Yuan stared at the screen for a moment and then couldn't help but shake her head and laugh. That smile was bright and charming, incredibly beautiful under the moonlight and lamplight, but no one saw it.

Somehow, the last bit of anxiety and worry in Jiang Yuan's heart regarding the "opportunity" seemed to quietly dissipate in that smile.

She said softly:

"Then take your time and enjoy."

Then she turned and left.

The uncle nodded, lying back in his chair as he played the game while listening intently to the opera. It was truly pleasant.

As Jiang Yuan walked into the apartment building, the corners of her lips curled up slightly. Her mood was the most relaxed it had been all day.

It was almost 11:00 PM when she got home.

The door to Lin Xi's room opposite hers was closed. Standing at the door, she could vaguely hear the faint sound of a game being played, such as the sound of Peashooters firing and zombies falling.

Jiang Yuan stood at the door and listened for a while. After roughly confirming that the girl was likely streaming Plants vs. Zombies, she gave up on the idea of knocking and turned to go back to her own room.

She threw her bag onto the sofa and changed into slippers.

Jiang Yuan went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water and stood by the window with the glass, taking small sips while clearing her mind and enjoying the night view outside.

After finishing the water, she took a hot shower and changed into a pair of penguin pajamas before happily lying down on her soft, large bed.

She opened her phone, which had just vibrated.

It turned out that Chen Yu had sent a message in the company's main group chat:

"PVZ first-day sales: 890,000! Steam concurrent player peak: 230,000!"

The group was quiet for a few seconds, and then it was time for everyone to go wild. All sorts of emojis flew across the screen, showing the intense joy in everyone's hearts.

Jiang Yuan looked at these messages and didn't reply, instead quietly lurking as an observer.

Once everyone had gradually calmed down.

Jiang Yuan then sent several large red envelopes in a row, instantly making the group rowdy again.

After watching with a grin for a while, Jiang Yuan turned off her phone, rolled over, and tucked her blanket a bit tighter.

The streetlights outside shone through the gaps in the curtains, drawing a thin line of light on the floor.

She closed her eyes, and the uncle's words suddenly popped into her head:

"I see them walking so slowly and leisurely; it's quite interesting."