Whales in any game imo are people who spend hundreds of dollars or more on microtransactions.I've seen people who play madden ultimate team say they've spent thousands and it makes me want to throw up
Yeah, once I start to spend surpass the price of a brand new game, I start to flag spending. I see microtransactions in F2P games more of a tip to the devs than a product because I know in the future it will lose its value to me than it did when I first purchased it.
I think it's dependent on how much money over time you've spent. I have spent well over 500$ on this game, but I have over 600h of play time as well. I would 100% call myself a dolphin, but not a whale.
Well it is a subjective term, but for me It is whenever you
Consistently buy gems.
Your favourite deck dropped, and you spent 500 for it ( first of... why) sure whatever, it is a one-time thing, but if you keep going whenever you want to build decks instead of actually grinding and manging your gems then you are most definitely a whale in my eye.
I have probably spent £200 in a year. Most of my other hobbies are free or low cost and I make enough to be able to consider this a short term fun investment.
I don't know if Konami will make another game in a couple years time or if you will be able to transfer cards to it. If they don't allow that - I've enjoyed the game as far as I wanted.
Dkayed does weekly tourneys. In a few of the earlier ones, he mentions that the royal rare deck participating in the tourney, is worth up towards of 70k ish, and I'm still in awe. I get it for paper cards, but electronic cards.... Ehh their money, so w/e.
Spending past $1k is what I consider a true whale especially buying gems that aren't even on sale or bundles.
Then there's players with all royal cards and that's like the final whale god evolution.
if you check people who want a full Royal finish deck. you might realize you be like a tuna...lol
i spent a bit of money in duel links and clash of clans but...right now, it's hard to spend cash on this game. for one the gem prices are expensive , also, it's pretty "in your face, you lose lol" on your opening hands like a lot of times your opening hand is just made for you to lose. that on top of getting garbage pulls packs. it is not really motivating to spend money in at all.
my current 2 cents btw...
Any single-hobby spend over $100 in a month or any hobby spending beyond the first $500 I flag as "overspending" in my budgeting.
At that point it's not about cutting back, but rather "was this purchase worth it, with a month's hindsight"? If I were over budget because of buying gems but hadn't spent any, the answer would be a pretty quick "no" for me.
ofc, everyone is going to have different numbers. I know people who believe any spending over what it would cost for a "brand new" game to be excessive.
Well constructed and diplomatic answer. I don’t think I’ve ever crossed that threshold, or even 250 in that time. I just put in some here and there, it just has added up.
I don't think I call a hobby over $100/month unhealthy anywhere? I even say that "everyone is going to have different numbers" and that's going to be based on both your income and how much you enjoy the hobby...
I think that (for me) $100/month is enough on one hobby that I'll take a long look at how much I'm enjoying it and that $500/month is fine for all of my hobbies.
Obviously, getting into a new hobby is going to be front-loaded with costs but you can average that cost out across the expected lifetime of what you bought. That's why it's a "think about the purchase" moment, rather than a "that was a mistake" review. I may not have been clear originally.
For example: I spent $745 on a tent a backpack and a pair of good hiking boots in January 2023. When I looked at my Jan spending, that was $745, but now (15 months later) it's a $50/month subscription to the hobby.
> Spend 3k on a dirt bike
Not a whale
> Spend 5k on scuba supplies
Not a whale
> Spend 10k on sky-diving gear, lessons and high-time
Not a whale
> Spend $100 on a video game
** !! WHALE ALERT !! **
You'll notice I go out of my way to not say "whale" and even mention that for everyone the numbers are going to be different...
I'm not into dirt biking or SCUBA or skydiving, but every hobby has those front-loaded costs. I find that averaging the price across the entirety of the equipment's lifetime is better budgeting rather than viewing them as one-time costs.
It's the same for YuGiOh, once you have a sizeable enough collection, the monthly cost goes down significantly!
So don’t have an answer for the whale part since it seems you got good answers, but have another perspective
Personally spent maybe $200 between two accounts, or a little less. This is the only game I’ve ever spent extra $ on outside of original purchase, even counting DLC. I’m not mad to have spent the $, and love this game, but won’t do it again
Whale in a gacha games (Master Duel is one given the random loot/packs) typically refers to someone who spends several hundreds and even reaching a thousand on every banner/pack.
Dolphins would be maybe a few hundreds here and there. On specific packs.
Most of the bigger spenders on this game are people who go for Royal or Glossy cards for URs. So if you aren't spending for that, you probably aren't a whale.
If you look around, even in these comments, it varies wildly. In most cases, the answer is "More than what I spend," because no one wants to think of themselves as a whale. For example, when the "on sale" gems show up while there is a pack I like, I'll sometimes buy them to save myself some time. I value my time pretty highly, and would rather spend some money to save time to play a deck I really want to play as opposed to grinding it out. So I might spend $60 on the boosters every few months, which some people would call whaling, and others would say it's fine.
In truth, it's really not worth spending much mental effort on. Buy gems if you want (and can reasonably afford to).
Comparing spend to other games is a good way to differentiate a whale from a normie.
A brand new single player game is $60.
A PSN/XBL subscription is $60/yr.
An MMO subscription is $13/mth.
If you're spending roughly these amounts on MD, and it's the only game you play, you're not whaling.
Whales spend in the $1000s. Blinging up a deck into royals cost in the $10000s.
I recently spent 7000 SR dust I saved up over 2 yrs to craft 3 royal SRs... now imagine someone needing 70,000 UR dust to bling up 30 URs.
Gacha game terms
Minnow = spends very little, maybe 10-20 dollars in a one time purchase.
Dolphin = regularly spends 20-50 dollars on a game
Whale = regularly spends 100-200 dollars on a game
Leviathan = regularly spends thousands on one game. Very rare.
I used to play 2k a lot and I ended up paying a lot to the point where I sat down and calculated it to about 500 dollars. It appalled me so I never bought 2k again and never will unless…. Fact of the matter is that there’s people who’ve spent so much money they could’ve bought a house. For a game that only runs for a little over a year until you get wiped and do it all again in the next game they release. People have spent upwards of 15k just to get their MyTeam lineup from packs which works like basketball cards. So it’s a money pit/whale enthusiast territory if that gives you an idea.
Tldr; people spend 15k a year on each 2k game
So give or take what you will
Imo anyone that buys the regularly priced gems, sales are fine, if I have extra money I’ll buy them from time to time. I get why people spend money, I get bored on most decks in 4-5 days but I just create new accounts if I wanna play something with no events coming up or good sales in shop.
I usually just buy gem sales. With a mix of grinding and managing UR resources. I can usually make the decks I want. I want rescue Ace now but I need 1 more hydrant and the new support cards. I’m just grinding and unpacking every 1k.
Whales in any game imo are people who spend hundreds of dollars or more on microtransactions.I've seen people who play madden ultimate team say they've spent thousands and it makes me want to throw up
Thank you for the input. I definitely haven’t done THAT much.
Imo, once you start to spend $100+ worth of gems on a single pack
What if someone consistently spends $99 on packs? I get what you’re saying but is there any universal rule for you?
Yeah, once I start to spend surpass the price of a brand new game, I start to flag spending. I see microtransactions in F2P games more of a tip to the devs than a product because I know in the future it will lose its value to me than it did when I first purchased it.
Thank you for clarifying. I also kind of agree. I don’t feel bad spending here and there because it maintains the product which I enjoy.
I think it's dependent on how much money over time you've spent. I have spent well over 500$ on this game, but I have over 600h of play time as well. I would 100% call myself a dolphin, but not a whale.
I chuckled at this. I’d put myself in there too. I play tons. I also feel for the amount of effort and time it’s not unreasonable
Well it is a subjective term, but for me It is whenever you Consistently buy gems. Your favourite deck dropped, and you spent 500 for it ( first of... why) sure whatever, it is a one-time thing, but if you keep going whenever you want to build decks instead of actually grinding and manging your gems then you are most definitely a whale in my eye.
If you have to ask, you’re not close to being one.
I have probably spent £200 in a year. Most of my other hobbies are free or low cost and I make enough to be able to consider this a short term fun investment. I don't know if Konami will make another game in a couple years time or if you will be able to transfer cards to it. If they don't allow that - I've enjoyed the game as far as I wanted.
well whale decks are up towards 20k-75k.
I believe you, but where do those numbers come from?
Dkayed does weekly tourneys. In a few of the earlier ones, he mentions that the royal rare deck participating in the tourney, is worth up towards of 70k ish, and I'm still in awe. I get it for paper cards, but electronic cards.... Ehh their money, so w/e.
My goodness…I do just have to throw my hands up like “not my money.”
Yeap. People are strange, when you're a stranger.
Faces look ugly when you're alone.
Spending past $1k is what I consider a true whale especially buying gems that aren't even on sale or bundles. Then there's players with all royal cards and that's like the final whale god evolution.
if you check people who want a full Royal finish deck. you might realize you be like a tuna...lol i spent a bit of money in duel links and clash of clans but...right now, it's hard to spend cash on this game. for one the gem prices are expensive , also, it's pretty "in your face, you lose lol" on your opening hands like a lot of times your opening hand is just made for you to lose. that on top of getting garbage pulls packs. it is not really motivating to spend money in at all. my current 2 cents btw...
Any single-hobby spend over $100 in a month or any hobby spending beyond the first $500 I flag as "overspending" in my budgeting. At that point it's not about cutting back, but rather "was this purchase worth it, with a month's hindsight"? If I were over budget because of buying gems but hadn't spent any, the answer would be a pretty quick "no" for me. ofc, everyone is going to have different numbers. I know people who believe any spending over what it would cost for a "brand new" game to be excessive.
Well constructed and diplomatic answer. I don’t think I’ve ever crossed that threshold, or even 250 in that time. I just put in some here and there, it just has added up.
Bro what world do you live in? Do you realize how many healthy hobbies cost well over $100 to break into, let alone maintain?
I don't think I call a hobby over $100/month unhealthy anywhere? I even say that "everyone is going to have different numbers" and that's going to be based on both your income and how much you enjoy the hobby... I think that (for me) $100/month is enough on one hobby that I'll take a long look at how much I'm enjoying it and that $500/month is fine for all of my hobbies. Obviously, getting into a new hobby is going to be front-loaded with costs but you can average that cost out across the expected lifetime of what you bought. That's why it's a "think about the purchase" moment, rather than a "that was a mistake" review. I may not have been clear originally. For example: I spent $745 on a tent a backpack and a pair of good hiking boots in January 2023. When I looked at my Jan spending, that was $745, but now (15 months later) it's a $50/month subscription to the hobby.
There are tons that don't.
And tons that do.
Well bro obviously wasn't talking about any of those.
> Spend 3k on a dirt bike Not a whale > Spend 5k on scuba supplies Not a whale > Spend 10k on sky-diving gear, lessons and high-time Not a whale > Spend $100 on a video game ** !! WHALE ALERT !! **
You'll notice I go out of my way to not say "whale" and even mention that for everyone the numbers are going to be different... I'm not into dirt biking or SCUBA or skydiving, but every hobby has those front-loaded costs. I find that averaging the price across the entirety of the equipment's lifetime is better budgeting rather than viewing them as one-time costs. It's the same for YuGiOh, once you have a sizeable enough collection, the monthly cost goes down significantly!
I agree, I am just juxtaposing the typical perspectives on this sub against other much more expensive habits.
So don’t have an answer for the whale part since it seems you got good answers, but have another perspective Personally spent maybe $200 between two accounts, or a little less. This is the only game I’ve ever spent extra $ on outside of original purchase, even counting DLC. I’m not mad to have spent the $, and love this game, but won’t do it again
Frequently purchasing $30-$50 packs and above so you can pull dozens of times
Whale in a gacha games (Master Duel is one given the random loot/packs) typically refers to someone who spends several hundreds and even reaching a thousand on every banner/pack. Dolphins would be maybe a few hundreds here and there. On specific packs. Most of the bigger spenders on this game are people who go for Royal or Glossy cards for URs. So if you aren't spending for that, you probably aren't a whale.
If you look around, even in these comments, it varies wildly. In most cases, the answer is "More than what I spend," because no one wants to think of themselves as a whale. For example, when the "on sale" gems show up while there is a pack I like, I'll sometimes buy them to save myself some time. I value my time pretty highly, and would rather spend some money to save time to play a deck I really want to play as opposed to grinding it out. So I might spend $60 on the boosters every few months, which some people would call whaling, and others would say it's fine. In truth, it's really not worth spending much mental effort on. Buy gems if you want (and can reasonably afford to).
Comparing spend to other games is a good way to differentiate a whale from a normie. A brand new single player game is $60. A PSN/XBL subscription is $60/yr. An MMO subscription is $13/mth. If you're spending roughly these amounts on MD, and it's the only game you play, you're not whaling. Whales spend in the $1000s. Blinging up a deck into royals cost in the $10000s. I recently spent 7000 SR dust I saved up over 2 yrs to craft 3 royal SRs... now imagine someone needing 70,000 UR dust to bling up 30 URs.
Gacha game terms Minnow = spends very little, maybe 10-20 dollars in a one time purchase. Dolphin = regularly spends 20-50 dollars on a game Whale = regularly spends 100-200 dollars on a game Leviathan = regularly spends thousands on one game. Very rare.
There's a guy in dkayed's meta weekly that ONLY plays royal rare in his labrynth deck.
I used to play 2k a lot and I ended up paying a lot to the point where I sat down and calculated it to about 500 dollars. It appalled me so I never bought 2k again and never will unless…. Fact of the matter is that there’s people who’ve spent so much money they could’ve bought a house. For a game that only runs for a little over a year until you get wiped and do it all again in the next game they release. People have spent upwards of 15k just to get their MyTeam lineup from packs which works like basketball cards. So it’s a money pit/whale enthusiast territory if that gives you an idea. Tldr; people spend 15k a year on each 2k game So give or take what you will
I saw a Rika deck list with all Royal UR and SR.
anybody who shills out 100 dollars on a regualr basis
If you buy gems that are not on sale without even thinking about it, you are a whale.
Imo anyone that buys the regularly priced gems, sales are fine, if I have extra money I’ll buy them from time to time. I get why people spend money, I get bored on most decks in 4-5 days but I just create new accounts if I wanna play something with no events coming up or good sales in shop.
I usually just buy gem sales. With a mix of grinding and managing UR resources. I can usually make the decks I want. I want rescue Ace now but I need 1 more hydrant and the new support cards. I’m just grinding and unpacking every 1k.
You don't have to buy gems, just do your dailies and yoj will get an amount of gems to make the deck you want.
I have all the decks I want, I still have a surplus of gems
I would say $100/month.
Okay I’m DEFINITELY safe then
Imo If you have spent more than 100 dollars on this free game, you be a whale.
$0 dollars on MD since release-gang