Deconstructing the 'Solo Leveling' Success Story
Pine IP
March 30, 2025
In today's content industry, Intellectual Property (IP) is king. The remarkable journey of Solo Leveling serves as a masterclass in how a single, well-crafted story can transcend borders and media to generate immense cultural and economic influence. With a staggering 14.2 billion cumulative views and a global readership of 175 million, Solo Leveling has rewritten the rules of IP expansion, evolving from a webnovel into a webtoon, an anime, a video game, and even NFTs. This phenomenal success was no accident.
This column by Pine IP Firm will provide an in-depth, step-by-step analysis of the factors behind Solo Leveling's IP success and explore its significant implications for the global content and IP business landscape.
The saga began on July 25, 2016, when author Chugong released the webnovel of the same name on KakaoPage. Its fresh premise—a modern fantasy world fused with a game-like level-up system—and the compelling narrative of its protagonist, Sung Jinwoo, evolving from the "world's weakest" to the most powerful, immediately captivated readers. By the time the webnovel concluded in March 2018, it had already built a formidable fandom, proving its immense potential as a core IP.
Kakao Entertainment astutely recognized this value and activated its key "Novel Comics" strategy. This model focuses on adapting proven webnovel IPs into webtoons to extend their lifecycle and broaden their audience. In fact, to replicate this model, Kakao has aggressively invested over 2 trillion KRW to secure approximately 10,000 source IPs.
In March 2018, the webtoon, brought to life by the late artist DUBU (Jang Sung-rak) of Redice Studio, was launched. It elevated the source material with breathtaking art and dynamic action sequences. This created a powerful synergy, offering visual gratification to existing novel fans while introducing a new legion of webtoon readers to the IP. By its conclusion in December 2021, the webtoon had achieved an unprecedented 14.2 billion global views, perfectly amplifying the value of the original IP.
Solo Leveling's success was not confined to Korea. Kakao Entertainment leveraged its global network to rapidly introduce the webtoon to a worldwide audience. In Japan, the home of manga, it was launched on Kakao Japan's "Piccoma" platform, where it shattered records with 820,000 daily readers and won the "Webtoon of the Year" award in both 2019 and 2020.
The IP also dominated sales charts in Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia. To conquer the North American market, it was localized and distributed across various platforms, including Tapas, Radish, and Wuxiaworld. The printed graphic novels have been published in 18 countries, hitting #1 on Amazon's manga best-seller list in Germany and Brazil during their debut week.
This demonstrates that global success is maximized not merely by translating content, but by combining it with platform expertise and aggressive, localized marketing strategies.
An IP's vitality is strengthened through interaction with its fandom. In the early 2020s, a petition on Change.org demanding an anime adaptation of Solo Leveling garnered over 210,000 signatures—a testament to the global fanbase's passionate desire.
The IP holder, D&C Media, alongside Kakao Entertainment, made a bold investment to turn this into reality. They collaborated with the acclaimed Japanese studio A-1 Pictures (an Aniplex subsidiary) to ensure top-tier animation quality, thoughtfully preparing both Korean and Japanese dubs for a global audience.
Premiering in January 2024 on platforms like Crunchyroll, the anime's first season was an explosive hit. Praised for its faithful adaptation, it briefly surpassed the legendary One Piece in user ratings on the platform. This was a landmark achievement for a Korean webtoon-based anime in the global mainstream market. The success of the first season has paved the way for a second, which was met with similar enthusiasm, solidifying the franchise's long-term potential.
The IP's journey culminated in the creation of a full-fledged "IP Universe" through gamification. Developed by Netmarble and launched globally on May 8, 2024, the mobile action RPG Solo Leveling:ARISE wrote a new chapter in IP-based gaming.
The results were staggering: 15 million pre-registrations, 14 billion KRW in first-day revenue, 5 million daily active users, and the #1 app store ranking in 79 countries. Its success lies not just in faithfully recreating the source material but in enriching the IP with original stories and an expanded world. Players could directly experience the thrill of leveling up as Sung Jinwoo while engaging with new narratives, deepening their immersion in the IP. The game’s reasonably designed monetization model also played a key role in its global appeal.
The unparalleled success of Solo Leveling can be attributed to the seamless integration of several key strategic pillars:
In summary, the Solo Leveling IP strategy is a masterwork of synergy, blending the power of content, the passion of a fandom, and the precision of business strategy. By building on the charm of its source material, it attracted a global audience, maximized its value through multimedia expansion, and protected its brand with diligent rights management. This formula has allowed Solo Leveling to become a sustainable, long-term franchise rather than a fleeting hit. Through continued content creation and innovation, it is poised to continue its legacy, elevating the stature of Korean-born IPs in the global entertainment market.
