Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle is the longest-running and most lucrative Dragon Ball smartphone game. Developed by Akatsuki and published by Bandai Namco, it launched in Japan on January 30, 2015 for Android (iOS followed in February) and worldwide in July 2015. It is a free-to-download puzzle game with collectible cards, and like every gacha it relies on random character summons, which you can also pay for with real money. In October 2026 it celebrated 400 million downloads.
How it plays
Dokkan is not a fighting game. Levels are boards you move across like a tabletop game: each turn you pick from a few numbers to advance, landing on spaces with items, power-ups, traps or fights. The boss waits at the end of the path.
Battles are turn-based and revolve around ki orbs. Colored orbs appear on screen, and you trace a path with your finger to collect them. Every character belongs to one of five types, each with its own color: AGL (blue), TEQ (green), INT (purple), STR (red) and PHY (yellow). Orbs matching your type count double, and the types follow a cycle of advantages: AGL beats STR, which beats PHY, which beats INT, which beats TEQ, which in turn beats AGL. At 12 ki your character fires a Super Attack, and the highest-rarity cards unlock an even stronger super at 18.
The real depth lies in team building: six characters plus a friend's leader. The Leader Skill boosts characters from certain categories (such as "Kamehameha" or a specific saga), while Link Skills trigger when two compatible characters fight side by side. Putting together the right team for a tough event is the heart of the game.
Events and content
Alongside an original, non-canon story there are dozens of limited-time events: stories retelling the sagas of Dragon Ball Z and the movies, events to level up characters, events that hand out medals for Dokkan Awakening (evolving a card to a higher rarity) and extreme challenges built for maxed-out teams. Gather the seven Dragon Balls in quests and you can summon Shenron for a wish.
Did you know? Six years after launch, according to Bandai Namco, Dokkan was available in more than 170 countries and regions, and 70% of its downloads came from outside Japan: a game born Japanese that grew into a global hit.
The gacha, plainly
The currency is the Dragon Stone. You get plenty by playing, clearing missions and events and during big celebration campaigns, but you can also buy them with real money. A single summon costs 5 Dragon Stones, a multi-summon 50. The strongest characters come from limited-time banners such as Dokkan Festivals and Legendary Summons, and the odds of landing the one you want can be low.
The system has had its incidents. In November 2017 in Japan, almost nobody could pull Kefla, the character advertised on a banner, and suspicion spread that the rates had been tampered with. The game paused summons, called it an unintentional error and refunded the Dragon Stones spent on that banner.
A note on in-app purchases. Dokkan Battle is free but includes real-money purchases and randomized draws. The odds can be checked in the game: look at them before you spend, set yourself a budget and turn on parental controls on younger players' devices.
The numbers behind a phenomenon
In Japan it hit 15 million downloads in three months. In August 2021 Bandai Namco announced 350 million downloads worldwide, and market estimates the same year put its lifetime revenue above 3 billion dollars. It turned ten in 2025, a rare milestone for a mobile game, and in October 2026 its 400 million download campaign kicked off. Critics were more reserved (71 on Metacritic).
Who it is for
Collectors. Goku, Gohan and friends appear in hundreds of illustrated versions, and the fun is in building the perfect team, not in reflexes. If you want real-time fights on your phone, Dragon Ball Legends is the better fit.
Our take
Dokkan Battle is a great coffee-break game, with beautifully crafted art and animations and a team system deeper than it looks. But it is also a product designed to bring you back every day and nudge you toward summoning. Take it for what it is, with your eyes open. For the same reason it does not appear in our ranking of the best Dragon Ball games, where we left mobile games out.