Love and Deepspace has quickly become one of the highest-grossing gacha games this year, boasting approximately $38.4 million in combined mobile revenue. Given its success, fans expected that the game’s official booth and the panels hosted by fans would gain substantial attention at the country’s biggest anime convention, Anime Expo.
The sales translated to real fan engagement as the game’s official booth easily became one of the most popular booths, and panels run by fans were hosted every day except the last day of the convention.
Released on Jan. 18, 2024, “Love and Deepspace” is a 3D otome gacha game, allowing players to role-play as a female protagonist and interact with five male leads: Xavier, Zayne, Rafayel, Sylus and Caleb.
The game itself is not only known for its attractive design of the male leads and its wide variety of features, such as battles, character customization, cinematic dating and study timer, but also for the impact it has left on its players’ views of romance.
“I feel like it’s so well-written,” said Elena Sanchez, a “Love and Deepspace” player. “I feel like there are such good examples of healthy behavior, relationships and how women should be treated across the board.”
The official booth of the game held a variety of events throughout the four days of Anime Expo, such as free gift bag giveaways, official merchandising and life-size cutout photoshoot opportunities. Lines were always full of fans buzzing in excitement about their favorite characters and romantic moments from the game.
A Caleb cosplayer who goes by Kazuya shared, “I actually flew in from Singapore, and there’s a decently sized Love and Deepspace community over there, so just being at Anime Expo is kind of insane because I never expected it to be this big or this grand.”
“I loved it,” Sanchez said. “I loved being able to look at everyone’s main so easily. I feel like everyone’s so nice and down to talk about stuff.”
However, what was perhaps the most popular event was the cosplayer interaction sessions.
Before Anime Expo kicked off, the official “Love and Deepspace” social media accounts announced the booth would be hosting an opportunity for fans to interact with an official cosplayer of a male lead of their choice.
Those who wanted to participate had to be at least level 60 in the game, reserve one character and one time slot in advance and go through a lottery system. If selected, fans were to arrive at the booth early and verify their emails and game IDs.
Crowds gathered around the booth to watch other players interact with the official cosplayers. The booth itself was split into five sections, each themed after one of the five love interests through color and props. Once it was time, the cosplayers entered the booth in masks and eye-catching outfits from the game, acting in character through signature mannerisms.
Each participant was allowed a minute to interact with the character they signed up for, including hand-holding, hugging, dancing and posing. Cheers and swoons erupted throughout the booth when a cosplayer tugged a player by their waist or brought their hand to their face.
The fun was not limited to just the official booth. Excluding the last day, there was a “Love and Deepspace” panel organized by fan cosplayers every day. Meeting rooms of the convention hall would fill to max capacity as the panelists dressed in cosplay would sit on stage and participate in a variety of games with the attendees.
One panel consisted of jeopardy, where attendees would test their knowledge on how well they know the characters from the game. Another panel consisted of dating games, where attendees would ask the panelists burning questions, and they would cheekily answer in character.
“The biggest thing for me was making sure I could find every single cosplayer,” said Lu Garcia, a panelist who cosplayed as Rafayel. “I asked my friends, ‘Hey, do you know someone who’s had performances before? ' and from there it was outsourcing the cosplayers, making sure they’re comfortable, and they want to interact with the audience.”
“I loved talking to everyone,” said a female protagonist panelist who goes by Kait. “My favorite part was making the room feel comfortable, getting everyone out of their shells, because it’s intimidating to talk in front of that many people, and it was really fun for me to connect with everyone.”
This gathering of the community not only allowed for conversations, but some attendees said they could express what they want from both the game and Anime Expo in the future.
“We had trouble getting here on time because of an entrance issue,” revealed Garcia. “Convention organization could definitely help us as panelists. We are part of the entertainment, we’re helping the con, not even paid, so just allowing us inside would definitely improve our experience as panelists.”
The panel concluded with the panelists taking a photo with the event’s attendees.
“One of the things I really liked was getting to see everybody’s smile on their faces,” said the Xavier panelist who goes by Lux. “Going up to them as Xavier and getting a reaction out of them was very exciting for me.”
Despite the game being less than three years old, the constant smiles and conversations that were shared within its community at Anime Expo 2026 demonstrated that Love and Deepspace has earned a special place within people’s hearts.
“I really enjoyed the community aspect of it. It’s very much the community showing up and showing out, whether it’s for an 18-plus panel or something else,” said the Zayne panelist who goes by Kenni. “It’s just building that true community, and that’s what I love about doing these panels.”