氪金kè jīn

Spending real money in a game

yòu kè jīn le.又氪金了。Paid up again.

氪金 means spending real money in a game: buying draws, skins, items or a faster way to the top. A player who pays a lot is a 氪金玩家.

Took off: 2016
Started in: Japanese game slang
Today: Now everyday Chinese

What it means

The word is about the money, not the game. 零氪 means paying nothing, 微氪 paying a little and 重氪 paying a lot; a 零氪玩家 is a player who never pays.

Players also quote 玄不救非，氪不改命: lucky rituals cannot save an unlucky player, and money cannot change your fate. It is what you say after you pay and still get nothing.

How people use it

氪金 is ordinary gamer Chinese now, and 氪 alone works as a verb: 氪了五百块 is “paid 500 kuai”. Fans also use it outside games, for money spent on a hobby.

亮亮

新角色出了，你抽到了吗？
xīn jué sè chū le, nǐ chōu dào le ma?
The new character is out. Did you pull it?
我氪金三百，什么都没抽到
wǒ kè jīn sān bǎi, shén me dōu méi chōu dào
I spent 300 kuai and pulled nothing.
我零氪，第一抽就出了
wǒ líng kè, dì yī chōu jiù chū le
I paid nothing and got it on my first pull.
别说了，我心好痛
bié shuō le, wǒ xīn hǎo tòng
Stop. My heart hurts.

More examples

这个游戏不氪金也能玩。
zhè gè yóu xì bú kè jīn yě néng wán.
You can play this game without paying.
我这个月又氪了五百块。
wǒ zhè gè yuè yòu kè le wǔ bǎi kuài.
I put another 500 kuai into the game this month.
他是重氪玩家，什么都买。
tā shì zhòng kè wán jiā, shén me dōu mǎi.
He’s a big spender. He buys everything.

Where it came from

The word started as 课金, from a Japanese word for a fee. Japanese players used it for paying in online games, and Chinese players took it over, according to The Paper and 36Kr.

The character 氪 is krypton, the chemical element. Chinese players switched from 课金 to 氪金 because of a rare ore called 氪金 in World of Warcraft, The Paper explained in 2016, in an article on the words of the mobile game Onmyoji.