What happened to Infinity Nikki? The girlcott and the aftermath explained

I wrote about Infinity Nikki’s first four seasons, but ended up stopping coverage just before the infamous girlcott unfolded. Weird timing. The game seemed to be able to do no wrong before the 1.5 update hit, but ever since, it’s been highly divisive.

What happened to Infinity Nikki, and why are some members of the community still furious with the creators of Miraland? Here’s an examination of the girlcott outcry and how Danqing Season, the 1.8 update, could be a make-or-break experience for the game. 

The Escapist recaps

• Infinity Nikki is the most recent addition to the Nikki franchise, offering an open-world RPG experience with gacha pulls, cozy puzzles, and a relaxing story.
• It started strong with its earlier seasons, then made several changes that frustrated the community to the point of a boycott, referred to as the ‘girlcott’ by the playerbase.
• The game is still receiving negative Steam reviews and irritated social media posts to this day, although the girlcott does seem to be dying down.
• While there is a lot of hype around upcoming banners and features, the future of Infinity Nikki feels uncertain as a day-one player.
• The 1.8 update, called Danqing Season, is due to come out on July 29, 2025, and it could be a crucial moment for the game’s health.

Infinity Nikki and the girlcott, explained

During Infinity Nikki’s early days, it seemed as if the game could do no wrong. It managed to strike the balance between free-to-play content and gacha game mechanics perfectly, attracting a devoted community of dedicated players and encouraging fans of the Nikki series to stick with the franchise. 

Nowadays, the game is much more divisive.

Some players still adore it and play religiously, but others have switched from spending avidly on beautiful dresses and logging in daily to barely touching the game.

The sentiment on Infinity Nikki couldn’t be more different across the board, with the official subreddit and Steam reviews being almost split in two.

The catalyst for this drastic change was the 1.5 update, known as Bubble Season, which kickstarted the “girlcott” – a player boycott that’s still ongoing in some fashion to this day.

If you missed the 1.5 implosion, here’s a quick recap.

1.5 introduced some changes that irritated the player base beyond belief, with one of the most notable examples being a dramatic retcon of crucial world-building and introductory lore, taking Nikki from being a relatable, everyday character on a whimsical adventure and transforming her into what appears to be an immortal space deity. 

The anxiously-awaited DIY workshop feature also popped up in Bubble Season. This feature lets players dye their clothes and change their aesthetic with ease – but scores of players were startled by how heavily monetized it was. 

Alongside these issues, Bubble Season garnered plenty of criticism for aggressive monetization strategies, misleading communication around wishlist rewards, and what can only be described as a plague of bugs.

That’s not to say that it was terrible all round – there were certainly some fun moments and interesting outfits to collect – but the swarm of issues combined left fans feeling exhausted and let down. 

The goodwill surrounding Infinity Nikki essentially burned to a crisp here. Fans were left confused and upset, and they made their voices heard by flooding social media channels and sharing negative reviews on the game’s newly launched Steam page. 

Is the Infinity Nikki girlcott still going on?

I’d say that the girlcott is still happening in the Infinity Nikki community, but on a much smaller scale. It’s important to clarify that I’m basing this purely off of the discussions seen online in digital community spaces, through the lens of someone who’s been playing since day one. 

Based on the sentiment seen in online fan forums and threads, players seem to be returning in a F2P capacity – still engaging with the game, but not spending money. There are still plenty of people who are posting about their frustration with the game, but it doesn’t feel as intense as it did a few months ago.

You can still see the impact of the original outcry to this day if you check out the Steam page – at the time of writing, Infinity Nikki is sitting at a comfortable Mostly Negative rating from its total review pool. 

However, the recent review pool is classed as Mixed, showing that more people are taking to Steam to share positive feelings about the game. 

It’s only a portion of the player base, of course. Not everyone plays on PC, and the game hasn’t been on Steam forever, but to me, it’s a rough indication of how the general feelings around the game are slowly starting to heal. 

The girlcott is still a decently hot topic in the online Infinity Nikki community, though, popping up across Reddit and Discord weekly. 

At the time of writing, the most recent post in the subreddit about the girlcott is from 12 hours ago, with a player hesitantly querying whether the game has improved since 1.5 at all. Others have responded to them, saying that yes, the game has improved, but they can’t recommend returning to spending money in good faith. 

This is a general theme in the fan discussions I’ve witnessed across platforms. Players seem to be willing to give Infold Games another chance with their time, but not with their wallets.

The future of Infinity Nikki will be decided by the fans

All of this is to say that 1.8, Danqing Season, will likely be a make-or-break experience for Infinity Nikki.

While the players who were most hurt by the events pre-girlcott have likely said goodbye to the game for good already, there still seems to be a fair chunk of the community who are conflicted on whether they want to keep playing or not.

The hype surrounding Danqing Season is undeniable – people certainly can’t wait to see the new outfits in action, and there’s a lot of excitement about the overall theme – but there’s a lot of anxiety kicking around in the online space, too.

The retcon in particular still seems to be an understandable sticking point for players, with some hoping that there’ll be a rollback of this sudden lore change. 

I think that players will continue to return to Infinity Nikki slowly but surely as the updates continue to roll out throughout the year. That said, the girlcott has shown the community how powerful their voice is, so they’ll likely be even quicker to hold Infold Games accountable if other issues arise in the future.

The 1.8 update for Infinity Nikki is set to hit on July 29, 2025, and it should be a crucial period for the game. While some players are excited to explore the new update, others are still apprehensive about returning to the game due to the girlcott and events after the Bubble Season.

Ask The Escapist

References

1. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3164330/Infinity_Nikki/
2. https://www.reddit.com/r/InfinityNikki/comments/1mby0qd/has_the_game_improved/