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When people hear “game collaboration,” they usually think of something small-scale that ends with a single character skin, but the MapleStory 23rd Anniversary Lotte World collaboration completely rewrote that expectation.

Today, I want to talk about a collaboration that turned everything into Maple at once, not just inside the game, but outside it too.

On April 3, 2026, Maple Island officially opened at Lotte World Adventure. This was not just a simple pop-up or a seasonal event. A permanent themed zone spanning around 600 pyeong was established in the eastern section of Lotte World Magic Island. With four attractions including a roller coaster, plus a goods shop and a dessert space, it was a full-fledged theme park zone in every sense.

And there is a reason this goes beyond simply being interesting. It became the first permanent theme zone in Korean theme park history to be built around a game IP. There had been attractions like KartRider Racing World before, along with short-term event-style collaborations, but Maple Island was the first to completely renew an entire area around a game universe and operate it on a permanent basis. Like Super Nintendo World at Universal parks, it brought a game world into a real-life theme park. The scale may be smaller than Nintendo World, but its significance is huge, because it proved that in Korea, a game IP can stand on its own not just as a tie-in, but as core content for an offline theme park.

Once you step into the zone, the Maple world is woven into every corner. The photo zones let visitors take pictures with backdrops featuring Pink Bean, Maple Heroes, Henesys Village, Arcana, and the Spirit Tree, while the experience area includes a create-your-own-character activity, the Pink Secret Room table, and even a retro game zone. What stands out most is that this is not just a case of putting up character statues for people to look at, but an interactive setup where visitors can scan QR codes, complete quests, and become the protagonist of the Maple world themselves. The collaboration goods are just as varied, ranging from character plushies and figures to stationery, clothing, accessories, and Maple-themed desserts, so if you are a Maple fan, it is the kind of place where you could easily spend a long time in the goods shop alone.

The opening of Maple Island was already impressive, but on April 29, the exact day of MapleStory’s 23rd anniversary, the collaboration went even further. Lotte World Adventure was rented out in its entirety for a full-day private event exclusively for Maple users. A total of 10,000 attendees were recruited, and the response was explosive: the first round of ticketing sold out completely in just 30 seconds after opening. The second round was no different. Tickets were priced at 10,000 won, and a lot of people reacted by saying that getting to enjoy all of Lotte World surrounded only by fellow Maple users for that price was an unbelievable deal.

For that one day, general visitors were not allowed in at all, and the park became a space entirely for Maple users. The ticket allocation was also handled carefully. Sales were split into 5,000 tickets for users level 280 and above and 5,000 tickets for users level 260 and above. It was a structure designed to prioritize players who had been with the game for a long time. Snacks prepared by BTS’s Jin were also provided, and seven Maple creators joined as one-day staff, helping build the atmosphere of the event.

On March 14, 2026, Director Kim Chang-seop also personally hosted a special edition of Maple Now on the stage at Lotte World Adventure. The fact that this online showcase was held not in a game company office or studio, but on a live stage inside a theme park, said a lot about the sheer scale of the collaboration. It was the kind of moment where the Maple world, once experienced only in-game, unfolded as-is in a real-world theme park.

And it was not just the offline side that was heating up. During the same period, the Maple Attack event also ran in-game from March 14 to June 14. A theme park-style event map was added, along with an attendance event and mascot parade content. The whole setup meant that even users who could not visit Lotte World in person could still enjoy the collaboration atmosphere from inside the game.

“Maple when you log in, Maple when you go to Lotte World” really was the perfect way to describe it. Seeing the same collaboration atmosphere unfold online and offline at the same time is not something you see in just any game collab. Usually, a collaboration means a skin gets added in-game, or an offline pop-up opens as a one-time event, but this one operated on a completely different level, because the in-game event and the offline theme zone were running together simultaneously, and not just briefly, but continuously over several months.

What made this MapleStory X Lotte World collaboration feel so special was not simply its size. The real key was that as the game IP expanded into an offline physical space, the MapleStory brand was able to reach even people who do not play the game in a natural way. Some visitors probably went to Lotte World just for a day out and encountered Maple Island for the first time there, and others may have been people who quit Maple years ago, saw the theme zone, and decided to launch the game again.

It really felt like the power MapleStory has built up over 23 years came bursting out through this collaboration. It also made me hope we see more collaborations like this in the future, not just spanning online and offline, but connecting them at the same time. Not just a collaboration that stays inside the game, but one that extends into the real world and creates an experience people actually remember—that is what this MapleStory X Lotte World collaboration proved so well.