Ever since the beginning of its anime adaptation in 2024, Solo Leveling has consistently been garnering immense hype and growing in popularity. In South Korea, the story was always quite popular, and it was also crowned the most popular Manhwa of all time. But now, following its 2024 adaptation by A-1 Pictures and Aniplex Studio, the series has reached new heights. As confirmed on July 3, 2026, Solo Leveling is now moving forward with a new movie — Solo Leveling: Beyond the System.
While we’re all excited for the upcoming movie, the Solo Leveling franchise has something much more exciting to offer in the form of brand-new content straight from the author himself. This new content comes in the form of a new Solo Leveling game — Solo Leveling: Karma. We have known for a while that this game is expanding the 27 Year Monarch War, but with new information, we know the upcoming story is actually worked upon by Chugong himself, and thus, canon. Solo Leveling: Karma is now going to give us a new full-fledged arc of the IP that we can’t wait to fully explore in 2026.
Solo Leveling: Karma Officially Announces New Expansion Of 27-Year Monarch War Arc With Direct Involvement Of Author Chugong
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Solo Leveling’s debut traces all the way to 2016 to a single man’s work — Chugong, a South Korean writer who has now become famous all around the world. Chugong’s work has gone on to be expanded far beyond what it started as. While his story began in the form of a novel, which wrapped up in 2018, immediately after, the Manhwa took over the same year to popularize it even further. More recently, in 2024, the anime adaptation of Solo Leveling finally came out, and it became a global hit.
The TV anime is often what fans look forward to, but Solo Leveling also has a strong repertoire of games that’s only growing. Solo Leveling received Solo Leveling: Arise in 2024, and Solo Leveling: Arise OVERDRIVE, and now, in 2026, we are getting Solo Leveling: Karma from the major video game studio, Netmarble. Solo Leveling Karma is one of the most anticipated games ever for the franchise for a multitude of reasons. On July 5, 2026, we got an official look at the gameplay of Solo Leveling: Karma, which is, undoubtedly, amazing and the best the franchise has had to offer. But, there is more that makes this game exciting as it is, and it comes down to the storyline that is about to be created for it.
In November 2025, when the game was officially announced, we quickly got to know that it would cover the 27 Year Monarch War in the form of a new story arc that we can’t wait to explore. Technically, this arc was set up in the epilogue of the novel, where we learnt of Jinwoo traveling back in time, using the Cup of Reincarnation, to avoid all tragedies from happening, including major deaths. While we know the gist of it, we still don’t know what happened and how his journey progressed since it was skipped over.
On July 5, 2026, we received even more information concerning the story, and it was revealed that Antares, Solo Leveling’s main enemy, has kept all his memories alongside Jinwoo and isn’t keen on giving up and losing again. Even with prep time and knowledge of what’s about to happen, Jinwoo’s journey isn’t going to be an easy one. We are in for a full-fledged new arc, and the longest in the whole story, adapted through a game this time around.
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Solo Leveling Karma Anime Expo Event Reveals Full Involvement of Chugong And Canonicity of New Arc
Image from Solo Leveling Karma
Up until now, fans of the Solo Leveling franchise might not have considered the story of Karma a true addition to the story. After all, for many, for an arc to be canon, it has to be in the original source material, or at the very least, handled by the original creator, which, in this case, is Chugong. With that being said, new information revealed on July 5, 2026, officially confirms the story is canon, to the surprise of many. On July 5, Solo Leveling Karma held its own stage at Anime Expo 2026. Fans were extremely excited for all the reveals, and aside from the trailer, we also got a Q&A where fans’ biggest questions were answered.
Many fans, of course, wondered how canon the new game is, and it was revealed that Chugong is actually very involved in the story, which surprised many, as his participation wasn’t made public until now. Of course, some projects overstate how involved the original creator is and simply use their name for promotion. For Solo Leveling Karma, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and the project labels itself as canon to the original story.
It still isn’t clear what Chugong has handled, and if the story is fully from his drafts, but in either case, until further information is revealed, this story is canon and is considered by Chugong to be so as well, which is incredibly exciting. Above all, it cements the upcoming story as a true expansion of the Solo Leveling universe.
In a way, it could be seen as a full-fledged sequel that completes the otherwise lackluster ending of Solo Leveling, which only featured a vague Epilogue that states that a 27 Year War between Jinwoo and the Monarchs took place. Now, we will finally get more details, such as what order Jinwoo killed the Monarchs in, how he saved everyone, and we will even get a full rematch between him and Antares. This new final battle is about to be even more heated than the first one, with both having prior knowledge of the other.
In this game, we can also expect new characters to appear. Solo Leveling: Karma officially revealed a new visual on July 5, 2026, in which we see a woman never seen before. It’s unknown what her role will be, and if she was created by Chugong himself, but we’re excited for the possibilities this game will bring forward soon.
Solo Leveling Karma Releases 2026, With Exact Date to be Determined
Image from Solo Leveling Karma
Every fan of the franchise is excited to get their hands on Solo Leveling: Karma. After the anime and the newly revealed Solo Leveling: Beyond the System movie, it is definitely the biggest project the series has going for itself. Specifically, it’s also the only big project the series is confirmed to be getting this year, in 2026, aside from a possible unconfirmed Solo Leveling: Ragnarok Manhwa return after its hiatus.
While we were all hoping that we would finally get the release date of the game at Anime Expo 2026, that didn’t happen. The release date of the game remains a mystery for now. All we know is that the game is coming in the second half of 2026 at the moment, and that it will release on PC, iOS, and Android.
For further information about the release date, we will all have to be patient and wait for an update from the producers in the next few months. We all hope that this game releases in 2026 and that the release date doesn’t get pushed back to 2027. But, with few updates on the release, a delay wouldn’t be out of the picture.
