Updated July 2026
What does 乙游 mean?
乙游 (乙女游戏, yǐ yóu) means otome game in gen-z Chinese slang. An otome or dating-simulation game aimed primarily at women, where you romance a cast of characters. A mainstream fandom category, not a niche. Literally, it means "otome game".
Hear it explained
Short audio explainer coming soon.
Example
我最近沉迷一款乙游。
Wǒ zuìjìn chénmí yì kuǎn yǐ yóu.
I've been hooked on an otome game lately.
Where 乙游 comes from
Short for 乙女游戏, itself from Japanese 乙女ゲーム ("maiden game"). Chinese-developed titles turned it into a large domestic market with its own vocabulary.
Related slang
To enthusiastically ship a romantic pairing. Can be fictional characters or real people — with real people, treat consent and boundaries as part of the meaning.
A substitute that satisfies a craving the real thing cannot — in fandom, a person or scene that stands in for a pairing you actually want. Distinct from the literal diet meaning.
An "ita bag" — a clear-window bag covered in badges and character merch. The "pain" refers to the cost and the obsession, not physical pain.
FAQ
Free account
Learn slang you can actually hear
A dictionary entry tells you what it means — the episodes let you hear how people say it. A free account keeps every word you save together with the audio it came from, at a level you understand.
- Hear slang in natural audio
- Keep vocab and transcript progress
- Continue at your level