Last month also introduced some major updates to the biggest mobile games. Ad monetization in Merge Mansion continued its rollout to selected accounts, Squad Busters removed some key items that were proving controversial with players because of their ‘pay-to-win’ element, and State of Survival upped its minigame ante with the introduction of a new digging minigame and a kitten-themed Match3 event. 

Speaking of Match3, the relatively new release Truck Star from Century Games is racing ahead as it continues to scale in an incredibly competitive genre. What can the game teach us about finding success in the Match3 market? And what can the surprising performances of Love and Deep Space in the US and Marvel Snap in China teach us about growing games in new markets? 

You can find more information about the biggest mobile game updates, developments, and game launches from August below, available exclusively on the GameRefinery platform.

August’s casual game updates

Merge Mansion used to be the only major title in the Merge2 genre without monetized ads, but the introduction of ad monetization to selected accounts in April 2024 is starting to pick up pace as it aligns its monetization strategy more closely to its competitors. At the time of writing, ad monetization currently applies to energy purchases, shop refreshes, and selected shop item purchases. 

Angry Birds: Dream Blast added a limited-time Super Bomb win streak event with similar mechanics to the “super lightball” permanent win streak in Royal Match. During the event, players could transform their normal bomb into a super bomb by beating ten main progression levels, but this doesn’t need to be in a row. The super bomb doubles the effect of a regular bomb power-up in levels and lasts until the player plays a level, incentivizing them to pay for continues or extra moves to extend the streak. 

Solitaire Grand Harvest saw out Summer with a two-week collaboration based around the Snoopy IP for Snoopy’s Camp. Players took part in collaboration events to receive event currency and items for the main Decoration event. Almost all of the events active during the collaboration had a Snoopy theme, and players could even pick up special event battle passes, IAP bundles, and login bonuses based on Snoopy. 

After the collaboration, the game also added a super lightball win streak event, Shiny Windmill, which is similar to the super lightball win streak in Angry Birds. Players could activate the booster by completing five levels and keep it active by holding their win streak. The booster works similarly to the game’s Windmill booster but can be used once at any time during a level.

Additional casual gaming highlights and other news

After a long fight between Epic and Apple, the Epic Games Store finally arrived on mobile, globally for Android users and only in the EU for iOS users. The launch of the Epic Games Store on mobile introduces Fortnite and Fall Guys to millions of potential customers. The PC and console versions launched in-game quest events to incentivize players to download the Store and game on their mobile devices. 

As an example, Fall Guys had mobile launch quests that required players to download and complete five levels in the mobile version of the game. Completing this quest rewarded players with the Holobean Costume and Yeetus Hammer Pickaxe that can be used in both Fall Guys and Fortnite. 

Match3 game Truck Star, developed by Century Games (best known for the megahit Whiteout Survival), has continued to scale since its release in May. Part of the game’s success can be attributed to its truck renovation meta, which taps into the same themes and audience as Chrome Valley Customs by Space Ape Games. Truck Star’s continued success in a fiercely competitive genre highlights the benefits of tailoring gameplay mechanics, design, and aesthetics for a specific audience. 

Another game that surprised us with its performance in August is the sci-fi dating sim Love and Deepspace, which continues to go from strength in APAC but is blowing up in the West. This is pretty unusual, given the core audience is in Southeast Asia. Still, the 2.0 update at the end of July and its introduction of new datable characters caused a surge in download numbers, while a follow-up update in early August propelled the game to the US top 20. Revenue also saw a boost, as the August update featured a particularly enticing gacha, offering exclusive content about all four datable characters as the main reward.

August’s midcore game updates

Squad Busters removed consumable keys and Mega Units from the game, items that allowed players to gain an advantage in matches by purchasing and collecting the consumables outside of matches. While there were cooldowns for key usage and a randomness factor involved with finding Mega Units in matches, these items were controversial for many players due to their pay-to-win elements and OP nature. 

Any existing Mega Units the player had unlocked were automatically converted into a corresponding skin for the characters when the items were removed. The latest update also introduced a new area, Lava World, available to all players for one week before converting into an end-game area.

We spend a lot of time at GameRefinery talking about the benefits of minigames, and State of Survival is one of the biggest proponents of their UA and revenue-generating power. Over the years, State of Survival has hosted everything from Vampire Survivors-like shoot ‘em up minigames to mahjong solitaire and boardgame minigames with casual casino elements, and August saw two new additions to its minigame roster. 

• Jungle Gems digs into the trendy digging minigame event type, offering players a series of levels to progress through with a digging mechanic. This involves using items to clear tiles from a grid and find new items, but the event also featured boost items and idle reward mechanics.  
• Paw-Some Puzzle Party is a kitten-themed minigame featuring a set of Match3 levels in three different difficulties. Players attempt to reduce the opposing player’s health to zero in classic Match3 gameplay with the help of kittens, who each have a special Match3 skill.

Each monthly season update, Clash of Clans introduces new content in the form of Battle Pass, limited-time challenge events, and various cosmetic skins. August’s update was an Anime-themed special, which marked a major first for the game as the anime skins it introduced are a completely different art style from the core game, potentially widening its appeal to players who are fans of anime games and art styles. 

Additional midcore gaming highlights and other news

Top Heroes, a 4X casual action RPG hybrid by River Game (developer of the 4x merge hybrid Top War), continued to scale as it hit and sustained its position in the top 50-grossing. The game has been scaling steadily, and August was its highest revenue month ever. This can be attributed to its unique combination of two completely different genres, as well as its utilization of casual action RPG layers in its UA campaigns. 

China is a tough market for CCGs as most successful card battlers are based on well-established IPs like War of the Three Kingdoms. That said, the Chinese version of Marvel Snap (漫威终极逆转) doesn’t seem to be having any issues winning over Chinese players. Only two weeks in and the game is sitting at grossing 40 and DL 40. 

It’s worth noting that Hearthstone is gearing up for its comeback in September after the game was pulled from the market due to a conflict between NetEase and the game’s developer, Blizzard. Can Hearthstone also find a home in China’s competitive CCG market? We’ll bring you the update in next month’s issue of the GameRefinery Analyst Bulletin! 

The Chinese version of AFK Journey (剑与远征：启程) is sitting stable in the top-10 grossing chart, while downloads are down from its peak at #2 to the top-40. This new version of the game highlights another instance of a Chinese publisher releasing a game domestically after its initial launch in Western markets. 

Over in Japan, Netease’s realistic racing game, Racing Master (レーシングマスター) has made a surprising entry, marking the first racing game in quite some time to achieve significant success in the market. It held a stable position in the top 20 grossing games and even hit the top spot for downloads. It’s a 3D racing game where players collect cars and compete in synchronized PvP races, but there’s a heavy focus on character customization with plenty of skins, hairstyles, and other options to choose from alongside car customization.

While car customization is common in successful racing games, player customization is less common, which is helping Netease widen the appeal of the game. Of course, a launch collaboration with the J-pop group Perfume also helped get the game in front of new players.

The post Analyst Bulletin: Mobile Game Market Review August 2024 appeared first on GameRefinery.

Look at live events, for example. Their popularity persists but with a noticeable leap in production values and the emergence of more intricate monetization strategies, such as paywalled events and additional rewards tracks in battle passes.

Perhaps the biggest addition for players is the breadth of new titles on offer, with a number of anime-inspired RPGs (including Zenless Zone Zero and Wuthering Waves) performing well not just in Japan, but also doing ok in the West. But who says that mobile players should have all the fun? An increasing number of titles are also allowing players to take their adventures across different hardware with crossplay support on PC and console. 

But enough with the introductions. Join us below as we explore the biggest trends in mobile this year. If you’re strapped for time, you can jump to the most relevant sections using the links below: 

• The popularity of LiveOps continues
• Emerging types of hybridization
• Asian publishers’ growing RPG presence in Western markets
• Rise of crossplay
• Major mobile games on the horizon to watch out for

The popularity of LiveOps continues

If there’s one thing that seems consistent across the top-grossing mobile titles, it’s the continued dependence on LiveOps to drive player engagement. While that works exceptionally well for existing titles, it’s made it challenging for newer titles to break through amid all the well-established content machines. That’s why it’s so important for mobile developers to keep up to date with the biggest trends in LiveOps, including the following:

Enhanced production values

A few years ago, you might have been able to get away with launching a simple event where players just have to complete a basic gameplay task to unlock rewards – but that doesn’t cut it in 2024. Today’s live events boast high-quality production values and often leverage multiple gameplay mechanics.

For example, many casual titles now incorporate minigame events to support their core gameplay loop. How this works in practice is pretty simple: users play the usual primary gameplay mode, which in turn generates “energy” that can be used to participate in a separate minigame that functions completely differently from the rest of the game that may even have its own IAP offering or dedicated store.

You can see this in action in titles like Gossip Harbor and Royal Match, both of which feature a minigame event inspired by the viral hit Wordle. Getting to experience something new and unique in this way creates a highly engaging loop that encourages players to return far more than traditional challenges or quests otherwise would.

Boosts and other new monetization methods

Innovating in LiveOps isn’t just about tweaking gameplay mechanics; many developers are experimenting with how they monetize events. A growing number of titles are starting to incorporate premium reward tracks into their events as special battle passes. This is like having a miniature battle pass that you can only progress through by participating in an event. 

In addition, many games now allow players to purchase a premium boost that supercharges progression through the event. These boosts usually take the form of a specific customization option. For instance, if you’re playing the event using a specific skin or character, you might earn twice the amount of experience or in-game currency.

The rise of event paywalls

That’s not the only monetization trend we’ve seen that’s reminiscent of PC and console games. A select few mobile games are now locking premium content behind a paywall in a move not too dissimilar from downloadable content (DLC) or a classic PC expansion.

Let’s look at some examples:

• Players were required to purchase a specific premium building (costing $50) to participate in one of Last Fortress’ recent minigame events. 
• State of Survival’s Resident Evil collaboration event featured a unique quest line that players could only start after acquiring a specific character from a gacha. Players received one free pull daily, but subsequent attempts required premium currency.

Free Fire employed a “top-up” event system which required players to purchase a specific amount of premium currency to unlock a wider selection of features.

Monetization: Hyper casual turns hybrid casual

As noted in Liftoff’s 2024 Casual Gaming Apps report, while hyper casual titles remain popular, their numbers are slowly falling year over year. As a result, many hyper casual developers have been experimenting with hybrid monetization models — taking their simple, highly marketable gameplay concepts and enhancing their revenue-driving capabilities with a comprehensive ad strategy and IAP offering more befitting the casual and midcore genres. 

At the same time, these titles have also built on their initial success through the addition of new content and live events, keeping users engaged and opening up new opportunities to drive revenue. 

These hybrid monetized titles are particularly prevalent in the puzzle genre. During the first six months of 2024, several hybrid casual puzzle titles have emerged seemingly out of nowhere and infiltrated the top 200 grossing charts, including:

• Screw Jam – In this title, players have to remove a series of blocks by correctly identifying and removing certain screws.
• Twisted Tangle – As the name suggests, this game’s puzzles see players trying to figure out the correct order to untangle a bunch of interlocking ropes and chords. This title has been particularly successful, holding its place in the top 200 grossing since its release in December 2024.
• Hexa Sort: To progress in this game, players must sort out different-colored blocks.

One of the reasons these titles may be striking a chord with many players is their level of variety. Traditionally, most games in the puzzle genre don’t differentiate from one another, meaning there’s little reason for players to change things up once they’ve found a title they like. If you’ve tried out one match3 or merge game, it wouldn’t be completely outrageous to say that you’ve played them all, whereas each new hybrid casual puzzle title brings something new to the table that warrants a download.

That being said, while these hybrid puzzlers differ in their core gameplay, they have much in common regarding monetization. Most of these titles rely on in-app purchases to bring in revenue. For example, players might pay for extra time to complete a complex puzzle, make additional moves, or gain access to valuable items. 

It’s also worth noting that most hybrid casual games offer players a steady stream of new content through a live events framework. This enables them to retain players for significantly longer than traditional puzzle titles, which are often very one-and-done. 

A quick note on hybridization through gameplay 

Admittedly, hybridization isn’t anything new for the mobile market. For some time now, more and more titles have increasingly been looking at wider genres and other titles to inspire new gameplay ideas that substantially differ from their core offering. This trend has continued to grow in prominence over time, with many popular titles using minigames (think smaller games, built within games) to incorporate wildly different gameplay ideas into the mix without disrupting the primary systems.

One notable example of this in practice is the growing prominence of Vampire Survivors-like minigames, with State of Survival, Diablo: Immortal, and League of Legends (PC) all hopping on board. These minigames play much like the indie hit that inspired them, with the player (or a group of players) battling through an onslaught of enemies by simply moving their character, which fires automatically.

Asian publishers’ growing RPG presence in Western markets

If you’ve been keeping up with our regular analyst bulletins, or even just the hottest mobile games generally, you will likely have noticed a sudden burst of anime-themed RPGs that are topping the charts in the West. At the time of writing, there are over ten titles falling under this category in the US iOS Top 200 grossing chart, several of which have only launched during the course of 2024. 

While we’ve seen a few titles in this area perform well in the West—such as Dragon Ball Dokkan Battle (2015), Fate/Grand Order (2018), and Dragon Ball Legends (2018), all of which consistently rank highly in the top grossing 200—it’s unusual to see multiple new titles performing so well back-to-back. Let’s look at some of the heavy-hitters: 

AFK Journey

AFK Journey is a spin-off turned sequel to the highly successful AFK arena, which launched in March 2024. The game had a very strong launch in the US, peaking at #15 in April’s top-grossing chart, and second in downloads on the US iOS market. It’s since slipped further down the ranks but is continuing to hold its place among the top 200.

Much like its predecessor, AFK Journey is an idle RPG—albeit with a few twists of its own. The game is made up of an auto-battle core and features crossplay with PC, where players can also access an external webstore. AFK Journey has a large number of heroes players can choose from, but users only need to level up five characters to progress. Any remaining heroes automatically catch up to the fifth strongest character, making it easy to switch out your team and mix up the gameplay. 

AFK Journey offers players a lot of variety, with expansive areas to explore, engaging puzzles, and strategic battles, which aids retention as it means there’s always something new to see and do. Its presentation is also exceptionally high-quality, with a unique hand-drawn art style and fully voiced cutscenes.

Solo Leveling: Arise

Another anime-esque newcomer that has been performing well in the US is Solo Leveling: Arise, which launched in May earlier this year on mobile and PC. The game is based on a Korean webtoon and debuted in the top 10 in the US and Japan. 

Gameplay-wise, Solo Leveling: Arise is a classic action RPG based around character collection that has a few unique quirks. For example, the main character’s leveling system allows players to allocate points to desired stats after each level-up. The game also features two distinct combat modes, one exclusively for the main character and another where only side characters can be used.

Since launch, the game has fallen down the US ranks. While this may look alarming, this is actually a fairly common pattern for character collection-focused titles like this. Usually, these titles see large revenue spikes with each new update as players rush to pull new characters available through gacha, with a sharp drop shortly after till the next new addition lands. 

That being said, the performance drop for Solo Levelling: Arise has been slower than usual, suggesting that it may be following a slightly different trajectory. Only time will tell if the slow decline continues, or if it will be able to find a solid baseline among the top 200. 

Wuthering Waves

Next up is Wuthering Waves, which is a straight-up competitor against Genshin Impact, right down to its open-world design philosophy, role-playing elements, emphasis on character collection, and art style. 

However, the game does have some unique mechanics that set it apart. For example, Wuthering Waves has a Pokémon-style monster-collecting feature (which also doubles as the game’s artifact system) where players can capture enemies and use them as skills. The combat also has a lot of depth, with each character offering distinctive gameplay mechanics. It also features crossplay with PC and PS5.

Yet again, the game made a substantial impact on its launch earlier this year, climbing to the very top spot in downloads in both the US and Japan. However, much like the other titles, it fell back down the ranks once the initial hype subsided. 

That being said, the title appears to follow a similar pattern to Genshin Impact in that its performance fluctuates in line with major content updates (albeit to a lesser extent than MiHoYo’s immensely popular title). When Wuthering Waves’ first major content update dropped on 27 June, the game saw a 300% increase in daily revenue in the US (and a more than 3000% increase in Japan).

Zenless Zone Zero

Speaking of Genshin Impact, we’d be amiss if we didn’t mention the latest addition to the mobile market from MiHoYo. By putting the focus on flashy, action-packed battles through linear areas, Zenless Zone Zero manages to carve out its own identity against Genshin Impact’s open world and the turn-based affairs of Honkai: Star Rail – even if it does look largely similar due to the three titles shared cartoonish art style.

Given the monumental success of MiHoYo’s other titles, it should be no surprise that Zenless Zone Zero drew in some major numbers. Within 72 hours of its release on 4 July, the title had already passed 50 million downloads. Revenue-wise, the title is less impressive, performing well below that of Genshin Impact, although it still ranks among the top 100 grossing titles. It’s worth noting that all three of MiHoYo’s titles feature crossplay with PC and console, which may skew these figures to some extent given that players may be spending money on other platforms.

Rise of crossplay

By allowing players to party up with their friends regardless of their hardware, games with crossplay can grow massive communities that span the entire gaming ecosystem. They also allow developers to bypass the costly store fees on iOS and Android, as players can purchase in-game items and currencies via a different platform or a dedicated web store. 

Crossplay games arguably make playing more accessible too, as there’s less of a requirement to access costly hardware. If you don’t have a console or gaming PC, you can simply join your friends using your phone. Crossplay games also allow all players to take their gaming wherever they please. They can enjoy the big-screen experience at home and then continue the adventure right where they left off while traveling to work, sitting on a lunch break, and so forth. 

We’ve already mentioned a few of the biggest crossplay mobile titles that were recently released earlier in this blog. Zenless Zone Zero, Wuthering Waves, and Solo Levelling: Arise are all available to play on PC, with the first two also on PlayStation consoles. Other examples include Zynga’s Star Wars Hunters (Switch and iOS/Android), Sword of Convallaria (PC and iOS/Android), and Stumble Guys — which only came to console earlier this year. 

The one drawback to these crossplay games is that they can be much more expensive to create than a standard mobile game. For one, these games must offer PC and console players an experience that works on a bigger screen, meaning they sometimes have higher production values than you’d typically expect from a mobile title. At the same time, the developers also need to be able to downsize that experience so it works as intended on less hardware. 

We can’t forget about the demands of maintaining a LiveOps pipeline, too. Developers need to release expansive new content updates every month or risk losing their players’ interest to competitors. With all that in mind, it’s hardly surprising that Genshin Impact is on track to become the most expensive video game of all time, costing upwards of $200 million each year to maintain. 

A note on Call of Duty Warzone and cross-progression

One notable title we have yet to touch on that supports crossplay is Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, which is compatible with PC and console—at least, sort of. Activision’s battle royale shooter is a unique example of crossplay in that it only offers cross-progression. This means that progress made in the game’s mobile version, such as a player’s weapon collection and battle pass progress, carries over to PC and console. 

However, mobile players cannot currently join a game with users on other platforms, although iOS and Android users can play side-by-side. Why is this the case? Activision states on Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile’s website that the game needs to “feel well-tuned, natural, and intuitive on handheld devices” and that full crossplay isn’t supported to “avoid any imbalance” with other platforms.

Many first-person shooters like Call of Duty revolve around lightning-fast firefights that depend on quick reflexes and accuracy to rise to the top of the competition. That’s a lot easier to pull off using a controller or a keyboard and mouse than it is using a touchscreen, perhaps so much so that Activision’s early playtests showed it was simply unfair to put mobile players head-to-head with users on PC and console.

Whether this was the right or wrong reason remains to be seen, especially given that the game has disappointed performance-wise — driving significantly lower numbers than that of its predecessor, Call of Duty: Mobile. Either way, it highlights the importance of considering how your game will be controlled on different platforms, especially in titles such as this, which revolve around highly competitive multiplayer.

Keep a lookout for these mobile titles

From popular LiveOps trends to costly crossplay and anime RPGs, there’s a lot to wrap your head around to fully understand what’s popular with mobile players. But that’s far from everything. Here are a few other notable titles coming in the near future that are worth keeping on your radar.

• Fading City & Earth Revival: Fading City is a survival MMO from Netease that’s already available in China but is due to launch worldwide in the near future. It’s notable for its uncanny resemblance to Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us. Similarly, Earth Revival from NuVerse is reminiscent of EA and Bioware’s Mass Effect. It shows that if you have a major console franchise and don’t pursue mobile, you risk someone doing it for you.
• Racing Master: This new racing title from NetEase and Codemasters was released last Summer in China, where it’s been performing relatively well. It strongly focuses on a story-based carrier mode and offers plenty of car customization options. Racing games have struggled to make much impact in the West on mobile, but it remains to be seen if this one can buck that trend when it launches worldwide later this year.
• Royal Kingdom: This spiritual successor to Dream Games’ super hit Royal Match is finally expected to be fully released later this year after a long soft launch period. It has a similar cartoonish Royal-theme to its predecessor, and the same swapping match3 core mechanics. The main difference is that Kingdom changes the perspective change from room to kingdom map on the construction meta, and allows players to execute “light competitive” attacks on other players.
• Project Mugen: This new RPG from Hangzhou and Montreal Naked Rain seems to be very similar to Zenless Zone Zero. Both of these games focus on urban “street fashion,” which seems to be gaining traction in Japan (and potentially China) as a recurring theme. It’s set to launch later this year on mobile, PC and PS5.
• Pokemon Trading Card Pocket: The TCG market will likely get a major shakeup in the near future as a mobile version of the Pokemon trading card game is set for release at the end of October. There’s currently very little information on hand about the title, but it’s expected to play similarly to how the card game works in real life. 
• Playrix’s next match-3 title: Playrix is one of the top mobile studios for the match3 genre, having had great success with the Scapes series. At the time of writing, the studio has four new titles in soft launch: Aqua Match, Austin’s Odyssey, Roomscapes, and Familyscapes. While nothing has been confirmed, it’s only a matter of time before one generates strong enough metrics to release fully.
• Assassin’s Creed Jade: Ubisoft has previously attempted to bring this major single-player franchise to mobile, but this is the first time the studio has gone all out with a full-fledged RPG. Given that the PC and console titles are paid for with a one-time fee, this one is worth keeping an eye on to see how it approaches monetization without alienating the core fanbase. It was originally expected to land later this year but has since been delayed sometime into 2025. 

If you’d like to learn more about the biggest trends in mobile gaming this year, check out Episode 53 and Episode 57 of the Mobile Games Playbook.

The post Breaking Down the Biggest Trends Shaping the Mobile Gaming Landscape appeared first on GameRefinery.

But Rollic wasn’t the only studio to make a statement in July, as we saw the long-awaited release of Hoyoverse’s Zenless Zone Zero. While the title has no doubt driven some serious numbers with over 50 million downloads at launch, there’s a general sense that the title is lagging slightly behind in revenue when compared to the monumental success of Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail. 

Elsewhere, we also saw one of the most unusual minigames in quite some time, as Goddess of Victory: NIKKE took the plunge with a transformation into Dave the Diver. Marvel Snap also became one of the few CCG titles to implement a guild system, while Stumble Guys encouraged its players to get serious with the launch of its first-ever ranked mode—as well as introducing the ability to wield disruptive special abilities.

For more information about the biggest mobile game updates, developments, and game launches across July, read our latest analyst bulletin below. 

July’s casual game updates

Rollic’s Twisted Tangle became the first hybrid casual title in the US top-grossing 200 to implement a seasonal collectible album. The Tangle Collection will be available for around two and a half months, with players collecting cards by participating in events or making purchases. 

The album feature should boost engagement by giving Twisted Tangle a fresh, long-term progression vector that ties all its events together, making gameplay more meaningful. To that end, it’s perhaps fitting that its launch was accompanied by various other additions, such as a daily reward system, a new recurring task event, and a season pass system.

As part of its July update patch v0.75, Stumble Guys launched a new competitive mode designed to showcase players’ skills and provide them with incentives to perform well in matches.

In Ranked Season (SS0), players earn Reward Points (RP) based on their performance. Those who earn enough Reward Points will rank up and earn rewards (which include experience points (XP) and games), with higher ranks granting bigger prizes. There is also a Season Leaderboard that rewards players with additional RP depending on their rank, which can be claimed at the end of each season.

Patch 0.75 also introduced upgraded “Abilities” (previously known as “Special Emotes”) that can give players an upper hand in matches, such as a speed boost or special attack they can use to throw competitors off balance. Additionally, these abilities can be enhanced using Ability Keys and Ability Tokens, gained as rewards from battle passes, wheels, and other events.

Social win streaks, made famous by Royal Match, have continued to grow in popularity and spread to the likes of Candy Crush Soda Saga’s Yeti’s Challenge and Seat Away’s Turbulence Challenge.

Speaking of Candy Crush, Candy Crush Saga had an eventful summer, introducing various new events—far more than we usually see in a single month. Among them were competitive “Factory Frenzy,” collection events like “Don’t Feed the Troll” and “Top That,” the level-completion challenge “Volcanic Panic,” and the win streak event “Jelly Streak.” You can find out more about all of these using our Live Events Tracker.

Additional casual gaming highlights and other news

Hybrid casual puzzle games are currently one of the hottest trends in the market. Several games are scaling successfully by following similar principles: offering unique, hyper-casual-inspired puzzle gameplay, adopting a hybrid monetization model (combining IAP and IAA), and expanding a live event framework to enhance and sustain the core gameplay loop. Rollic Games has been spearheading this movement, launching several titles that have climbed high up the IAP grossing charts. 

The latest chart-topping entry is Seat Away, a game in which players move around differently-colored seats inside vehicles to allow matching-colored passengers to reach their destination in timed levels. It is heavily inspired by one of Rollic’s earlier titles, Bus Jam, with the same tried-and-true recipe of unique gameplay, a combination of IAA and IAP monetization, and a busy LiveOps calendar filled with popular casual event types.

Many of Rollic’s older titles have also been scaling admirably. We touched on the recent update to Twisted Tangle earlier in the bulletin, but there’s also Screw Jam. Both of these titles regularly tweak their IAP and live events, often incorporating offerings that are similar to other top games on the market.

Domino Dreams has been scaling since its launch in January earlier this year and finally breached the top-grossing 100 in the US iOS Market last month. The developer behind the title, SuperPlay, is best known for its “Casual Casino” hit title, Dice Dreams, which is among the biggest games in that genre (alongside Monopoly GO! and Coin Master). With that in mind, Domino Dreams is something of a radical departure in that it is mahjong solitaire, an up-and-coming genre that we highlighted in Liftoff’s 2024 Casual Gaming Apps report.

July’s midcore game updates

While guilds (also known as clans or teams) are popular in midcore genres like MMOs and 4X strategy, they’re not a feature commonly encountered in CCGs. As such, we were particularly surprised to see the feature added to Marvel Snap in July.

Alongside the feature’s launch, players who joined an Alliance were also invited to complete bounties for their group. Each alliance member could select up to three Bounties (from a pool of eight) at a time to complete for points. After the week is over, members of the Alliance got rewards—including boosters, credits, and mystery card variants—depending on which Personal point milestones they reached and what Alliance point milestones their alliance reached.

Marvel Snap also continued the trend of mobile games using blockbuster movies as inspiration for new content, launching several live events inspired by the launch of Deadpool and Wolverine into theatres. These included a dedicated battle pass (with Gwenpool as an unlockable card), a limited-time PvP mode Deadpool’s Diner (which was the only way to unlock the Cassandra Nova card, the film’s main antagonist), and a competitive leaderboard event called Deadpool League.

The game saw a 300%+ spike in revenue on July 10, the day after the launch of the Deadpool-themed battle pass, which saw it reach 21 in the top 200 grossing on the US iOS market. While this may sound impressive, it largely follows the same trajectory as previous battle pass updates, slightly surprising given the film has been crowned the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time after grossing over $1bn worldwide.

Goddess of Victory: NIKKE introduced a unique collaboration with Dave the Diver that recreated the latter’s gameplay within its own world.

In Aegis the Diver, players dived, fished, and foraged for ingredients to use in a restaurant management simulator— just like you would in Dave the Diver—using fan-favorite Goddess of Nikke characters. The event looked the part too, utilizing the same pixelated art style used in Dave the Diver. Despite being just a “minigame,” there were also lots of reasons for players to stay engaged, with a purchasable battle pass and several missions to complete.

Dave the Diver isn’t actually available on mobile, which meant that, arguably, this live event was the first time it was playable on the platform. In many ways, the event acted almost like a demo for Dave the Diver, with the full game on sale across PlayStation, Switch, and other platforms. All players could also get a special Goddess of Victory skin for their boat in the full game by entering a code.

While this may sound unusual, it’s actually the second time Goddess of Victory has turned itself into a completely different title. In November last year, the game launched a roguelike reverse bullet hell-type minigame reminiscent of Vampire Survivors, leading us to suspect that we’ll see another transformative crossover in the near future.

Additional midcore gaming highlights and other news

Zynga launched a new puzzle RPG based on the Game of Thrones IP. Game of Thrones: Legends is mechanically very similar to Zynga’s evergreen hit Empire & Puzzles, just with added Game of Thrones characters and theming. The title has only seen a modest amount of success, barely scratching the top-grossing #200 in the US, which is surprising given the recognition of Zynga in the market coupled with the airing of a new season for the Game of Thrones spin-off, House of the Dragon.

Hoyoverse launched its new action RPG, Zenless Zone Zero. Given the popularity of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, it should come as no surprise that the title made a substantial impact at launch—securing more than 50m downloads in its first three days and generating over $25m in revenue in its first week. Nevertheless, the game’s performance on mobile is generally below that of its two sister titles. 

All three of Hoyoverse’s titles share similar thematic stylings, so it’s entirely possible that we’ve now reached a point where they’re directly competing with one another, which may explain why it’s not reaching quite the same highs. 

However, Zenless Zone Zero is much more action-packed than Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. It features frenetic combat in tight spaces that require fast reflexes and careful coordination from the player. In fact, the game clearly draws inspiration from the fighting game genre, even acting as one of the headline sponsors of EVO 2024, the world’s biggest fighting game tournament. And while the game plays perfectly well on mobile, there is a sense that it shines best played using a controller on a PC or console—and it might be that the vast majority of its audience is actually based elsewhere.

Netease launched an unusual battle royale game in China called Naraka Bladepoint, which utilizes AI to create NPC dialogue. The game was released across PC, console and mobile platforms, with all the different versions interconnected. Naraka Bladepoint has been scaling exceptionally well, holding steady at #4 in the top-grossing ranks and #1 in downloads in China. 

The post Analyst Bulletin: Mobile Game Market Review July 2024 appeared first on GameRefinery.

With the vast majority of top-grossing iOS games using seasonal events to boost revenues and engagement, a significant number of mobile titles used Pride to launch their own inclusivity-boosting updates. This trend was particularly notable in 2024, with highlights such as Beatstar’s Love Spectrum battle pass, Marvel’s Strike Force’s Pride-themed scavenger hunt, and Call of Duty’s Pride flag weapon skins pack for Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone.

In this blog post, we examine how some of the biggest mobile titles celebrated Pride Month and discuss key considerations for launching your inclusivity-boosting live events.

Riot Games: League of Legends: Wild Rift

Riot is no stranger to Pride Month celebrations: The company has openly supported Pride since 2018, launching events across its entire games portfolio each year—including League of Legends, Wild Rift, Valorant, and even Teamfight Tactics. 

Most of Riot’s Pride Month celebrations follow a similar template divided into two main halves. The first part typically includes the addition of various Pride-themed cosmetic items. Looking at this year’s event in League of Legends: Wild Rift, the headline new additions were the Love United Banner and Got Your Back Profile Icon, as well as a Rainbow Chest that allowed players to unlock items from past Pride events.

To unlock these items, players had to complete specific in-game missions. Many of these missions required players to complete missions with Pride-themed items equipped, which helped spread the event’s spirit throughout the game. It’s worth noting that you cannot purchase the items outright, likely because it may be considered controversial to generate profit from promoting diversity this way. That said, Riot once sold Pride Month items in the in-game store, although it made clear that proceeds went to LGBT charities. 

The other half of Riot’s Pride Month celebrations occur outside its games. In previous years, this took the form of short stories being released that revealed the sexuality of prevalent League of Legends characters. However, this year, Riot took a slightly different approach by launching a hub on its website where players could submit content that promoted Pride (including streams, Discord channels, fan art, cosplay, etc) to be featured in an online gallery.

Space Ape: Beatstar

The rhythm game Beatstar took a rather multifaceted approach to Pride Month, launching a range of new events and reimagining existing activations. 

The most significant addition was Love Spectrum, the latest incarnation of its monthly Battle Pass. Mechanically, this 39th version of the Battle Pass worked as it always has. There was a free and premium tier, with players progressing by acquiring Tour Points through regular gameplay. The main changes came in the form of rewards, which included a selection of new season songs from artists beloved by the LGBTQ+ community – including Kylie Minogue, Whitney Houston, Elton John, Cher, and many more – as well as four Pride-themed banners and a new emote. 

Interestingly, Beatstar was one of the only mobile games that monetized its Pride Month events without indicating that it was donating proceeds to charity. Given the Tour Pass is a regular addition to the game and would have seen a new variation over June regardless, this likely didn’t raise too many eyebrows. Regardless, this is still a notable change-up from last year, when Space Ape openly stated that it would donate some of the profits from the Rainbow Rhythms Tour Pass to the charity Mermaids. 

Other additions to the game for Pride Month included:

• A Pride-themed variation on Beatstar’s Beat Chaser Events, where players collected event points from songs in their collection and played for new seasonal cosmetics. The rewards for this latest variant included a new Pride avatar icon and a Pride 2024 Pop alternative track skin.
• For $3.99, the Happy Pride Month gacha offered up to three random songs from a 21-song offer pool, 100 premium currency gems, and 20 minutes of Unlimited Play (enables playing songs even after all of the rewards unlock slots are full). The 21 songs again highlighted LGBT artists, like Lady Gaga and Years and Years.
• A seasonal competition event, Pride Deluxe Dash Plus, saw players compete in a timed points competition in specific event songs. Winners unlocked Deluxe Cards (used to unlock higher-difficulty songs) and Pride Month-themed cosmetics. 
• Players could claim a free Billie Eilish song, Bad Guy, between 26 and 30 June.

Comic-book Pride: Marvel Contest of Champions & Marvel Strike Force

Two popular mobile games based on the Marvel IP launched seasonal events themed around Pride Month. Starting with Marvel Strike Force, this turn-based RPG launched a three-day-long scavenger hunt called Coming Out!, where players needed to find and collect two unique pride items (the “Red Pride Stone” and “Yellow Pride Stone”) hidden within the game. 

The event itself was scored, with players earning points after successfully finding the hidden items within a given time limit. Players received various rewards after successfully accruing enough points – including character shards, silver promotion credits, orb fragments, and crimson gear. While the event was arguably small-scale compared to some seasonal events,  the game made it seem larger than it actually was by hiding the items within existing missions that featured LGBTQ+ Marvel characters.

The other title to launch a notable Pride-themed event was the Marvel Contest of Champions fighting game. Much like the event in Strike Force, the 30-day Pride is for Everyone event cleverly recycled existing content to pull together an engaging seasonal update.

In this event, players could earn progression points by using and/or obtaining one of the 19 existing LGBTQ+ playable Marvel characters within the game – such as Deadpool, Ice Man, Star Lord, and Wiccan. One of the key ways to earn progression points was by winning ranked matches while using one of these characters, which meant they became a trendy choice for players throughout Pride Month. 

After reaching certain point thresholds, players unlocked various event-limited avatar frames and Icons themed around Pride Month, such as the Born This Way Title.

Wider Pride Month events on mobile (and beyond!)

While we felt these four takes at bringing Pride Month to mobile gaming fans were particularly notable, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention some of the many other titles that launched Pride-themed seasonal updates:

• Call of Duty (PC & Console) launched a pride-themed weapon skins pack for Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone that was free for all players throughout June.
• Subway Surfers partnered with Skate Like a Girl, introducing Riley, a new gender-fluid character, and custom skateboards featuring LGBTQIA+ community flags.
• In another comic book Pride Month update, Marvel Move got a new event featuring artwork from Marvel comics star Luciano Vecchio and indie writer Dr Nemo Martin. 
• The official game based on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Superstar, added the show’s Season 14 winner Willow Pill for Pride Month.
• Highrise launched two charity bundles with an exclusive Giving Pride Profile Background and Loves Embrace Shirt. All profits were donated to a nonprofit supporting LGBTQIA+ youth. 
• Overwatch 2 launched a new comic diving into the diverse backstory of one of its characters, Venture. Players could also unlock a new Venture skin, compete on a Pride-themed map variant where rainbow confetti fell from the sky, and catch streams from prominent LGBTQ+ creators.

Understanding what makes a great Pride event

It’s fair to say that many games are getting involved in Pride celebrations, but what’s perhaps less clear is judging how successful they’ve been. Usually, when reviewing seasonal events, determining which are the best is simply a case of looking at which titles saw significant performance spikes. However, that’s not possible as most items can be accessed for free or donate profits to good causes (which may also explain why many Pride events are built around existing content, which likely limits much of the development cost).

Instead, understanding what makes a great in-game Pride Event is less about number crunching and more about finding ways to celebrate inclusivity and enabling players to express themselves. By virtue of positive association, that will build trust with your player base and ultimately lead your game towards a brighter (and more diverse) future.

With all that in mind, based on the titles we’ve just discussed, here are a few key things to keep in mind if you’re considering launching your Pride-themed events in the future:

• Share the Love: Pride is about celebrating inclusivity rather than profiteering. If you are considering including IAP as part of a Pride Event, consider giving back to the community by donating your profits to good causes.
• Cosmetic Items Are an Easy Win: Many people like to be allowed to express their individuality in-game or to show their support for friends and family. Consider launching Pride-themed variants of fan-favorite items or, if applicable, offering additional customization options for your game’s LGBT characters.
• Look at Existing Content: Marvel’s Strike Force and Contest of Champions made their seasonal events appear much more significant than they actually were by focusing on content featuring popular LGBT Marvel characters. Consider how you can shine the spotlight on more diverse aspects of your own title.
• Pride Updates Can Go beyond Games Themselves: Many games and studios take their Pride celebrations beyond the confines of their titles, expanding the backstory of popular characters or launching initiatives that LGBT+ players can get involved with.
• Play it Safe: The LGBTQIA+ community has historically faced a lot of oppression, which continues in certain parts of the world today. Make sure that any updates you launch are respectful, positive, and aren’t insensitive in any way.

If you enjoyed reading this blog post, here are a few more you should check out:

• Drive-Up Your Revenues with Seasonal Events
• BarbieOps: How Mobile Games Are Using Blockbuster Movies to Boost Engagement
• What We Can Learn About LiveOps From the 2024 Mobile Gamedev Award Winners

The post How Pride Month Was Celebrated on Mobile in 2024 appeared first on GameRefinery.

June also saw several significant updates launch in the casual market, including a new competitive take on Monopoly GO! ‘s Partner events. The interactive story game Chapters also launched an unusual limited-time game mode that combined aspects of dating apps with its regular gameplay loop. At the same time, NYT Games: Word and Sudoku saw a massive 200% increase in daily US revenue from a half-price sale on subscriptions. 

Over on the midcore side, much of the attention was placed on seasonal events that tied into Pride Month. Highlights included Marvel Strike Force and Marvel Contest of Champions launching separate pride-themed events that spotlighted LGBT comic book heroes, as well as Beatstar’s dedicated Pride Month-themed battle pass Love Spectrum.

You can find more information about the biggest mobile game updates, developments, and game launches from June below.

June’s casual game updates

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Monopoly GO! ‘s Partner Events. After all, we named them the Casual Market’s Best Social Event in our Mobile GameDev 2024 Awards. But in June, Scopely took these to an all-new level by creating a competitive spinoff, Tycoon Racers (which also marked Monopoly GO! ‘s first new event mechanic of 2024). 

Tycoon Racers follows a similar structure and mechanics to the original partner events, just with more of a competitive focus:

• The event begins with a “build your team” phase where players can receive and send team-up invites to friends and suggested players with a similar in-game progression. 
• Each team must race to collect as many progression points as possible by pressing a Pop-o-Matic style dice popper using event currency – earned by simply playing the game (rolling dice, progressing in other events, etc.).
• As players earn progression points, their team races around a track. Whichever team collects the most points before time runs out (each race lasts a day) wins. 
• Players receive rewards based on their team’s ranking. The winning teams receive large amounts of dice rolls and a Wild Card.

Monopoly GO! also added its first Piggy Bank event alongside Tycoon Racers. In this event, each time a player rolled a double during regular gameplay, they would deposit a dice roll into their Piggy Bank. These Piggy Banks could each hold a certain number of dice rolls based on the player’s overall progression level. Players could draw from the Piggy Bank for free once it was full, or pay a small, real-world fee to dip into their savings pot early.

Gossip Harbor added a new minigame event with a thinking core themed around painting pottery. In Clay Color Combos, players must use energy to collect paint jars (effectively event points) and then figure out how to arrange them on an event-specific game board to earn rewards. ​Prizes included merge item generators (which provide either a choice of merge item or a random one), energy, and collectible cards for the concurrent seasonal collectibles album event.

If that all sounds relatively familiar, that’s because Clay Color Combos is similar to Royal Match’s Magic Cauldron event from last September.

Chapters added a limited-time game mode that combined aspects of dating apps into the title’s regular interactive story gameplay.

In Chat & Date, players could match or unmatch with multiple virtual characters, similar to how you would in most dating apps, by swiping left or right. When players found a match, they could start chatting with them. In conversation, players chose from multiple predetermined options to answer, with some answers requiring premium currency. 

After some chatting, the player could go on a date with a match. This is when the event reverted to Chapters’ regular gameplay, with players customizing their avatars and following a short, interactive storyline. Matches also occasionally sent the player photos and voice messages, unlocked by spending premium currency. Players could also go to a dedicated collectible album view to see how many pictures and voice messages they had obtained and how many dates they had completed.

Since it first appeared as Lava Quest in Royal Match, the social win streak has become one of the most commonly encountered event types in the casual market, appearing in numerous top-grossing titles. Late June saw another prominent title jump on the bandwagon, Rovio’s Angry Birds Dream Blast.

In River Rush, players are put into groups and must beat a specific number of consecutive levels before reaching the destination to earn rewards. The twist is that when players reach the destination, instead of the winners sharing an equal amount of soft currency (as in other social win streak events), they each get to pick one reward, which is then removed from the prize pool. This means players are encouraged to beat levels as fast as possible so they don’t miss out on the best prizes, making it into an actual competition.

Additional casual gaming highlights and other news

NYT Games: Word and Sudoku saw an over 200% increase in daily revenue in the US on June 9 following a half-price sale (which is still active) on monthly and annual subscriptions. 

A paid subscription gives you access to additional features and content in all the games playable within the NYT Games app. For example, in Spelling Bee, free users can only access today’s puzzle, while paid users can access the entire history of past puzzles. Additionally, the daily crossword, which is arguably the main draw for most users, is only available to subscribers.

A new mobile installment in the Uta no Prince-sama series, a multimedia franchise that began life as a rhythm game for the PlayStation Portable, launched in Japan last month and spent several days at the top of the download ranks. Uta no Prince-sama: LIVE EMOTION also peaked at 15 in the grossing ranks. The game has since fallen out of the top 100 but is maintaining a steady pace overall.

In terms of gameplay, Uta no Prince-sama: LIVE EMOTION is a fairly standard offering in the rhythm genre, with players tapping to the beat of the background music. It only features four tappable nodes, making it somewhat more accessible than other rhythm titles on the Japanese market. Live Emotion follows the previous Uta no Prince-Sama mobile title, Shining Colors, which did well for years but has now dropped off the charts.

Netease released a new AR/Location-based game in Japan based on the Onmyoji IP, Onmyo Hyakki Monogatari GO. The game features turn-based RPG battles and a focus on local folklore characters. Players can level up their characters by going on walks and exploring their neighborhoods.

Games with location-based mechanics like Monster Hunter Now and Pokémon GO are prevalent in Japan, with around five or six currently populating the grossing top 200. Despite this, Onmyo Hyakki Monogatari GO has only seen a moderate level of performance since its launch and has since fallen out of the top-grossing 200 entirely.

June’s midcore game updates

As we approach the Summer period, it’s common for many game developers and studios to take a short break from the demands of maintaining a live events schedule. However, while June may be light on major midcore updates, there were a noticeable number of seasonal events themed around Pride Month across several popular titles:

• Players could earn a Pride-themed banner, icon, and chest item in League of Legends: Wild Rift by completing certain limited-time missions.
• Beatstar themed its latest battle pass around Pride Month, highlighting LGBT artists such as Lady Gaga and Elton John. There was also a task event and a limited-time gacha offer.
• Marvel Strike Force’s Coming Out! event saw players participating in a Pride-themed scavenger hunt to unlock character shards, credits, and other rewards. The event took place over three days, during which players had to find and collect two unique pride items hidden throughout the game. 
• Marvel Contest of Champions launched Pride Is For Everyone, a task event that required players to obtain, level up, or win battles using LGBTQ+ Marvel characters like Black Cat and Star-Lord to progress. Earning enough progression points unlocked exclusive Pride-themed icons and frames.
• Call of Duty (PC & Console) launched a pride-themed weapon skins pack for Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone. The pack was free for all players throughout June.

Additional midcore gaming highlights and other news

Chinese mega-hit Honor of Kings launched for the second time in the West following its previous attempt some years ago under the name Arena of Valor. While Arena of Valor wasn’t a failure as such, it didn’t have the same monumental impact that Honor of Kings has had in China, where it has generated over $15.6 billion in lifetime revenue. We imagine that developer Level Infinite hoped that launching the rebranded version would act as something of a reset and give the game a second chance in the region. 

The new version of Honor of Kings made a significant splash at its US launch on June 22, debuting at five in downloads and 98 in the grossing ranks. However, the game’s popularity quickly waned. By July 1, just one week after its release, it had dropped out of the top 200 in both categories.

Alongside Honor of Kings, Level Infinite also launched a new MMORPG last month called Tarisland. It features incredibly high production values and has crossplay with PC.

MMORPGs have struggled to succeed in the Western mobile market historically, and this title appears to be no exception. At launch on 21 June, the game was placed at six in downloads and 163 in the grossing ranks. Just five days later, on 26 June, it completely dropped out of the top 200 titles in both ranks. The game has also followed a similar downward pattern in China, suggesting that there may be more at fault here than simply regional taste.

After being in soft launch for several years, Zynga’s Star Wars: Hunters has officially been released worldwide. Given the prolific studio behind it and the popularity of the Star Wars IP, it should come as no surprise that the game made a substantial splash after its official global launch, reaching grossing rank 77 and download rank 1. However, since the initial hype died down, the game has been on a steady decline and has fallen out of the top 200 rankings.

An unusual new strategy game, Beast Lord: New World, was launched in China, where players assume the role of a lord in a post-apocalyptic world. They must gather and train various animals, build alliances, and manage resources to ensure their survival. It’s possibly the first Lion King-themed Strategy game to enter the mobile market worldwide. 

In terms of performance, the game is currently holding steady, currently ranking around 50 in downloads and between 30 to 40 in the grossing ranks.

The post Analyst Bulletin: Mobile Game Market Review June 2024 appeared first on GameRefinery.

But it wasn’t just game launches that impressed last month; there were also some significant updates to existing titles. Both AFK Journey and Last War: Survival debuted their inaugural Season, with the latter’s Crimson Plague sparking a gradual surge in downloads that peaked at an astonishing increase of over 400%. Over in the world of battle royale, Free Fire pitted gangsters against agents in a new Outlaw mode that appeared to take heavy inspiration from Roblox’s Jailbreak.

There were some notable collaboration events, too. LEGO Fortnite celebrated Star Wars Day by launching an expansive new map area for players to explore, complete with its first-ever battle pass. Clash of Clans meanwhile joined forces with the Norwegian football star Erling Haaland, kicking off its latest season with a range of football-themed challenges, rewards, and other exciting additions. 

Keep reading to learn more about the biggest updates, developments, and hottest new titles that were launched across the mobile market last month. 

May’s casual mobile game updates

Matchington Mansion looked to Playrix’s Scapes series for its next match-up, introducing a merge2 minigame called Picnic Potluck that works almost exactly the same as a similar event type added to Homescapes in late 2022. 

Picnic Potluck revolves around a closed, merge2 board where players must strategically combine different items to fulfill food orders and collect Merge Tokens – which move the player through a reward ladder that unlocks various goodies, including exclusive Delicious Dessert furniture decorations. 

The mode features several mechanics that will be familiar to most merge game fans, such as the ability to use Merge Energy (which replenishes over time but can also be earned through regular gameplay or acquired through IAP) to generate more merge pieces for the board by tapping on Item Generators. There are also different merge chains, bubble piece offers, skipping timers, and a dedicated shop offering a variety of useful merge items.

While merge2 events like this are commonly encountered in more complex match3 games (especially those with a story-based meta), it’s rare to see them in heavy hitters like Royal Match, Candy Crush, and Toon Blast. These more popular titles typically target casual players, meaning they lean towards straightforward gameplay and simple, easy-to-understand event mechanics that don’t require a significant amount of resources to develop.

Meanwhile, Triple Match 3D added a new permanent win-streak system. Beating five main levels one after the other now activates a Meteor Strike that automatically destroys 21 junk items at the start of each new level. Once activated, the strikes continue until the player fails a level, encouraging them to invest in IAP – which includes continues and extra moves that help to ensure a streak lasts for as long as possible. 

This loss aversion-based win streak system bears a similar logic to Royal Match’s Super Lightball, which resulted in a moderate uptick in revenues. Matchington Mansion Picnic Potluck Event

Merge Mansion’s Secret Supply minigame event swapped out the game’s usual merge grid for an arcade machine that combines elements of the casino and merge genres. Pulling the arcade machine causes one of several items to drop: when two or more matching items align, they merge and reward the player with points. Some items are worth more than others, so players must hope they’ll be lucky enough to get a valuable match.

Players are limited as to how much they can use the arcade machine. After so much use, the machine “overheats” and requires a Mystery Token to be reactivated. These tokens regenerate automatically after a certain period, although players can speed up the process through IAP.

While Secret Supply may motivate players who enjoy the thrill of chance and fast-paced action, it’s arguably less appealing to Merge Mansion’s core puzzle-solving audience.

As we touched on in our last bulletin, sticker collection events are appearing across more and more casual games following the success of Monopoly GO!. That trend seems set to continue, with Royal Match being the latest title to get stuck in.

Royal Match’s limited-time collection event is remarkably similar to Monopoly GO!’s implementation, with players collecting cards from packs earned from other events and chests awarded after completing meta-renovation areas. Each event iteration consists of multiple albums to complete (each requiring specific cards), with players unlocking an in-game reward for completing each album. Those who acquire every album also get a unique Royal Badge next to their name to show their achievement. 

Interestingly, this isn’t Royal Match’s first experience with collection mechanics. This limited-time event actually replaces a previously permanent collection mechanic that had been in place for some time. In the old event, albums were simply unlocked after reaching specific levels in the main progression and weren’t time-limited, so there was less incentive to rush. The newer version also introduces the ability to donate cards to your friends, encouraging players to trade to complete their collections.

Additional casual game highlights and other news

Gakuen Idolmaster (学園アイドルマスター ) danced its way into the top-grossing 10 in Japan, peaking at the top spot for multiple days. In the game, players manage and train their own group of idols, building personal connections with each character through a story-driven experience built around high-quality visuals and cinematic concerts. It’s based on the popular Idolmaster multimedia franchise, renowned for its rhythm games and anime series.

Gakuen Idolmaster shares many similarities with Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (ウマ娘 プリティーダービー). Uma Musume dominated as the top-grossing game in Japan between 2021 to 2022 and continues to maintain a strong, sustained ranking around 15th place.

Another game that got Japan moving to the beat last month was Break My Case (ブレイクマイケース), which spent most of the month in the top-grossing 100 (peaking at 32). In this musical match3 game, matched icons disappear only when a line that’s synchronized to the beat passes through them. Each match also produces sounds that harmonize with the stage’s soundtrack. The game’s meta focuses on collecting and upgrading a roster of attractive male characters.

May’s midcore game updates

The 4X strategy game Last War: Survival launched its first-ever in-game season, The Crimson Plague, which will last approximately eight weeks. Each week reveals new world dynamics and milestones that reward all server players upon completion. All players and their allies were also randomly relocated to the edge of the world map at the start of the season.

One of the most interesting additions to these seasons is the Professional Hall, where players can view and study different professions and skills. For example, the Engineer can optimize production to boost resource efficiency and strengthen allies​, while the War Leader can enhance troop combat effectiveness. Players need Professional EXP to level up their profession, earned by killing monsters, capturing cities, and upgrading buildings.

This first season also introduced several new approaches to in-game monetization, including a purchasable weekly subscription (including daily gifts and seasonal gameplay boosts) and two different task-based seasonal battle passes. This update, largely considered the biggest in the game’s history, caused a notable uptick in performance. Most notably, daily downloads began to spike on 23 May, peaking at a 400+% increase on 27 May.

But Last War wasn’t the only prominent mobile title to embrace Seasons in May. AFK Journey also launched its inaugural limited-time Season, Song of Strife, which will run until September. Similar to 4X strategy games, progress will be reset at the end of the season. 

The season is only available to players who have maxed out their characters to level 240 and completed the main story, as well as all AFK Stages. It comes with seasonal upgrade mechanics, a new storyline, battle mechanics, tasks, and in-game purchases – including a battle pass, gachas, and a paid progression plan.

We’ve gotten used to heading to a galaxy far, far away each May, with numerous games launching collaboration events every year to celebrate Star Wars Day (4 May). This year’s intergalactic standout had to be LEGO Fortnite’s Rebel Adventure (playable through the main Fortnite App on all available platforms), which introduced an expansive new map area for players to explore based on the Star Wars universe. 

In the new area, players are tasked with helping the Rebels settle in the world of LEGO Fortnite by collecting resources, building an Outpost, and defeating enemies found in “Imperial Bunkers.” The event added various new items, including building blueprints and iconic weapons (such as lightsabers and Stormtrooper’s blaster rifles). Many of these items are expected to remain available long after the event concludes.

The collaboration also introduced the first-ever LEGO Fortnite Battle Pass, the Rebel Adventure, which features a Free and Premium tier. Those who opt for the paid upgrade automatically receive a Chewbacca outfit and access to more cosmetic rewards. 

Free Fire introduced the Outlaw mode, a limited-time PvP experience in which players must decide whether to be agents or gangsters. Both roles ultimately result in the player earning in-game currency, just in slightly different ways. Agents are tasked with apprehending gangsters, with each successful capture generating a reward, while gangsters aim to steal valuables and cash them in at designated points across the map.

Unlike most modes in Free Fire (and battle royale games generally), Outlaw is a neverending mode with no time limit. Players can leave the mode without penalty whenever they wish (taking any earned cash and unlocked vehicles with them) and jump back in at their leisure. The mode is very similar to one of the most popular Roblox games, Jailbreak.

With the UEFA Euro 2024 Championships on the horizon, Clash of Clans aimed to capitalize on the football fever by launching a major collaboration event with renowned sports star Haaland for its latest seasonal update.

Highlights included Haaland’s Challenge, a month-long event in which a new football-themed challenge map was unlocked every two days. The challenge maps had players engaging in battles to destroy a specially themed base using a pre-selected roster of units, unlocking exclusive football-themed decorations on completion. Challenge attempts were also ranked on competitive leaderboards, with gems (in-game currency) rewarded to the best players.

The collaboration also featured a limited-time battle pass, Clash with Haaland, which ran for 17 days and featured both a free and premium tier. Progression through the pass required Footballs, which could be obtained from a dedicated event building and by raiding players’ bases in multiplayer battles. The reward path contained goodies like limited-time troops (Giant Thrower), a limited-time spell (Yellow Card), currencies, boosts, and more.

It’s worth noting that, despite Haaland’s football fame (he was voted the best player in the world by The Guardian in 2023) and the numerous gameplay additions, the collaboration event didn’t appear to drive more revenue or downloads than past seasonal updates.

Additional midcore gaming highlights

Solo Leveling: Arise, an action RPG based on a popular Korean web novel, debuted in the top 10 in the USA and Japan. It’s since started to fall through the US ranks but continues to perform well in Japan. One of the most intriguing aspects of this game is the unique leveling system for the main character, which allows players to allocate points to desired stats after each level-up. Additionally, the game features two distinct combat modes: one exclusively for the main character and another where only side characters can be used.

There was much anticipation for the launch of Genshin Impact-like Wuthering Waves, and, as expected, it sent ripples throughout the market when it finally launched last month: the game rapidly rose to the top 10 download ranks in the US and Japan. 

While the game shares several similarities with MiHoYo’s open-world monolith, it also has some unique mechanics that set it apart. For example, Wuthering Waves has a Pokémon-style monster-collecting feature (which also doubles as the game’s artifact system) where players can capture enemies and use them as skills. The combat also has a lot of depth, with each character offering distinctive gameplay mechanics.

It’s worth noting that many players have voiced concerns about Wuthering Waves’ leveling experience, with developer Kuro Games releasing an apology statement to try to address the situation. Players also received a free 5* character and gacha tokens as part of the apology, which seems to have prevented any detrimental effect on the game’s overall performance.

Squad Busters, Supercell’s latest game, finished its short soft-launch period and entered the global market at the end of May. The game brings together characters from all of Supercell’s titles into a squad-based PvEvP battle arena in which ten players compete to see who can acquire the most gems. It ranked number 1 in downloads and spent the first week in the top-grossing 10, although only time will tell how well the game will perform long-term. 

Dungeon Fighter Online is one of the highest-grossing games ever made, generating more than 22 billion in revenue worldwide over its lifetime. So, when Tencent announced that it was working with Nexon to develop a mobile version of the game, expectations were naturally very high. The game finally launched on 21 May in China and features the same 2D side-scrolling action and RPG elements as the PC version. It appears to have hit the mark, currently resting at the top spot in both the grossing and downloads ranks in China.

The post Analyst Bulletin: Mobile Game Market Review May 2024 appeared first on GameRefinery.

Plenty was going on in the world of Call of Duty, too. Call of Duty: Mobile launched the Challenge HQ, a dedicated menu area that brings together the missions, store, and rewards of the current session, while Warzone Mobile started using gacha mechanics to boost its revenue numbers. Speaking of gacha, League of Legends: Wild Rift launched one so successful that it resulted in the biggest daily revenue spike in the game’s entire history. 

Meanwhile, there was a notable focus on collecting across the midcore and casual sides of the market, with both Gossip Harbor and State of Survival driving engagement by encouraging players to hunt down rare cards to complete sets for rewards and other gameplay boosts. Seasonal events continue to be as important as ever too, with Angry Birds 2 and Stumble Guys looking to Earth Day for a planet-friendly spin on new content.

Read on for the full breakdown of all the biggest mobile game updates, developments, and game launches from April.

April’s casual mobile game updates

Fishdom allowed a limited number of players to test out a new type of casual minigame event that included merge and mining mechanics reminiscent of idlers such as Gold and Goblins. It saw players delving through a series of Emerald Mines, strategically clearing obstacles to unearth a hidden set of Keys used to unlock the “mine gates” and move on to the next, more challenging mine. 

To clear the way, players used Emeralds (the event currency) to generate industrious crabs that mined for them. These crabs could be combined to create higher-level crustaceans capable of clearing obstacles faster. More crabs could also be obtained by beating regular match3 levels. 

The Emerald Mines were also launched alongside a new permanent win-streak system to better engage players and guide them toward the main gameplay levels. Players who clear ten levels now unlock a Super Lightning booster that, once activated, requires maintaining a constant winning streak. The Super Lightning booster is twice as powerful as the regular one, removing two colors instead of one from the playing field.

This win-streak system first appeared in the Royal Match in May 2023, where it had a positive impact on performance. Since then, it has become a trend followed by several puzzle games, including Toon Blast, Toy Blast, and Triple Match 3D.

Filling up a photo album was a retro pastime until Monopoly GO! came along and used it as the basis of a seasonal rotational event, tasking players with completing in-game objectives to fill up their digital stickerbooks. Since then, several prominent titles have jumped on the trend, with the latest addition being Gossip Harbor and the Springtime Keepsakes. 

During this event, players collected cards from the core merge game and concurrent events to complete nine unique card albums. Each completed album granted rewards, and players unlocked a special grand prize upon finishing all nine. Additionally, players earned rewards through duplicate cards: Each card could be traded in for rewards from an event-specific star store, with the value determined by their rarity rating (cards were ranked from one to four).

However, albums weren’t the only trend Gossip Harbour followed during April, as the game also launched its own 1v1 competitive (race) event. In the Galactic Grand Prix, two players faced off in a short race to claim a grand prize. Players were given four thresholds to reach, completed by finishing event-specific orders on the game’s regular merge grid. Completing the orders faster than your opponent earned special boosts that supercharged progress. 

Additional casual game highlights and other news

Performance highlights: Piggy Kingdom

Piggy Kingdom, a casual match3 puzzle game that takes strong inspiration from Dream Games’ super hit Royal Match and its spiritual successor Royal Kingdom (still in soft launch), reached the top 200 grossing. Piggy Kingdom builds on Dream Games’ hits with simple narrative elements, including short dialogue sequences that introduce and close off each new area. Both titles also feature a renovation meta layer. 

The merge and hybrid casual powerhouse

We’ve written a lot in the past about the success of merge games, as well as the continued rise of hybridization. With that in mind, it was very much business as usual in April, with multiple titles from across both genres performing well: 

• Screw Jam by Rollic Games (hybrid casual) hit the top 100 grossing.
• Seaside Escape (merge2) got to the top 50 grossing.
• Adventure Island Merge (merge2) reached the top 200 grossing.

Earth Day Events

Most of the top-grossing mobile games use seasonal events as part of their LiveOps framework, building new content around holidays, religious occasions, and national calendar dates. The usual suspects like Christmas and Halloween are a given, but so are lesser-known events like Earth Day (a global occasion held every year on 22 April since 1970 that aims to highlight the importance of protecting the environment). 

This year’s Earth Day was celebrated in two notable titles on mobile:

• Stumble Guys launched a limited-time gacha, the Earth Day Wheel. Players spun the wheel using gems for a chance to win one of several new planet-themed skins, including Mr Bush, Gaia, and Sir Recyclesalot. 
• Angry Birds 2 launched a new hat collection for Earth Day. This also meant a reskin of its hat event, a unique collection of PvE levels that are only available to players who own a hat from the current exclusive collection. The Earth Day hats were only available from the Tower of Fortune: Healing the World gacha or IAP offers.

April’s midcore game updates

As we highlighted above in Gossip Harbor, a number of casual games have launched collection events as part of their LiveOps strategies. However, that trend seems to have grown so popular that even midcore games are taking note, such as State of Survival. This 4X strategy game launched its own card collection system last month with eight unique sets of cards for players to obtain. Completing a collection (and upgrading the cards within it) unlocks permanent gameplay boosts and other useful items.

Players build up their collection by opening Card Packs, which are available through event rewards or purchasable offers, in a dedicated gacha menu. Players can also obtain specific individual cards by acquiring card shards through normal gameplay. Cards are upgraded by fusing together ten duplicate cards or using Card Fusion Tickets, which are acquired by dismantling unwanted cards.

State of Survival also added a new PvP mode, Doomsday Express, where players send out trucks on timed deliveries across the 4X map. Each delivery takes around four hours, but other players can raid the truck to steal the rewards before it reaches its destination. Each player has four shipping attempts and four raid attempts per day.

Several new additions came to the various iterations of Call of Duty across mobile and other platforms during April. Starting with Call of Duty: Mobile, players gained access to the Challenge HQ. This new area in the game’s menus acts as the “headquarters” for the current season, where players can find all the ongoing missions, earn progression toward milestone rewards, and use Challenge Tokens to redeem rewards from the event store.

Previous seasons in Call of Duty Mobile felt somewhat disconnected, as they were made up of several individual events rather than a cohesive whole. The Challenge HQ addresses this by bringing everything together through a more linear seasonal progression that better incentivizes players. Players now complete missions to earn Challenge EXP, which, in turn, pushes them toward rewards on the Challenge Pass. These rewards include Challenge Tokens, which act as a currency to purchase various items from the Challenge Store.

Meanwhile, only two weeks after the launch of Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile, the game has ramped up its monetization by introducing gachas — likely in direct response to its current performance. These utilize basic box gacha mechanics, meaning the cost to draw rewards increases each time. All the rewards available from these gacha are designed purely for Warzone Mobile, meaning they cannot be used across PC and console. 

Similarly, Call of Duty also started to pursue more aggressive monetization on PC and console last month through the Godzilla x Kong collaboration. The unusual crossover launched with several bundles that utilized a Titan collection mechanic, where the player needed to purchase all the available bundles to get a unique melee weapon. 

Another exclusive addition to Call of Duty on PC and console over April was a tongue-in-cheek seasonal event that capitalized on 420 Day. This included a limited-time platforming mode, G3T_H1GH, where players had to quite literally race to the highest point of a cyberpunk-esque map decorated with digitized marijuana plants.

League of Legends: Wild Rift launched two initiatives to promote a new skin collection, Calligraphia. This included the game’s first-ever Top Up event, Spenders’ Splendorous Gifts, as well as the Legacy of the East limited-time gacha. During the launch of these events on 28 April, the game saw a colossal spike in daily revenue in the US of more than 1800%, propelling it into grossing rank 28 and marking the biggest ever increase in its history. You can read more about the mechanics of these events in our Live Events Tracker. 

War Robots launched the next part of its Echoes of the Past story event, Battle for Ground Zero. Interestingly, this latest addition merges aspects of both single-player and multiplayer content. Players were tasked with collectively destroying a certain number of enemies in the single-player Extermination PvE mode, which then unlocked the new Ground Zero multiplayer PvP map. A special leaderboard was also connected to the event, with players unlocking rewards for hitting certain milestones. 

Additional midcore gaming highlights

Squad Busters

Squad Busters, Supercell’s first new game in five years, has been garnering a ton of attention since it entered soft launch last month. The game is due to launch globally on 29 May, with Supercell already running various promotional campaigns across its other titles  (such as Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Brawl Stars) to drum up hype for the full release. 

Squad Busters is a PvEvP multiplayer battle arena title in which ten players gather a squad of characters (made up of heroes from across Supercell’s portfolio) and compete for gems. Controlling the squad is easy as the characters automatically perform actions when the player is not moving. It’s monetized through gacha, which are opened as match rewards, with drop rates dependent on the player’s current win streak. 

Persona 5: The Phantom X

A mobile spin-off of SEGA and Atlus’ critically acclaimed high-school JRPG series Persona launched exclusively in China last month. Persona 5: The Phantom X was developed by Perfect World and peaked at grossing 18 and download 13, although it has since declined.  

Much like the console installments, The Phantom X is set in modern-day Tokyo and combines social simulation with dungeon crawling. It features new and original characters and is monetized through a gacha system, which players pull to acquire new Personas (in-game monsters you control in battle), and character summons (featuring popular heroes from Persona 5).

Happy Fishing Master

Another game in China that has been reeling in players is Happy Fishing Master (欢乐钓鱼大师), which has been at downloads 1 since its launch on 28 March. Unlike the many “casino-fishing” titles that are popular in the region, Happy Fishing Master is a “real” fishing game that lets players visit unique fishing spots worldwide and catch over 200 types of aquatic creatures. 

The game looks to capture the same feeling of relaxation that comes from fishing in real life but with a few added surprises, like big catches and broken fishing rods. Happy Fishing Master is the first purely fishing title our analysts have ever seen to top the charts in China.

AFK Journey

The Idle RPG hit AFK Journey kept going strong in the top 40 for all of April, peaking in the top 10. One thing to note is that the game didn’t have any substantial updates during that time and instead managed to maintain its performance thanks to the idle mechanics slowing down the player’s character upgrades. The players are also divided across a multitude of servers, which gives them a little extra motivation to push for top spots on the game’s leaderboards.

The post Analyst Bulletin: Mobile Game Market Review April 2024 appeared first on GameRefinery.

Meanwhile, in more positive news for IP adaptations, Farlight Games has landed itself a breakout hit with the sequel-slash-spin-off to AFK Arena, AFK Journey, fueled by an innovative character upgrade system and an extensive launch campaign that pushed it high up both the grossing and download ranks on the US iOS market. Within just seven days of launch, the game reportedly earned over $2.5 million in sales.

But March wasn’t just a notable month for new releases; there were also some standout collaboration events, including a mega-crossover between Angry Birds and Sonic the Hedgehog spanning five different games—marking Sega’s first major flex since its acquisition of Rovio. We can’t forget the prominence of social features either, with two highly successful games from tactical midcore genres incorporating social hangout areas for the first time. 

Read on for the full lowdown on all the biggest mobile game updates, developments, and game launches from March. 

March’s casual mobile game updates

Royal Match likes to keep things fresh with new minigame types, and last month saw the arrival of yet another exciting addition. Duke’s Fortune is a slot machine-themed minigame that puts a new spin on the core gameplay loop. 

During the event, players earn tokens for completing core match3 levels, which can be used to spin the Duke’s Fortune Slot Machine. If their spin lands on a row of matching icons, they’ll earn Golden Bones (event progression points). Various rewards, such as coins and boosters, are unlocked as players build up their collection of Golden Bones. Players can adjust the amount of tokens they put into the machine to increase their chances of a match. 

Duke’s Fortune first appeared on 22 March as a three-day-long event and has since come back every weekend to entice players. It seems to have replaced one of Royal Match’s previous minigames, Magic Cauldron, likely in an effort to increase the variety of gameplay, tap into new motivations, and capture a broader array of players.

When news first spread that Rovio and its Angry Birds were making their nest in the home of gaming’s most iconic spiky speedster, SEGA, we all knew it was only a matter of time before a mega collaboration event. On 14 March, that finally took flight with a five-game crossover that included Sonic Forces, Sonic Dash, Angry Birds 2, Angry Birds Friends, and Angry Birds Dream Blast.

Angry Birds 2 had the most success out of the five titles, with daily iOS revenue in the US spiking by more than 150%. Angry Bird’s 2 Sonic crossover revolved around Sonic Friends Hats, which opened up access to a limited-time PVE mode. The hats could only be acquired through IAP or a gacha called the Tower of Fortune (which only granted one free draw a day), meaning most players likely had to pay to access the new content. All players could also use Sonic’s iconic spin ability once a day while playing through the main campaign levels. 

The rest of the titles in this multi-game collaboration event saw only a minor impact on their performance, although the updates themselves added some exciting additions. For example, Angry Birds Dream Blast replaced its classic race mode, Chuck’s Flash Race, with Sonic’s Flash Race, a one-day race event where players are matched into a group of seven players. Here, the players raced to complete 15 levels as quickly as possible, with the three fastest players getting in-game rewards.

Collaborations in hybrid-casual games are relatively uncommon on mobile, so it was a surprise to see Mob Control (which consistently ranked within the top GR 200 last year) launch a large crossover with Hasbro’s Transformers franchise last month. 

The collaboration was split into two parts. The first half was the Transformers Season Battle Pass, which came with a free and premium reward track. Both reward tracks featured the same prizes, including blueprints based on Bumblebee (one of Transformer’s most iconic characters), but the premium track awarded currency, XP, and other resources in much larger quantities. Buying the premium pass also removed all forced ads during the season. 

The second half was a solo mission event called Echoes From Cybertron, where players progressed through a six-part storyline showcasing Bumblebee’s heroics. But to access the missions, players required Energon, a unique event currency that could only be collected by sending the player mobs through special Energon structures during normal gameplay. To speed up the process, players could buy the Energon Booster pack, which multiplied all Energon gathered by two.

Stumble Guys revamped its Battle Pass, ditching the traditional free and premium double track combo to a single reward track that allows players to choose the order in which they unlock rewards using a dedicated currency. While this is fairly unique to mobile, many titles on PC and console, including the likes of Fortnite and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, use a similar mechanic for their battle passes. You can find more information about this in our Live Events Tracker, which now includes data on a selection of PC and console titles. 

As has become the norm for Stumble Guys, a new battle pass also meant yet another collaboration event. This time, the crossover was with the popular tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), which saw players running and climbing away from an approaching trap wall to avoid being eliminated from the competition. There were also various D&D-themed items up for grabs, such as a D20 Emote, as battle pass rewards and through IAP bundles.

Additional casual game highlights and other news

• Matching Story, a hybrid match3 and merge game from JoyCastle, hit the top 200 grossing scaling during March.

March’s midcore game updates

One of the most notable trends in the midcore market last month was the rise of social hangout areas, particularly in less traditional genres. A case in point is the 4X strategy game State of Survival, which introduced an “Alliance Hall” for its guild system.

Players are free to explore this area as an avatar based on one of the game’s heroes. They can hang out with other players and interact with them through various emotes and set phrases, and also participate in minigames in the bar-themed space. Completing these minigames will earn materials, which can also be pooled with other members of the alliance to purchase decorations to further customize the Alliance Hall.

Another title to join the party was the auto-battle RPG CookieRun: Kingdom, which launched a hangout area called the Town Square. While in the square, players can chat with each other, showcase their preferred character and skin, clear simple tasks and events, and obtain boosts based on how long they hang around. There are also recurring task events taking place every two hours, where players must work together to complete a simple objective.

It wasn’t just within these hangout areas where we encountered innovative new social features. Last month, many titles also began incorporating community-building aspects into their monetization offers. 

For example, in PUBG Mobile, players could pay a small premium currency fee to form a group to get a special discount on the Yoga Bunny Set. Up to ten players could join the group, and the discount increased based on the number of members. Joining or creating a group also unlocked the limited-time Dark Bunny set as an additional bonus, so there was plenty of encouragement for players to team up. 

State of Survival used a similar concept for its Alliance Top-Up offer. While this was active, alliance (or guild) members could purchase special top-up bundles that generated top-up points for the entire community. If the guild managed to accumulate enough points within the allotted time, every member received a special set of rewards (which included upgrade items and cosmetic crates).

Meanwhile, War Robots launched an innovative puzzle event that required players to step outside the confines of the game world. Echoes of the Past: Chasing Anomalies featured a detective-themed augmented reality game (ARG) that tasked players with solving puzzles and deciphering passwords in the real world. In doing so, players were rewarded with clues needed to complete missions in Echoes of the Past.

Completing these missions, in turn, unlocked more clues for the ARG – meaning players were moving back and forth between the two systems. Chasing Anomalies is just one part of the ongoing Echoes of the Past event series, which also has its own dedicated event gacha, battle pass, IAP offers, and more. 

Additional midcore gaming highlights

Farlight and Lilith Games’ AFK Journey, a sequel slash spin-off of AFK Arena, has been performing exceptionally well since it launched last month, peaking at grossing 15 in April and number two in downloads on the US iOS market. Much of this success was due to an extensive marketing campaign that included mobile ads, a fan art contest with real-life prizes, pre-commissioned artworks by various artists, and even a theme song released to streaming services.

Farlight and Lillith Games’ have also built up a solid reputation among players, with their past tiles AFK Arena and Dislyte offering a strong LiveOps cadence, varied gameplay, and a distinct lack of in-game ads. That user-centric approach likely encouraged many players to try out this new title before it even released, similar to how games from established studios like Supercell and MiHoYo build up hype purely due to brand recognition.

The title itself is an Idle RPG with an auto-battle core and features crossplay with PC (where players can also access an external webstore). While AFK Journey has a large number of heroes for players to choose from, users only need to level up five characters to progress. Any remaining heroes automatically catch up to the fifth strongest character, making it easy to switch out your team and mix up the gameplay. 

AFK Journey also offers players a lot of variety, with expansive areas to explore, engaging puzzles, and strategic battles, which aids retention as it means there’s always something new to see and do. Its presentation is also exceptionally high-quality, with a unique hand-drawn art style and fully voiced cutscenes. In terms of monetization, AFK Journey targets high spenders by tying upgrade materials to the “AFK level,” incentivizing early investment. 

Call of Duty: Warzone finally launched on mobile last month on 21 March and continues to hold the number one spot in downloads. The shooter peaked at grossing 30 in the US iOS market, but revenues have been declining since launch. The game is still holding in the top 100 grossing but has fallen far below Call of Duty: Mobile, which has sat comfortably in the top ten since its launch five years ago. 

It’s worth noting that (at least, for now) Call of Duty: Mobile has a much larger content cadence and event framework than Warzone Mobile. The two titles also use wildly different monetization models, with COD Mobile focusing on limited-time gachas, while Warzone Mobile follows the PC and console model with direct purchase bundles (although has just introduced its first gacha). That, mixed with its established player base, might explain why Warzone is struggling to take off in the same way. The shooter genre, and particularly the battle royale subgenre, is also especially competitive – which can make it challenging for new titles to break through.  

In terms of features, Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile has all the marks of the blockbuster FPS franchise, including tight controls and explosive firefights. This mobile iteration brings back the much-loved Verdansk map, which the console and PC version of the game originally launched with. Warzone Mobile shares its Battle Pass plan, player progression (player and weapon ranks), and cosmetics with the PC and console versions.

The launch of Warzone Mobile was promoted with the Operation: Day Zero event, during which PC and console players were encouraged to download the mobile iteration for exclusive rewards across all versions. For a full breakdown of Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile’s live events calendar, head to our Live Events Tracker.

Last, but not least, it’s been an exceptionally busy time for Seasonal Events, with many games taking advantage of Easter, Ramadan, International Women’s Day, and even April Fool’s Day. Highlights included:

• Stumble Guys’ Girl Power Event, which included a selection of randomized levels “voted on by ladies.”
• Gardenscapes’ Fuzzy Season Golden Ticket, a Battle Pass rewarding an assortment of Easter and rabbit-themed cosmetic items.

CookieRun Kingdom’s G1ng3rbr4v3(?) ‘s OpurraSHun OvnBrk, an April Fool’s event where players had to tap sides of the screen to balance the cookie character and keep them from falling.

The post Analyst Bulletin: Mobile Game Market Review March 2024 appeared first on GameRefinery.

For the first time, developers and marketers have access to a tool that bridges the gap between mobile, PC, and console analytics. Our updated Live Events Tracker offers an in-depth look at the impact of live events across popular games on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

Now with Live Events intelligence across platforms, you can build a detailed perspective of what fuels player engagement, delve into event narratives, the integration and monetization of intellectual properties (IPs), detailed monetization mechanics like Battle Passes and limited-time shops, and gameplay mechanics.

The Live Events Tracker includes a detailed analysis of the following: 

• Event overview and a breakdown of any narrative, story, and scenario elements 
• How IP is being integrated and monetized in live events 
• Monetization mechanics such as battle passes, subscription plans, limited-time shops and currency, ad implementation, and in-app purchases (IAPs)
• Gameplay mechanics such as new game modes, implementation, and how they’re accessed 

Behind this innovation is our dedicated team of in-house analysts, who monitor the latest events and provide detailed, daily updates on all aspects of live events, supported with screenshots and event descriptions. This enables video game companies to understand what resonates with players – critical for developers who may not have experience on all current platforms.

“With user acquisition costs soaring, live events are the key to building a loyal player base and maximizing revenue,” comments Brendan Fraher, General Manager at GameRefinery, a Liftoff Company. “However, the lack of reliable, cross-platform data has made it incredibly difficult for studios to understand what truly drives event success. It’s like navigating without a map – lots of effort with uncertain results. 

“GameRefinery empowers developers to make informed, data-driven decisions. Our Live Events Tracker reveals not only which mechanics resonate but also how they perform differently across all platforms. With this knowledge, studios can tailor events for maximum impact, transforming live ops into a powerful growth engine.”

Contact our sales team about how your GameRefinery package can be upgraded to include access to all our live event data!

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Jumping from monetization to engagement, Playrix continues on its track of beefing up the minigame event experience, with Homescapes adding a new tournament-style event to support a larger exploration event in February. And speaking of in-game events, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang saw huge download and revenue spikes from its collaboration with Attack on Titan, where players could unlock special event currency by watching scenes from the anime and correctly answering quiz questions afterward. 

There were plenty of surprises on the new game front in February, too. Notably the Japanese launch of idle RPG Mushroom Legend: The Hero and the Magic Lamp. It’s been a hit with players, so much so that it reached a top-grossing and download position of #2 in the Japanese charts. Its comparisons with Legend of the Slime and a major UA campaign featuring gravure [glamour] Idol Umi Shinonome has some of the answers… 

You can find more on the above, as well as deeper dives into the biggest events and updates from the mobile game world in February 2024, below. 

February’s casual mobile game updates

The PvP-focussed match3 title, Match Masters, launched an innovative Subscription Plan in its 4.706 update unlike anything we’ve seen before. The game’s auto-renewing subscription plans (Masters Club) were replaced with a new Premium Pass, activated for seven days by making any real money purchase in the game. Other changes included a new Daily Tasks feature and Legendary Booster, ‘Mixy Meow’.

The game had been scaling highly in downloads before the update in January, but February saw the highest daily revenue spikes in the game’s history, with a 95% increase in revenue per download, according to GameRefinery data. This could be caused by the launch of the new subscription plan as it incentivizes frequent real-money IAPs, catering to a larger number of players than the old subscription plan through its more attractive “price point” that might activate especially low-spending players to purchase more.

SimCity BuildIt has a new ad feature that allows players to activate a factory building by watching rewarded ads. Players can activate the factory for 10 minutes at a time, up to six times a day. As factories are an essential part of the core gameplay, players craft the materials needed for their products by crafting them in the factories. This is the first step in building the city in the game.

Homescapes introduced Call of the Wild, its first-ever tournament-type support event to a larger minigame event, which is also the longest tournament in the game to date. Players needed to clear obstacles and collect event points, Shillings, inside the exploration minigame event, adding competition elements to the minigame experience and further incentivizing energy consumption. The tournament is also two-fold, with shorter three-day personal leagues and a global league lasting for the three-week duration of the exploration event. 

Additional casual game highlights and other news

• In February, there was a notable surge in certain puzzle games rising up the charts. It is interesting to note that none of these are traditional match3 games.
  • Among them, merge2 titles Seaside Escape and Travel Town saw significant boosts, with the latter breaking into the top 20 highest-grossing and top 10 for downloads. 
  • In the hybrid casual genre, Twisted Tangle and Hexa Short continued their upward trajectory in the top-grossing ranks. On the matching game front, Happy Match Cafe experienced steady growth, reaching the top 50 for grossing. 
  • Additionally, Match Masters achieved a milestone by entering the top 100 for grossing, fueled by a substantial revenue increase following its latest update.

February’s midcore game updates

The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Attack on Titan collab included a special event gacha, a bunch of tasks events where players could get collab-themed rewards, and the main event where players watched a small part of the anime and answered a question about the series to win the special event currency, Manga. 

League of Legends: Wild Rift brought the player-loved 2v2v2v2 Arena limited-time mode permanently to the game with Arena Season 1. This unique mode, originally introduced as a limited-time event mode in November, features fast-paced PvP gameplay where four teams of two face off in a battle royale-esque standoff. 

The fights are broken down into several 2v2 rounds in small arenas, with each team having a limited number of lives. Players are restricted to using a limited pool of randomized Champions, adding an element of strategy to the gameplay. The Season 1 of Arena mode is again monetized with Arena Perk Pass offering extra benefits and also introduces a new match-to-match progression layer with Seasonal Augment upgrading. Read full details of the mode in the Live Event tracker.

This is a great example of a good LiveOps strategy by testing a mode as a limited-time event and then reacting to the positive player feedback and sentiment by implementing it as a permanent part of the live event loop with additional features.

Real-time strategy and construction game, Lords Mobile, launched the Pagani Grand Prix invent in collaboration with the Italian supercar brand, Pagani. The collaboration introduced exclusive cosmetic items that could be unlocked using the limited-time event currency Fuels or purchased for real money. The game’s developer and publisher, Chinese studio IGG, also hosted another crossover event with the SNK fighting game Kingdom of Fighters in its 4X title, Doomsday Last Survivor. 

Additional midcore gaming highlights

Sea of Conquest, a new 4X Strategy game released in January 2024 by FunPlus, continues to scale, reaching a top-grossing position of #76 in February. In addition to an interesting marine-themed foundation covering the whole gameplay, the game also features a Fallout Shelter-style base-building meta that is quite unique within this space (Last Fortress: Underground is the only successful 4X title in the top-grossing chart so far that utilizes this base-building meta). 

• Mushroom Legend: The Hero and the Magic Lamp (キノコ伝説：勇者と魔法のランプ) is a new idle RPG similar to Legend of Slime, where you constantly rub a magic lamp which acts as a gacha to unlock better equipment items. It’s not often that new game launches make the top-ten charts in Japan, but Mushroom Legend reached a top-grossing and download position of #2 in the country, supported by its UA campaigns. These included a retweet campaign in collaboration with gravure [glamour] Idol Umi Shinonome cosplaying as a genie to raffle PS5 and Amazon gift cards, and an outdoor campaign featuring a new theme song. Similarly, the game’s global launch performed well, hitting the top-100 highest-grossing and the top-30 in downloads. 

• Our analysts noticed more Cloud versions of games emerging in the Chinese market, allowing players to enjoy the full experience of games without having to download them. At the time of publication, there are four Cloud games in the top-200 downloaded chart and two in the top-200 highest-grossing. 
• Top Heroes (from Top War publisher) launched at the end of Jan and has now almost hit the top 100 grossing (managed to pop in and out of the top 100 in JP)
  • Top Heroes features a very interesting art style and camera direction, which is reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda and other adventure titles than traditional 4X games. These stylistic hybridization features make it feel more like an adventure RPG rather than a 4X game, especially when combined with its immersive storyline where players can freely move a party of five characters in between levels and battles. 

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