MONETIZATION OF BEST MOBILE GAMES

MONETIZATION OF BEST MOBILE GAMES

GLOBAL MOBILE GAMES MARKET TRENDS

The global mobile gaming market has reached $36.9 billion in revenue in 2016, dominating the global gaming industry with a 37% market share, surpassing console gaming (29%) and PC gaming (27%).  And at 21% annual growth mobile gaming is projected to gross over $50 billion in 2019.   And this can all be explained by the global prevalence of smartphones and the rise of the “freemium” business model.

THE FREEMIUM WAY

Freemium is the most popular business model for mobile games, and, if executed well, allows developers to capture all the value available in the market. Non-paying users can be monetized through in-game advertising and of course paying players through in-app purchases (IAP).

A Freemium game is free to download and play, offering optional in-app purchases for a variety of items. Some examples of in-app purchases might be for virtual goods, in-game currency, the ability to unlock levels or items, and more. Players who do not make purchases can still play the game and advertising revenue enables monetization of this group of players too, thus capturing the market value of both paying and non-paying players.

PREVALENCE OF FREEMIUM

Looking only at the Apple App Store, games are currently leading the way at 25% of all downloads. Anecdotally, when browsing the Games section of the App Store or Google Play, you can see that freemium games dominate the various “Featured Games” sections. The Business of Apps has looked at the growth of the in-app purchase model since its introduction in 2011. In-app purchases lead the way at approximately 48% of revenue compared to revenue generated by advertising or purchases of paid games.

TARGET AUDIENCE

According to an earlier survey by Swrve(https://www.swrve.com/), only 1.5% of players made any purchases at all.  And as much as half of those in-app purchases were made by just 0.15% of all players.  Analyzing the demographic by age group can offer vital information to help identify the best monetization strategies. For example, despite younger gamers spending more time playing games, it’s older players who actually make the IAPs. There are lots of theories and explanations for this disparity, but either way, both demographics have their advantages (younger players will see more ads for example) and should be considered when evaluating your game’s monetization model.  With a game with younger appeal, an ad-driven model may be more profitable whereas an IAP-centric approach will likely work better with games that are more attractive to older players.

BEST MONETIZATION STRATEGY FOR MOBILE GAME

In reality, there’s no panacea to that…  For sure, you should start by getting as deep an understanding as you can of your game’s genre & demographic.  That should then allow you to target specific behaviours and apply the most relevant monetization strategies. Some users will spend a lot of money on IAPs to support their gameplay, so it’s not always advisable to show those players interstitial video ads. On the other hand, some players love rewarded video. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution as every game is different.

MONETISATION OF TOP 15 FREEMIUM GAMES

Rank	GAME	PUBLISHER	Daily REVENUE	Average DAILY NEW INSTALLS
1	Clash Royale	Supercell	$1,994,246	41,500
2	Game of War - Fire Age	Machine Zone Inc	$1,495,060	27,900
3	Candy Crush Saga	King	$1,146,561	33,800
4	Star Wars™: Galaxy of Heroes	Electronic Arts	$583,857	26,100
5	Mobile Strike	Epic War Llc	$388,478	67,800
6	Clash of Clans	Supercell	$316,761	29,700
7	Candy Crush Soda Saga	King	$266,115	26,900
8	DoubleDown Casino & Slots – Vegas Slot Machines!	Doubledown Interactive B V	$221,649	9,000
9	Slotomania Casino Slots Games– Vegas Slot Machines	Playtika Ltd	$168,242	20,000
10	MARVEL Contest of Champions	Kabam	$147,131	24,500
11	DRAGON BALL Z DOKKAN BATTLE	Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc	$117,122	16,500
12	Toy Blast	Peak Games	$97,715	30,000
13	Big Fish Casino – Best Vegas Slot Machines & Games	Big Fish Games Inc	$94,845	26,500
14	Pokémon GO	Niantic Inc	$91,187	28,500
15	Summoners War	Com2Us Corp	$87,677	11,000