Gamification mobile games
Applications are big business, and the biggest application business is games. In 2012, Flurry estimates revenue from applications to reach $ 10 billion, where games account for more than 80% of revenue. The free game business model (aka freemium), where consumers download and play the “core loop” of the game for free, but then pay for virtual goods and currency through micro transactions, is the most profitable business model in the new the era of digital distribution. When it comes to using applications on iOS and Android smart devices, consumers spend about 40% of the time on games.
The most successful companies in the new mobile economy, from Electronic Arts to Zynga and from Mobage to Supercell, understand very well the differences in consumer behavior depending on the game genre. This level of understanding greatly influences the strategies for acquiring, maintaining and monetizing a company. In this report, Flurry examines differences in consumer behavior in terms of application usage, preservation, and demography for nine free game genres in mobile games. For this analysis, Flurry used a sample of more than 300 million consumers using iOS and Android games every month. Please note that for uniformity, we only include free editions.
The diagram below shows the “loyalty matrix”, which displays 9 of the best free gaming categories in terms of frequency of use compared to how long consumers continue to use them for a long time. In particular, we apply a 90-day retention rate for categories of applications along the x axis and frequency of use per week along the y axis. We place the “scatterplot” in a rectangular coordinate system with four sectors.
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Sector I represents the “sweet spot” for developers whose games are heavily used by many regular users. A well-thought-out “appointment” theory increases the frequency as users are forced to support the game and progress in it. Social step-by-step games are successful in building an active, loyal user base, offering popular evergreen games used among friends. In terms of revenue, while there is considerable potential for displaying advertisements to consumers who often use applications, slot games and resource management and modeling (known as “Mgmt / Sim”) are usually earned through in-app purchases. However, companies that want to maximize revenue in sector I, extract income from consumers willing to pay through in-app purchases, and then through advertising to those who do not pay.
Sector II is characterized by the most intensive use during a short consumer life cycle, and is occupied exclusively by the “Strategy” genre. This audience is demanding, gaming life cycles are short, and gaming live services must be performed flawlessly. Successful strategy game developers speed up monetization by entering player competition (“Player vs. Player”) and encouraging rapid progress in the game through premium investments. Such a high frequency of use entails the rapid passage of users through the content. For retention, developers must constantly release new content after the first launch of the game.
Sector III also attracts non-regular gaming audiences, but adds the problem of smaller opportunities per week for monetization. The well-documented success of the Card-Battle genre in Asia, and now in Western markets, is more impressive when considering the short timeframes that developers have for managing transactions. Acquiring target users is imperative to avoid the costs associated with large groups of users who quickly leave because of the “hardcore” nature of the content and game mechanics.
Sector IV highlights simple and highly repetitive games that can remain on the user’s game list for years. These evergreen publications may lack the depth needed to generate significant in-app purchases, but enough to generate significant ad impressions over time. In addition to generating large advertising revenue, the large audience of these games can be used to cross-promote more narrowly targeted, but more profitable developer publications.
With the growth of the economy of mobile applications, the complexity of advertising services associated with it will reach the one that is observed on the Internet today. The use of large amounts of data, the ability to select users based on demographic and personal characteristics, and then tracking the effectiveness of such targeting is just beginning to spread (Flurry invested in this area, offering its own services, such as Flurry AppCircle, advertising network, and Flurry Ad Analytics, advertising effectiveness). As developers and application marketing vendors become more savvy, it is better for them to acquire users who are guaranteed to play and pay in their applications. Below, using the same set of games, we look at the age and gender of users by genre.
A brief overview shows that sector I consists mainly of middle-aged women who play games, as we know, with good retention and usage rates.
Sector II shows that men are not covered by the same 40+ average age range as female players. Casino / poker tends to attract older men more.
Sector III is undoubtedly the hottest sector of the mobile gaming market with young male players who prefer mobile games to console games. These young people are hard to attract, but you can earn an amount that will cover the costs and effort associated with the acquisition.
Sector IV shows young women playing games that are more complex gameplay than those who prefer middle-aged women. While the youngest users enjoy a fast self-paced game in the Endless genre, the group at the age of twenty / thirty plunges deeper into the game mechanism and social experience.
With the rapid development of mobile games, it is becoming more and more difficult for new and small developers to succeed. The quality of the game has increased dramatically. One big plus for developers is the ability to collect and use data. In fact, game developers are usually “advanced users” of analytics, using complex metrics to track user progress, setting up gameplay and maximum monetization (most of the user base of Flurry Analytics are game developers). In general, the data allowed the “gamification” of the mobile industry.
The most successful companies in the new mobile economy, from Electronic Arts to Zynga and from Mobage to Supercell, understand very well the differences in consumer behavior depending on the game genre. This level of understanding greatly influences the strategies for acquiring, maintaining and monetizing a company. In this report, Flurry examines differences in consumer behavior in terms of application usage, preservation, and demography for nine free game genres in mobile games. For this analysis, Flurry used a sample of more than 300 million consumers using iOS and Android games every month. Please note that for uniformity, we only include free editions.
The diagram below shows the “loyalty matrix”, which displays 9 of the best free gaming categories in terms of frequency of use compared to how long consumers continue to use them for a long time. In particular, we apply a 90-day retention rate for categories of applications along the x axis and frequency of use per week along the y axis. We place the “scatterplot” in a rectangular coordinate system with four sectors.
')
Sector I represents the “sweet spot” for developers whose games are heavily used by many regular users. A well-thought-out “appointment” theory increases the frequency as users are forced to support the game and progress in it. Social step-by-step games are successful in building an active, loyal user base, offering popular evergreen games used among friends. In terms of revenue, while there is considerable potential for displaying advertisements to consumers who often use applications, slot games and resource management and modeling (known as “Mgmt / Sim”) are usually earned through in-app purchases. However, companies that want to maximize revenue in sector I, extract income from consumers willing to pay through in-app purchases, and then through advertising to those who do not pay.
Sector II is characterized by the most intensive use during a short consumer life cycle, and is occupied exclusively by the “Strategy” genre. This audience is demanding, gaming life cycles are short, and gaming live services must be performed flawlessly. Successful strategy game developers speed up monetization by entering player competition (“Player vs. Player”) and encouraging rapid progress in the game through premium investments. Such a high frequency of use entails the rapid passage of users through the content. For retention, developers must constantly release new content after the first launch of the game.
Sector III also attracts non-regular gaming audiences, but adds the problem of smaller opportunities per week for monetization. The well-documented success of the Card-Battle genre in Asia, and now in Western markets, is more impressive when considering the short timeframes that developers have for managing transactions. Acquiring target users is imperative to avoid the costs associated with large groups of users who quickly leave because of the “hardcore” nature of the content and game mechanics.
Sector IV highlights simple and highly repetitive games that can remain on the user’s game list for years. These evergreen publications may lack the depth needed to generate significant in-app purchases, but enough to generate significant ad impressions over time. In addition to generating large advertising revenue, the large audience of these games can be used to cross-promote more narrowly targeted, but more profitable developer publications.
With the growth of the economy of mobile applications, the complexity of advertising services associated with it will reach the one that is observed on the Internet today. The use of large amounts of data, the ability to select users based on demographic and personal characteristics, and then tracking the effectiveness of such targeting is just beginning to spread (Flurry invested in this area, offering its own services, such as Flurry AppCircle, advertising network, and Flurry Ad Analytics, advertising effectiveness). As developers and application marketing vendors become more savvy, it is better for them to acquire users who are guaranteed to play and pay in their applications. Below, using the same set of games, we look at the age and gender of users by genre.
A brief overview shows that sector I consists mainly of middle-aged women who play games, as we know, with good retention and usage rates.
Sector II shows that men are not covered by the same 40+ average age range as female players. Casino / poker tends to attract older men more.
Sector III is undoubtedly the hottest sector of the mobile gaming market with young male players who prefer mobile games to console games. These young people are hard to attract, but you can earn an amount that will cover the costs and effort associated with the acquisition.
Sector IV shows young women playing games that are more complex gameplay than those who prefer middle-aged women. While the youngest users enjoy a fast self-paced game in the Endless genre, the group at the age of twenty / thirty plunges deeper into the game mechanism and social experience.
With the rapid development of mobile games, it is becoming more and more difficult for new and small developers to succeed. The quality of the game has increased dramatically. One big plus for developers is the ability to collect and use data. In fact, game developers are usually “advanced users” of analytics, using complex metrics to track user progress, setting up gameplay and maximum monetization (most of the user base of Flurry Analytics are game developers). In general, the data allowed the “gamification” of the mobile industry.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/167595/
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