There’s a deluge of new data and research to wade through in the mobile games business. Our regular data digest column breaks it all down into digestible chunks.
Read on for the numbers you need to know about minus the fluff.
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Take-Two to cut 5% of workforce, around 580 staff
Several game projects are to be scrapped and 5% of staff are to lose their jobs at Take-Two, the company announced yesterday. The publisher, which bought Zynga for $12.7bn in 2022, said the cuts will be complete by the end of the year.
Take-Two expects to incur $160-200m in charges connected to its cost-reduction plan, including $120-140m related to title cancellations.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Take-Two last confirmed staff numbers of 11,580 in March 31 2023; a 5% reduction means around 580 roles will be eliminated.
A16z reveals second $600m games fund
VC firm A16z announced yesterday it has raised a second gaming fund, with $600m to spend on investments in ‘the intersection of tech and games’, as A16z general partner Andrew Chen put it on X.
Chen continued: “We are excited to invest this new fund across many stages and sectors, from inception to Series A/B. And from AI/infra, web3 games, VR/AR, 3D tooling, gamified apps, game studios, and much more.”
Fellow A16z GP Jonathan Lai said on X that the team would continue to invest in three core areas, namely studios “building new types of games”, games infrastructure and “the ecosystem of consumer apps around games”.
The new $600m fund is the same size as A16z’s first games fund, bringing the total raised by A16z for gaming investments to a cool $1.2bn.
Fallout Shelter spikes after Amazon show launch
Fallout Shelter’s daily revenue has quadrupled since the release of Amazon’s Fallout TV show. GamesIndustry.biz has data from Sensor Tower showing that the game was making $20,000 per day before the show’s debut, a figure that has shot up to $80,000 in the three days after. Meanwhile, downloads have risen by 346.4% across the same time frame.
Games VC funding almost doubled in Q1 2024
The level of venture capital funding into the games industry rose by 94% quarter-to-quarter for Q1 2024. New research from Konvoy Ventures shows that $594m was invested into the sector in that period, compared to the $319m that it saw in Q4 2023. The outfit says that while early and growth VC funding is back to pre-COVID levels, late-stage funding is still “absent”.
Looking at overall funding, games have attracted $2.2bn, of which $1.5bn is Disney’s massive investment into Epic Games. Due to 2023 being weaker than usual – with only $2.7bn in funding – the Disney deal means the sector is already close to bringing in more investment in 2024 on the basis of Q1 alone.
Sonic collab boosted Angry Birds 2 revenue by 150%
GameRefinery’s March report shows that the Sonic crossover event in Angry Birds 2 caused a 150% spike in revenue in the US on iOS. The crossover saw players able to buy hats that gave access to a limited-time PvE mode, with Angry Birds 2 revenue shooting up from just over $30k before the event to nearly $90k after it was launched.
Meanwhile, it seems that Call of Duty: Warzone isn’t performing as well as Call of Duty: Mobile. GameRefinery reports that while the former was the 30th highest-grossing mobile game in the US on launch, revenue has dipped. Though it is still in the Top 100, it is being handily beaten by Call of Duty: Mobile, which came out five years earlier and has a much bigger war chest of content available.
Casual games advertisers made up 32.6% of Japan’s market
Casual game advertisers took up a massive 32.6% of the market in Japan, according to SocialPeta’s market trends report for the country’s mobile market. That’s the largest slice of the pie and 2.29% more than the global average. Meanwhile, sim titles took up 11.35% of the market, 2% higher than global results.
Overall, iOS in Japan makes up 29.2% of mobile game advertisers, slightly higher than the 28.6% market share Apple’s phone boasts globally.
Meanwhile, the casual games genre was behind 33% of ad creatives, though puzzle titles – with 13.8% – were 1.93% ahead of global results.
Meanwhile, video adverts make up 69.48% of marketing for mobile games in Japan.
War Robots hits $900m
My.Games says that War Robots has brought in over $900m in the ten years since its launch. The multiplayer shooter title initially came out in 2014 and has attracted over 270m players to date across all platforms.
The firm also said that during 2023, the game brought in over 28m installs across all platforms. War Robots has “up to” 5m monthly users, too, with about 600,000 logging in every single day.
UK mobile games market worth $1.89bn in 2023
UK video games trade body Ukie’s Consumer Marketing Valuation Report shows that the country’s mobile games sector was worth £1.52bn ($1.89bn) in 2023. That’s a 4.5% increase year-on-year and represents 29% of UK consumer spending on software.
Overall, the UK’s market was worth £7.82bn ($9.73bn) in 2023, a 4.4% increase from the previous year.
Koei Tecmo made $200m from mobile in 2023
Koei Tecmo’s 2023 mobile earnings were almost twice as much as it made in the previous 12 months, according to according to a Sensor Tower report spotted by 4gamers. This was thanks to MMO Nobunaga’s Ambition: Hadou, which represented nearly half of the firm’s mobile game revenue, which totalled $197.6m for 2023.
Ninja Kiwi buys AutoAttack
Ninja Kiwi has acquired AutoAttack Games. The MTG-owned studio has not said how much it paid for the Legion TD 2 maker.
“We also feel that there is a close alignment between us at Ninja Kiwi and Brent and Julian when it comes to our love of the Tower Defense genre, our passion for making fun and highly balanced game experiences, and how we approach and value our player communities,” Ninja Kiwi boss Scott Walker said in the announcement from MTG.
