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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Warzone Mobile: the numbers so far
A quick look at Appmagic tells us that Activision’s battle royale shooter has already passed ~10m lifetime downloads and has generated Activision ~$1.76m in IAP earnings to date (that figure does not include the Apple/Google 30% cut and local taxes).
The platform split says around 5m of those downloads are iOS, with 4.8m on Google Play. By market, the figures to date say the US is way ahead with 2.75m installs, followed by Mexico (826k), Brazil (807k), Australia (799k) and Germany (719k).
Markets by revenue have been skewed by soft launch territories but the US is still way ahead on ~$900k to date, then there’s a big drop to Chile, Australia, Germany and Japan.
Warzone Mobile was released worldwide last Thursday, March 21.
32% of mobile gamers plan to spend less in 2024
New research from rewards platform Mistplay has revealed that almost a third of mobile gamers plan to spend less on games in 2024. That number reaches 41% when considering only high-value spenders.
On average, 50% of people spending money on mobile games do so across two-to-three titles per month, while 39% spend in just one. 4% spend money in at least six games.
Looking at high-value spenders, 60% spend in two-to-three games; 27% are only interested in parting with their cash in one while 3% spend in at least six.
Aream tops the M&A deal rankings
InvestGame reports that Aream & Co is leading the way in M&A activity. InvestGame’s 2020-2024 YTD league table states that Aream has advised on 23 deals worth at least $9.2bn, including Zynga’s acquisition of Peak for $2.1bn and CVC Capital Partners and Haveli Investments’ Jagex buy, reported to be $1.1bn.
Though it has ‘only’ advised on eight game deals in the last four years, Goldman Sachs’ transactions were worth a massive $30.4bn and include Take-Two-Zynga and Microsoft-ZeniMax.
2023’s most advertised iOS games
Analytics firm Mobile Action has put together its 2023 mobile ad trends report, showing that Evony was the most prolific mobile ad provider on the App Store with 43,000 creatives. In second place was Block Blast (42.9k) and Coin Master in third with 41,463 creatives.
These ad pushes, however, don’t correlate to the most visited App Store games pages. Heading up that ranking is Royal Match, with Candy Crush Saga in second and Travel Town in third.
Over on Google Play, Lords Mobile was the most-advertised title, with Evony coming in second. Coin Master was third on Android, too with 35,027 ads. Snake.io was the most visited store page in the games section, with 25m impressions, while Lords Mobile also ranked highly.
Revenue and bookings down for GDEV in 2023
GDEV, the parent company of Hero Wars maker Nexters, reported its preliminary financial results for 2023 last week. The firm made $465m in revenue for the year, a 3% decline. Bookings similarly dropped by 6% to $422m, though profit clocked in at $46m for the year compared to 2022’s $7m. Adjusted EBITDA dropped from $96m to $43m in 2023, too.
That being said, the company had a positive fourth quarter. Revenue and bookings were up by 10% and 4% respectively, while adjusted EBITDA rose from a $9m loss to $10m in the black.
Ten Square reports weak 2023 financials
Polish games firm Ten Square has reported PLN436m ($109.6m) in revenue for 2023. That’s an 18.9% dip year-on-year, while bookings fell 18% to PLN443.7m ($111.5m). The bulk of the company’s revenue, 62%, came from one game: 2017’s Fishing Clash.
Adjusted EBITDA for the year clocked in at PLN118.6m ($29.7m), a 15.8% decline, but Ten Square reported that it had hit a quarterly record of PLN162.8m ($40.9m) in cash for Q4.
In-app ad revenue up; in-app purchases down for 2023
Consultant Sara El Bachri from Shamsco has delved into the Unity Gaming Report and found that while revenue from in-app ads has increased across nearly all game genres, revenue from in-app purchases has declined. ARPPU is up year-on-year, but the conversion from daily active user to paying customer has dipped by 0.5%.
Unity-Ironsource merger yields ad results
Engine giant Unity and ads platform Ironsource saw an improved ranking in Singular’s ROI Index for 2023. The two firms – plus Aura Ironsource – saw 38 placements in the listing this year, compared to 28 in 2022. Singular also notes that not only does the conglomerate have a greater presence in the rankings, but it has also risen up the rankings in many cases.
Meanwhile, marketers are spending more money on iOS than they are on Android. Between January 2023 and January 2024, the share of ad spend on Apple’s platform rose by 6.5%.
New UK games companies shot up 22% in 2023
RSM UK reports a 22% increase in the number of new UK-based game companies in 2023 compared to the year before. To be precise, there were 2,450 new firms in the sector, compared to 2,008 in 2022. RSM says the rise is partly to do with the mass layoffs that have hit the industry in the last year.
