Marvel Snap has been downloaded 12.2m times and earned $10.94m in revenue in its first 30 days on the market, according to Appmagic data.
Since launch on October 18, Marvel Snap has topped charts around the world and gathered critical acclaim. Its light-touch monetisation has also been praised by players and critics alike, too.
According to Appmagic, during the first 30 days of global launch Marvel Snap earned an average of around $365k per day, with daily downloads around 407k.
Marvel Snap’s top five most lucrative markets by revenue to date are the US, where it earned $6.3m, then Korea ($780k), Japan ($558k), Canada ($428k) and France ($360k).
On downloads, the US is top again with 3.18m installs, followed by Brazil (982k), Italy (739k), Indonesia (700k) and France (642k).
The platform split puts iOS revenue on $6.38m and Android devices on $4.57m. Google Play has more downloads to date, with 8.67m installs. iOS is on 3.53m.
Cumulative revenue per download stands at $0.91, but if you ask some industry watchers, Second Dinner and Nuverse could be earning more from its players if it wanted to dial up the monetisation.
In a recent Naavik digest, Matt Dion noted that hardcore players who want to spend big on the game don’t have many options if they want to max out their player profile.
“Unlike many of its competitors, Marvel Snap does not sell new cards or card packs (via gacha, direct purchase, or otherwise). Rather, the game monetises via Battle Pass sales and cosmetics,” writes Dion. “Monetisation improvements will need to come with time, however, given the game’s relatively shallow spend depth.”
“The Marvel Snap team has surely anticipated these short-term concerns, and will likely release new card packs over time to continue extending the content treadmill,” adds Dion. “The forthcoming addition of ranked modes, leaderboards and social features will surely increase the game’s momentum and open up new monetisation opportunities.”
Connect Ventures game design veteran and Deconstructor of Fun podcast host Ethan Levy also notes in his Famous Aspect blog that Marvel Snap has “a laid-back, player friendly and cosmetics-first monetisation philosophy”.
He too notes that as a result, overall ‘spend depth’ is a little shallow in Marvel Snap compared to the very top grossing games earning over $100m annually.
“This approach can work, and is the monetisation strategy that drives some of the world’s biggest F2P successes,” says Levy. “But, if you are not willing to use the type of Gacha-driven monetisation I have used to great effect in past CCGs, you cannot achieve Fortnite scale revenue without a Fortnite scale user base.”
“Marvel Snap’s monetisation strategy is dependent on long-term retention because, at present, there is not that much for an individual to spend on per event,” he adds.
Marvel Snap is one of the biggest launches of the year to date, but is eclipsed by Diablo Immortal‘s spectacular first month, which earned Blizzard and NetEase $49m from 10m downloads.
