A look at Sega and Rovio’s respective game portfolios reveals part of the motivation behind this week’s landmark $776m acquisition.
Sega is heavily reliant on its home market Japan, with weaker performance in the west. Its Sonic games are incredibly popular if you look at downloads, but do not monetise very effectively.
And let’s not forget Rovio-owned Ruby Games – the Turkish firm has Rovio’s most-downloaded game, according to Sensor Tower figures. Through Ruby Games, Rovio does good business in the hypercasual and hybridcasual space, where Sega has no presence.
To get a snapshot of what’s going on at each company, we asked Sensor Tower’s Dennis Yeh to run us through Sega and Rovio’s top performers.
By lifetime bookings, Sensor Tower says Sega’s top three mobile games are Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! ($575m), Puyopuyo!! Quest ($380m) and Chain Chronicle ($260m).
By lifetime downloads, the data says Sega’s top titles are all Sonic runners, developed by UK developer Sega Hardlight: Sonic Dash (445m installs), Sonic Dash 2 (145m) and Sonic Forces (120m)
Rovio’s top three titles by lifetime bookings are Angry Birds 2 ($675m), Angry Birds Dream Blast ($250m) and Angry Birds Friends ($150m).
And finally with the original Angry Birds games no longer available, Ruby Games’ Hunter Assassin is Rovio’s top download with 400m installs. Angry Birds 2 has 372m and Angry Birds Classic is third with 200m.
Sensor Tower’s Yeh also noted Sega titles NET Mahjong, Fist of the North Star and SEGA Pocket Club Manager had each also achieved “moderate success” in Japan.
“Sega relies heavily on its home market, with over 91% of its in-app bookings coming from Japan over the past year,” Yeh told us. “However, Sega has also lagged behind its legacy domestic rivals like Square Enix, Bandai Namco, Konami and Sony in Japan.”
“Outside of Hatsune Miku and its Mahjong game, most of its apps are not at the top of the charts for their respective genres. Combining Sega and Rovio’s portfolios, Japan would then account for ~60% of in-app bookings over the past year.”
“The combined company could potentially leverage data and expertise to be more efficient on a global scale. On the download side, Sega has found global success from the continued star power of Sonic as well as from the growth of hybridcasual. Though Sega’s games trended more casual and had fewer in-app purchases, Rovio’s portfolio will likely slot into a similar segment of Sega’s portfolio.”
