A Statistics-Based Approach to Picking a Game Setting That Best Matches Your Chosen Genre 2020

This research provides a statistical analysis of mobile game settings and their correlation with genre performance, aiming to guide developers in making informed design choices that optimize target audience reach and cost per install. By examining 1,535 top-performing titles from May 2020, the study evaluates market trends across Tier-1 West (US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Australia) and Tier-1 East (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan) regions between 2015 and 2020. The methodology utilizes manual classification of over 250,000 titles, focusing on cumulative revenue from in-app purchases and total download volume.

The findings highlight that the Real Life setting is the most prevalent and inclusive, accounting for 31% of all analyzed games and 42% of cumulative downloads in the West. Its success is attributed to high accessibility, as it requires minimal user tutoring and leverages recognizable real-world logic. Conversely, more complex settings like Fantasy are favored by high-grossing, sophisticated genres such as RPGs and 4X strategy games. The analysis notes that niche settings like Sci-fi, Cyberpunk, and Steampunk face significant market barriers, often resulting in lower traffic and higher acquisition difficulty regardless of production quality.

In the Tier-1 East market, Fantasy and Oriental Fantasy dominate revenue charts, while the Real Life setting continues to grow among hypercasual titles. The study concludes that the synergy between genre and setting is a primary determinant of a game’s commercial viability. Developers are advised to align their chosen setting with established genre conventions to ensure broader market appeal, as unconventional pairings often struggle to gain traction despite high-quality execution.