Report · January 1, 2021

Shooter Genre Snapshot

Summary

The report examines the mobile shooter genre in the United States, positioning it as the sixth‑largest segment on iOS and accounting for roughly six percent of total revenue. It attributes recent shifts to the removal of Fortnite from the App Store, which created a vacuum that Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile, and Garena Free Fire filled. Garena’s title has experienced the most dramatic growth, doubling quarterly revenue and capturing a share comparable to Call of Duty. Market data show that no new shooter has entered the top 500 in two years, underscoring stagnation and a lack of fresh IPs. Key monetization patterns are identified: battle passes, limited‑time gacha events, and frequent cosmetic drops drive revenue. The analysis highlights the high content cadence of leading shooters, with regular updates that introduce new maps, modes, and seasonal rewards. It also notes the strategic use of social features such as guilds and clan wars to increase player retention. The document projects potential disruption from upcoming titles tied to major IPs—Valorant Mobile, Apex Legends Mobile, Battlefield Mobile, and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier—while questioning whether these will generate the sustained content pipeline required to compete with the entrenched “Big Three.” The report concludes that, despite a current lull, the shooter market remains highly competitive and poised for potential renewal if new entrants can match the monetization sophistication of existing leaders.

From the report

Mid-core Card GameRefinery uses a three-layered Puzzle Arcade Games Action Puzzle Platformer RPG Card Battler Board Games Shoot/Beat'em Up Action RPG approach to categorize games Bubble Shooter Other Arcade Tower Defence RPG Sports & Driving Match 3 Puzzle Tower Defense Turn-based RPG Merge Games Fighting Other Puzzle MMORPG • Word Games Puzzle RPG Sports Using a Category -> Genre -> Subgenre hierarchy we Trivia Games Hyper Casual Idle RPG Arcade Sports Coloring Games HC - Puzzle Survival Realistic Sports are able to differentiate games in a meaningful way and Hidden Objects HC - Tap Sovereign Games Solitaire/Mahjong HC - Steer offer accurate insights for all individual game types HC - Swipe/Drag Strategy currently found in the market Lifestyle HC- .io Driving HC - Other 4X Strategy Driving Customisation Asymmetric Survival Arcade • Our taxonomy is created together with industry Interactive Story Build & Battle Realistic Driving Music/Band MOBA experts and is based on thorough testing and Simulation Tactical Battler Casino Adventures data-analysis of the market Breeding AR / Location Tycoon/Crafting Shooter Casino • Based Sandbox Battle Royale In this report we are focusing on the Shooter genre Time Management Classic FPS/TPS Bingo AR / Location Based Idler Snipers Casual Casino under Mid-core Tactical Shooter Other Casino Poker/Cards Slots GameRefinery’s Genre Taxonomy

Short Shooter Genre Overview ErnoKiiski Withelm voutilalnen Chief Game Analyst - US Senior Game Analyst - US Shooters have become a very significant genre in mobile gaming in the ple of years. It is the past couple of years. It is the 6<sup>th</sup> largest genre in the US iOS market, contributing around 6% of the market’s revenues. Epic and Apple’s legal battle that led to Fortnite’s removal from the App Store took away one of the “big shots” of the genre back in August 2020. Currently, there are only seven shooter games in the top-grossing 200, with over 84% of revenue coming from the “Big Three” - Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile and Garena Free Fire. Garena Gree Fire has been the standout growth rocket of the year, more than doubling its revenues on iOS in the US. Overall, the market has been very quiet in terms of new successful shooter games for a while. None of the new Shooter games released within the past TWO YEARS has managed to make it into the US top-grossing 200. The latest game to do this, Zooba, was released back in 2019. Even if we widen the scope to the top-grossing 500, only one new game, Bullet Echo, was released over a year ago (May 2020). er a year ago (May

ames released within the past TWO YEARS has managed to make it into the US top-grossing 200. The latest game to do this, Zooba, was released back in 2019. Even if we widen the scope to the top-grossing 500, only one new game, Bullet Echo, was released over a year ago (May 2020). er a year ago (May Call of Duty Mobile’s highly successful mobile port has inspired many AAA developers to move to mobile. With it being more than two years since the last top-grossing shooter launched, there are some promising contenders on the horizon from the biggest developers out there. These include Valorant Mobile, Apex Legends Mobile, Battlefield Mobile, and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. Will these games successfully challenge the “Big Three” of mobile shooters and bring fresh blood to a stagnant market in the upcoming months? That remains to be seen. g fresh blood to a

Key points —TTIONISKI Wilhelm Voutilainen Chief Game Analyst - US Senior Game Analyst - US • Currently Shooters are the 6<sup>th</sup> largest genre in the US iOS market, contributing about 6% of enues. the market’s revenues. • The obvious major shake-up to the shooter genre was the lawsuit battle between Apple and Epic leading to Fortnite being removed from the App Store. After all, before the removal it had over 30% market share of the Shooter market in the US on iOS. • This has led to the other “Big Three” competitive shooters (CoD: Mobile, Garena: Free Fire, PUBG Mobile) taking market share for themselves. Garena: Free Fire in particular has seen exponential growth during the past year, more than doubling its revenues. It has grown from a mere 10% market share to equal share at the top with a bit under 30% market share of the genre. • The shooter market has been very stagnant during the past year → not a single new game has been able to break into the top grossing 500 • It is quite rare that top shooters bring new bigger features to the game, but the content cadence of new cosmetics, limited-time game modes, events, maps etc. is mind-bogglingly high in the most successful games • Monetization in most top shooters relies heavily on the popular Battle Pass as well as a constant flow of limited-time gachas with various special mechanics

Top games and their current market share within the Shooter genre in the US on iOS Key takeaway: The shooter space is currently dominated by Garena Free Fire, Call of Duty: Mobile and PUBG MOBILE. The biggest changes during the past year were the appstore removal of Fortnite and the massive rise of Garena Free Fire. While there wasn’t a drastic change in the revenues of other top Shooters, Garena Free Fire was able to pull off an incredible climb, more than doubling its quarterly revenue and overtaking PUBG and CoD. It is now neck and neck with CoD as the top shooter for Q2 of 2021. Shooter ¸ 2021Q2 ¸ Show genre share ? Rev .Garena Free Fire - 4nniversary 28.56% * GARENA INTERNATIONAL I PRIVATE LIMITED Battle Royale 2. Call of Duty: Mobile CALL-DUTY Activision Publishing, Inc. 28.17% Classic FPS/TPS .PUBG MOBILE 1.5: IGNITION 26.55% Tencent Mobile International Limited Battle Royale 4. War Robots Multiplayer Battles 3.5% Pixonic Games LTD Tactical Shooter 5. Sniper 3D: Gun Shooting Games x Fun Games For Free Sniper Pixel Gun 3D: Online Shooter 2.12% Cubic Games Classic FPS/TPS 7. War Machines: Tank Mobile Games 1.9% Fun Games For Free Tactical Shooter 8. Zooba: Zoo Battle Royale Games 1.88% Wildlife Studios ZOo:A Battle Royale 9. World of Tanks Blitz PVP MMO WARGAMING Group Limited 1.61% Tactical Shooter 10. Tacticool

Key takeaway: As we can see from the chart, there has pretty much been ZERO new blood in the Shooter market in the past few years. Bullet Echo is the newest game among the top grossing 500 games in iOS and it was released over a year ago (May 2020). Perhaps the most noteworthy thing has been Garena: Free Fire’s massive growth to become as big as CoD: Mobile and PUBG Mobile. CoD: Mobile BATTLEGR CALL"DUTY CoD: Mobile GARENA PUBG Mobile GARENA PUBG Mobile Free Fire War Robots Multiplayer Battles 1-25 Sniper 3D: Gun 0 Shooting Games Pixel Gun 3D Zooba: Zoo Battle Royale War Machines: ZO.BA Game 30d average 3D Tank Game top grossing rank World of Tanks: Blitz Tanks: Blitz 251-50 Left to Survive Left to Survive LEFT Bullet Echo Tacticool Bullet Echo

Pages: 22
Words: 5,629
Type: Report

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