Shooter Genre Snapshot: September 2021

Shooter Genre Snapshot – September 2021 (GameRefinery)

1. Market Overview | Metric | Insight | |--------|----------| | Genre rank (US iOS) | 6th largest mobile genre, ~6 % of total iOS revenue. | | Revenue share | The “Big Three” – Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile, and Garena Free Fire – generate > 84 % of shooter revenue. | | Impact of Fortnite removal | Apple‑Epic lawsuit (Fortnite removed Aug 2020) erased a game that once held ~30 % of the shooter market on iOS. | | Growth leader | Garena Free Fire doubled its iOS revenue in 2021, climbing from ~10 % to ~30 % market share and now rivals CoD Mobile for the top spot (Q2 2021). | | New‑entry stagnation | No shooter launched in the last 2 years cracked the top‑grossing 200; only Bullet Echo (May 2020) entered the top‑500. |

2. Top‑Performing Titles (US iOS – Q2 2021)

| Rank | Game | Publisher | Sub‑genre | Share | |------|------|-----------|-----------|-------| | 1 | Garena Free Fire – 4th Anniversary | Garena International | Battle‑Royale | 28.56 % | | 2 | Call of Duty: Mobile | Activision | Classic FPS/TPS | 28.17 % | | 3 | PUBG Mobile – Ignition | Tencent | Battle‑Royale | 26.55 % | | 4 | War Robots | Pixonic | Tactical Shooter | 3.5 % | | 5 | Sniper 3D | Fun Games | Sniper | 3.5 % | | 6 | Pixel Gun 3D | Cubic Games | Classic FPS/TPS | 2.12 % | | 7 | War Machines: Tank | Fun Games | Tactical Shooter | 1.9 % | | 8 | Zooba: Zoo Battle Royale | Wildlife Studios | Battle‑Royale | 1.88 % | | 9 | World of Tanks Blitz | Wargaming | Tactical Shooter | 1.61 % | | 10| Tacticool | – | – | ~1 % |

Key takeaway: The top three dominate ~83 % of the genre’s revenue; the rest of the field is highly fragmented.

3. Why the “Big Three” Stay on Top

| Driver | How It’s Implemented | |--------|----------------------| | Battle Pass | Seasonal “free + paid” tracks that reward playtime, cosmetics, and progression. | | Limited‑time Gachas | Time‑bound loot‑box style draws with increasing price/odds, often tied to events or milestones. | | Live Events & New Modes | Frequent, high‑visibility updates (e.g