Summarizing Sensor Tower's Latest State of Mobile Gaming Report

[Music] This is a twist. I was thinking, "Oh, we'll just be really chill down in the cinema room," but then I thought, "No, we'll talk about the drama of data." How does that grab you, Jack? That's something. The drama of data. Yeah. I mean, it has been pretty dramatic the last 12, 24 months. I mean, as you know, in mobile gaming, just after COVID, things took a bit of a slump, bit of a hit. People were pretty unhappy. Whereas, I think 2024, there's been some really interesting moves. Yes. And now we can keep the cinema thing going because you're going to leave us on a cliffhanger if you don't do that. You have a sneak into some of the data, a little bit of a peak into that because Sensor Tower, you know, you had your mobile report. I wrote about that, looked at that, devoured that. But you have new updates. What are some of them? Yeah, that's right. So, our state of mobile report is uh it comes out every

year. Um and it is coming out tomorrow morning. So, the new one. The new one. Yep. So, looking at a full review of 2024, what happened? Um I mean, some of the highle stuff probably won't surprise too many people. I mean, just off the top of my head, um AI was even bigger, even better in 2024. So so many more apps started to integrate that into into everything from their description to keywords to their features themselves. Some successes, some less successfully. Um so AI was a big big uh game changer. But I think overall I mean mobile gaming um downloads were down across the board mainly driven by casual games being down um but uh but revenue was up. So definitely big big uh reason to be optimistic there. Okay. And that was similar that was similar in the early report because you came out with that. It was like guess what downloads down. Every was like oh no. But spending spending solid which means that if you nail it and you get your monetization right the will the willingness to pay is

still there. You just have to hit it. Absolutely. I mean you look at the cost per installs now have gone up. Um especially on iOS with with app tracking transparency from Apple in 2021. So with with those higher CPIs, it means those huge download numbers that we used to see just aren't happening anymore. People are launching less titles, they're focusing more on taking what exists. They're taking their legacy titles, they're making them better. They're making better use of uh in-game events and live ops as well. Does it continue as well, Jack, with the whole idea of the subg genres or where it's at? So it was like simulation, go there, that's a blue ocean. So it was like games have their pockets of opportunity. Where did you see the pockets of opportunity and where do you see that extending as people are thinking about 2025? Where am I going to direct my energy? Yeah, sure. So, I think in terms of some of the the regional differences when you look at North America and Europe, very very good years in terms of consumer spend um most genres were up.

In fact, all genres were up in Europe apart from RPG. RPG actually went down across North America and Asia. Um but uh to be honest it was mainly driven all all the growth in most genres were predominantly driven by uh a few specific apps. You know we look at in the casino sub genre you've got Monopoly Go that drove drove that um that that raise there and then in kind of the puzzle genre you've got Royal Match being a big big reason for the growth there as well. What about something like um the games that we're seeing that are maybe you didn't capture them in the in the report itself, but you know, we're seeing more of these games that get the monetization right at the start and therefore they're just they're just on a roll. It's almost as if the game is not as important as their use of data. Things like, for example, white out survival that we're all talking about. I mean, that was probably not in the report, but are you seeing any of those strategic plays that maybe studios

should be thinking about more? Um, sorry, I'm not sure I fully understand the question. Well, the strategic plays, I mean, you you you came along with the simulation. That was one opportunity, but then it's sort of like, you know, where to put ads or which ads work or anything about the ad experience itself that you're showing through the data that may be something that we need to be thinking about more. Well, I suppose taking a step back when it comes to marketing and acquiring new users, like I say, cost per ins have gone up. So, people have to be very um very thoughtful on how they are placing ads. And so I think there's more realization these days in the difference between audiences between different gaming genres. Uh for example, I think you know puzzle games they tend to attract older players and tend to attract more female players whereas uh strategy games tend to attract younger players and more male players. And so making sure you you know what your audience looks like and who you're going after is key. And then beyond just placing ads and targeting the right people in 2024 we saw a couple of great

examples of better use of IP. So I mean first of all using IP when it comes to game creation things like Monopoly Go or Dungeon Fighter uh mobile in China. You know good use of pre-existing IP. Um but then also IP collaborations. I mean Brawl Stars had their largest year ever. They did tons of collaborations. I mean you look at what they did with um their Spongebob Squarepants events. They took the IP of Spongebob. They took the IP of John Cena, combined that and they had their largest year ever for revenue. Um, so that's one thing is use of IP and the second main one that we've seen a lot of great examples of is the use of trans media. So you look at um, for example, Arcane, the the Netflix show that came out, seasons one and season 2. Unbelievable show. So so cool. Um, and that's all based on the League of Legends universe. And so and and we saw actually their two of their mobile games uh based around the League of Legends universe massive spikes in revenue and downloads at release of the show. Uh same with with the Fallout games. You

got Fallout Shelter, their mobile game along with Fallout 76, their their their PC console title and the show coming out on Amazon Prime and the Fallout TV show. So finding new audiences across these different um these different mediums is has been I suppose quite a key game changer when it comes to marketing overall in 2024. Speaking of marketing that's one way of using your data is to think about okay opportunities or the forecast but sensor tower data when I think about I just look at your report uh you know the amount of information in it. I mean, do you have any some thoughts maybe to share about how to use sensor tower data best, how to apply it? I mean, to be honest, so I mean, most customers care about three main metrics, which is downloads, revenue, and active users because you can get a pretty good sear on the health of a game and the growth of a game um on that, but we track, you know, hundreds of hundreds of other metrics. And so, to be honest, there's no oneizefits-all. You know, we cover gaming and non-gaming. We cover all the

different genres of gaming. And then in non- gaming, we've got telco, banking, um retail. Uh so to be honest, it's it's hard for me to put one finger on how best to use our data. Um I think in general, just get in touch. That's why my role exists, my team's role exists is to make it as easy as possible because you know the data itself is just a number, but it's really about what insight do you get from that. How do you turn that into an action and then what is the business impact from that action? Mhm. When you look at impact of of the data, um you know, one is it's a great story, but it's like this continuing story. Is there something in that in that realm of drama? Because again, we're here the drama and the cliffhanger. Let's talk about the surprise element or the suspense element. What was surprising to you or what was perhaps unexpected in the data or was it really sort of along the lines of what we'd seen and what we'd seen in other reports? So, not too much of a departure. I mean I think when it comes to gaming I think one of the big changes

that we've seen in 2024 has been across the the AP pack region. Um so for example I mean overall the whole region when you look at the data RPG was always super dominant whereas now there's much higher growth when it comes to these these casual uh genres of gaming. And so that that for me is kind of a big step change. I mean you look at some of the key successes there. um you know Royal Match uh Japan is now Royal Match's number two uh market globally which I was quite surprised to see that um they were traditionally very dominant in the west and yet Japan suddenly has a quite a massive um you know puzzle puzzle landscape there have an appetite for that that's something that's an opportunity so stay again with all our analogies all our puns um if you had to think about a movie a movie genre something that describes 2025 for you what would it Oh, that is a a tough question. I'll be totally honest. I mean, I feel like for

me personally, I uh I have a one and a halfyear-old daughter and so suddenly lots of uh Disney games are are in my mind all the time and uh Disney and Pixar and you know, all all those ones as well. So, so fun. They are great. I uh I don't know about one specifically. I mean, I suppose Finding Nemo is is one of the most recent ones and I suppose if I'm linking that back uh ten tenuously, you know, finding data, finding insights, you know, has certainly been a big part of my job and and trying to make that make sense to people. And I like that because that has a happy ending as well. So 2025 will be better than 2024. Exactly. They found Nemo and everyone was happy at the end. Indeed. And we'll be happy in the end. 2025, I've been hearing it here. very positive vibe and awesome that we have also some data to show us some opportunities to make the most of it. So, thanks so much Shaq. It was a pleasure. Thank you. This show is all about how to do your

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the next edition of the pocket gamer.biz podcast and we look forward to speaking to you in the near future. Until then, I'm Brian Baglo. I'm Peggy Ansalt. And that's a wrap. Until next week. [Music]