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Word-of-mouth virality drives 57% of discovery, says Everyplay's Laakkonen
Key insights
6 takeaways- 01Word-of-mouth communication is the primary driver of mobile game discovery, accounting for 57% of new user acquisition.
- 02Research based on a survey of 1,800 mainstream mobile users indicates that human-centric discovery sources now outperform traditional advertising and editorial features.
- 03Peer-to-peer validation is critical to app store performance, with nearly 50% of store-based discovery effectiveness attributed to user reviews.
- 04Gameplay video is the most effective medium for driving viral growth because it captures the dynamic nature of interactive experiences better than static text or images.
- 05Developers should integrate native recording and broadcasting solutions to convert players into content creators and turn games into self-promoting platforms.
- 06The ability to capture and distribute authentic gameplay moments is becoming a standard requirement for mobile engagement and long-term discoverability.
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Transcript
so here we are cooking game without beers we've uh we were separating last week now we're in melbourne sweden awesome yes well we thought yuri have just as well so you're moving around with us so we're actually at the unite nordic conference um in lovely malmo and uh and we're with justly he's from finland so jesse tell us tell us a bit about uh what you're up to and you've got some interesting research with us so i wanted to share with this everybody who's reading pocketgamer so this is social 20 that's what i'm seeing there that's exactly so 20 of uh people are sharers and the way we uh of mobile people who play mobile games so what we did is we conducted a survey of 1800 people to find out what drives mobile game discovery okay you can measure a lot of things in analytics you can see how your ad campaigns perform you can see your leaves from being featured by apple but you can't really track word of mouth no because it's not just ecosystem no it's organic it happens
like this i'm talking to john hey john you got to play this game like how do you track that you cannot so the only way to really figure out what what's the role of virtamod was actually to ask people ask mainstream us users to figure out what they how to discover games and so we asked 1800 people and the discovery we made is that word of mouth that is hearing from a friend seeing a friend play a game seeing a facebook post twitter post fan made video but it's probably from someone you know already it's like a trusted source thing that but there was also twitter and kind of a and a youtube fan video so you know in a say kind of a word of mouth through a friend or kind of a from a real person not a advertisement that was actually higher than the app store and then everything else websites blogs i'm sorry john and advertising fell like one third of that and what's interesting when we look at like app stores and word of mouth side by side actually with about app stores 43 of the app store stuff was user reviews okay so
you could actually take that and move it to the verta mod piece because that's really other people so decision making about what you download is really driven by word of mouth and this is this is good research for you because you have uh tell us about your uh your viral tool so every place is a tool that gets integrated into the games to automatically record the gameplay as it happens and to enable players share their most awesome game moments on facebook twitter youtube and within every play and you've just you've been live for a while but you just went live in a pretty big game and actually we just we just saw in the keynote this is fantastic so we've been live for uh we're now live in 65 games we started in december and we recently launched in bad bikies by robbio and this is an insanely cool game for every play because it has comes with the sandbox mode you can create fantastic contraptions like an atm t walker like a rocket machine a fly like a boxing thingy like all kinds of weird things and people are really really proud of what they create so now they can now
that creation used to be locked inside the game but with every play they can actually take the creation out and share with the world and do you think because definitely every place is particularly a video solution so do you think video is particularly kind of at the apex of that kind of social sharing i really think so because imagine like twitter 140 characters you're in this game and you have like pigs and blobbo and trying to explain it and it's really hard to like get inside your head on what you explain then you take a screenshot and imagine a screenshot from let's say a golf game yes yes are you taking a screenshot when you're putting when the ball is in the hole when it's traveling whereas a video of that pot going going going and it just went in it's a whole different experience and i think video is the only format can truly capture the essence the dynamic nation of gameplay which is almost never the same the next time you play so static text static images don't quite do it and i think the next evolution what we're also working on is live broadcasting so right now we do replace broadcasted games of mobile
games it's very popular for you to get into you have a tv station next year you could have your own tv station with an airplay and that we're working on that it's not ready to go out yet but i think we've already seen how popular that is with twitch tv and machinima and even youtube getting into action on the core game side and what's interesting see the playstation 4 launched with a replay sharing screenshot setting a live broadcast solution and apparently microsoft has nv so they are going to also do that we're doing the same for mobile so we're going to be the share button for for replays and live broadcasting for ios and soon also on android so it's not what it's not watch this space it's watch this channel what's this channel exactly lovely thank you thank you
Summary
Word-of-mouth communication serves as the primary driver for mobile game discovery, accounting for 57% of new user acquisition. This organic influence—encompassing recommendations from friends, social media posts, and fan-generated content—significantly outperforms traditional advertising and editorial features. While app stores remain a critical discovery channel, nearly half of their effectiveness is attributed to user reviews, further reinforcing the importance of peer-to-peer validation in the consumer decision-making process.
These findings are based on a survey of 1,800 mainstream mobile users designed to quantify discovery methods that typically evade standard analytics. The research highlights a fundamental shift in the mobile ecosystem, where trusted, human-centric sources carry more weight than static marketing or platform-driven promotion. This data suggests that developers should prioritize social integration to leverage the power of community-led discovery.
Video content is identified as the most effective medium for facilitating this viral growth. Unlike static text or screenshots, gameplay video captures the dynamic, unpredictable nature of interactive experiences, making it an essential tool for social sharing. By integrating recording and broadcasting solutions directly into mobile titles, developers can transform players into content creators, effectively turning their games into self-promoting platforms. As the industry moves toward more sophisticated sharing capabilities, including live broadcasting, the ability to capture and distribute authentic gameplay moments is becoming a standard requirement for mobile engagement and long-term discoverability.
