Battle Royale
Game
Documents about Battle Royale
Best Mobile Game Genres of 2018: Top Free Games Charts
The mobile gaming landscape in 2018 was defined by significant shifts in genre dominance and market saturation.
- Hypercasual games dominated the 2018 download charts, with over 120 titles consistently appearing in the top rankings each quarter, driven primarily by an ad-revenue business model.
- Hypercasual is the only 'reliable giant' in the download space, maintaining a volume of titles three times larger than the next most competitive category, Other Puzzle.
- Genres such as Battle Royale, Other Arcade, and Word/Trivia represent high-potential opportunities because they drive significant downloads while maintaining lower levels of market competition compared to hypercasual.
Genre Landscape 2018
The 2018 Genre Landscape analysis provides a visual and data-driven overview of the shifting mobile gaming market.
- The mobile gaming market experienced significant shifts between Q1 and Q3 2018, driven primarily by the emergence of the Battle Royale genre.
- Major intellectual properties (IPs) increasingly entered the augmented reality (AR) space during the 2018 period.
- GameRefinery utilized a new genre taxonomy and a proprietary Market Share tool to track and visualize these landscape changes throughout the first three quarters of 2018.
Battlelands Royale: Contender or Pretender?
Futureplay’s Battlelands Royale serves as a case study for the viability of mobile-first Battle Royale games, specifically examining whether a simplified, fast-paced design can compete with industry giants like Fortnite and PUBG.
- Despite achieving nearly 7 million downloads in its first two months of release, Battlelands Royale failed to monetize effectively, earning only $450,000 across iOS and Android.
- The game failed to crack the top 500 grossing apps despite peaking near the top 10 in download rankings, indicating a significant disconnect between user acquisition and long-term retention.
- Futureplay optimized the Battle Royale formula for mobile by reducing match sizes to 32 players and limiting session times to under five minutes to ensure rapid, bite-sized gameplay.
What's the Big Deal with Battle Pass?
The Battle Pass has emerged as a transformative monetization mechanic in the mobile gaming industry, effectively combining time-limited engagement with progression-based rewards.
- The Battle Pass is a hybrid monetization model that combines time-limited seasons with progression-based rewards to drive player engagement and retention through the fear of missing out.
- Following the implementation of a Battle Pass in June 2018, PUBG Mobile saw its revenue increase by 365% and its position in the US iOS top-grossing charts rise into the top 20.
- Battle Pass systems typically feature a two-tier structure—free and premium—which encourages conversion by allowing players to unlock premium rewards retroactively based on their existing progress.
Predictions for 2018: Mid-Core Games
Mid-core mobile gaming solidified its position as the primary revenue driver for the global industry throughout 2017, accounting for nearly all of the top-grossing titles.
- Midcore games dominate mobile revenue, accounting for 11 of the top 15 highest-grossing games globally in 2016.
- Machine Zone experienced a significant revenue decline in 2017, with Game of War dropping 39% to $387M and Mobile Strike falling 34% to $363M.
- The 4X strategy genre faces challenges as top ten publisher revenues dropped 30% year-on-year, driven by rising user acquisition costs and intense competition.
Boosting Battle Royale Games' Feature Sets on Mobile
The mobile gaming market experienced a significant shift in early 2018 as Battle Royale titles, led by Chinese publishers such as NetEase and Tencent, rapidly expanded from PC to mobile platforms.
- Mobile Battle Royale games can deepen their meta-game by introducing distinct, relatable characters with varying rarity levels, a feature utilized by half of the top-grossing 100 mobile games.
- Developers should implement item-combining or fusion mechanics, a trending feature that allows players to create high-value items from collected material pieces.
- Monetization can be enhanced by expanding beyond a single gacha to include multiple gacha pools tied to specific items or characters, as data shows a strong correlation between 5+ gacha systems and top-grossing success.