Marvel Snap
Documents about Marvel Snap
two & a half gamers session #37 - Marvel Snap global launch case study UA, GD, Admon view
Marvel Snap represents a significant case study in the tension between high-quality game design and inefficient mobile marketing execution.
- Marvel Snap's decision to exclude rewarded ads likely cost the developers approximately $250,000 in additional revenue during the initial launch period, representing a 14% loss compared to their actual in-app purchase (IAP) revenue.
- The game's marketing team appears under-resourced for mobile UA, with a heavy AAA/console focus that neglects critical mobile-first operations such as custom ad placements and vertical video formats for social platforms.
- The UA strategy suffers from poor network optimization; because the game features cards, ad algorithms (such as Unity and IronSource) are incorrectly categorizing it as a classic card game, leading to inefficient traffic targeting.
Enad Global 7 Annual Report 2023
Enad Global 7 achieved a significant financial turnaround in 2023, reporting net revenue of SEK 2,045 million and a net profit of SEK 199.6 million, a marked improvement over the substantial losses recorded in 2022.
- Enad Global 7 achieved a financial turnaround in 2023 with SEK 2,045 million in net revenue and a net profit of SEK 199.6 million, reversing the losses recorded in 2022.
- The company has set a 2026 financial target of SEK 3 billion in revenue and SEK 1 billion in adjusted EBITDA, supported by a planned SEK 360 million investment in middle-market publishing and new growth vectors.
- Financial stability has been strengthened by eliminating all external debt liabilities and maintaining a liquidity position of approximately SEK 480 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Kress's Corner with Second Dinner's Matt Wyble, the creators of Marvel Snap
The success of Marvel Snap stems from an inside-out development philosophy that prioritizes polished, moment-to-moment gameplay before integrating meta-progression and monetization.
- Second Dinner is scaling operations following a $100 million funding round to support the long-term growth of Marvel Snap, including expansion into the Chinese market and enhanced PC support.
- The studio is shifting its development strategy from a core-gameplay-first approach to a more robust, proactive live-service model to avoid post-release operational strain.
- Artificial intelligence is being deployed as a productivity multiplier for tasks like code review, balance testing, and data analysis rather than as a cost-cutting tool.
Hearthstone’s 10th Anniversary on Live Streaming
The tenth anniversary of Hearthstone serves as a case study for the enduring influence of digital collectible card games (CCGs) on live-streaming platforms.
- Hearthstone’s 10th-anniversary events, including Community Day and Theorycrafting streams, drove a 79% increase in weekly viewership, reaching 4.2 million hours watched.
- The March 11th Community Day generated over 1 million hours watched in 24 hours, attracting 291,000 unique viewers.
- Twitch drops were the primary driver of engagement during the anniversary, accounting for 72% of all hours watched during Community Day.
Crafting an Unbeatable Game Thesis with Phillip Black
A game thesis serves as a strategic, logical argument for a game’s existence, moving beyond personal preference to provide a persuasive case for investors, publishers, and internal development teams.
- A game thesis functions as a strategic business proposition that justifies a project's existence to stakeholders by proving market viability and resource alignment.
- The framework requires answering five core questions: market size, specific opportunity, balance of innovation versus standards, content retention pipelines, and monetization hooks.
- Developers should hedge risk by adopting proven mechanics from successful industry titles while innovating in areas where competitors are limited by legacy constraints.
Plus: October's Big Steam Hits – Poked At
This analysis evaluates the performance of major video game launches on Steam and other platforms during October 2022.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II dominated October 2022 Steam performance with nearly 240,000 concurrent users (CCU), despite technical issues impacting user reviews.
- Victoria 3 demonstrated the persistent market strength of the grand strategy genre by achieving over 70,000 CCU on Steam.
- Persona 5 Royal significantly outperformed expectations, converting pre-release interest into active players at four times the projected rate to reach 35,000 CCU.
ByteDance May Sell Some of Its Games to Tencent
ByteDance is currently exploring the divestment of its gaming division, Nuverse, as part of a broader corporate restructuring initiated in late 2023.
- ByteDance is negotiating the sale of its gaming division, Nuverse, to potential buyers including Tencent as part of a major corporate restructuring.
- Despite investing approximately 30 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) in gaming M&A between 2019 and 2022, the division contributed less than 1% of ByteDance's $54 billion revenue in the first half of 2023.
- ByteDance is considering the divestment of major assets including the titles Crystal of Atlan and Earth: Revival, as well as Moonton Technology, which was acquired for $4 billion in 2021.
The State of Web3 Trading Card Games
Web3 trading card games represent a strategic evolution of digital collectibility, leveraging blockchain technology to formalize rarity and secondary market dynamics.
- Web3 trading card games are significantly smaller than established Web2 competitors like Marvel Snap, with leading titles such as Gods Unchained, Sky Weaver, and Parallel typically maintaining concurrent user bases in the low tens of thousands.
- The sector is pivoting away from speculative, bot-driven play-to-earn models toward a focus on polished gameplay, live operations, and genuine player engagement.
- Developers face a fundamental conflict in balancing game design with asset economics, as adjusting card mechanics often alienates players who view their digital assets primarily as financial investments.
Clash Mini Faces the Make it or Break it Moment
Clash Mini currently occupies a precarious position within the mobile gaming market, serving as a high-stakes test case for Supercell’s ability to pivot a struggling title toward long-term viability.
- Clash Mini faces a high risk of cancellation because it fails to meet Supercell’s internal performance benchmarks required for a global release.
- Despite a comprehensive 2.0 overhaul and two years in soft launch, the game has failed to achieve the explosive Revenue Per Download growth needed to compete with titles like TeamFight Tactics.
- The shift to a gacha-heavy monetization model provided only modest, temporary stabilization in revenue and engagement rather than long-term sustainable growth.
Game of the Year: Blockbuster Edition
The Video Games Industry Memo’s year-end review serves as a community-driven retrospective on the most significant titles of 2023.
- Epic Games secured a landmark antitrust victory against Google in late 2023, signaling a major shift in digital storefront competition and platform dynamics.
- The E3 trade show officially dissolved in 2023, marking a transition toward decentralized promotional models for the video game industry.
- Top-performing titles of 2023 included The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Super Mario Wonder, Alan Wake 2, Marvel Snap, and Resident Evil 4 (Mercenaries mode).
Median Revenue and Player Count for Top Free-to-Play Games on Steam
The analysis examines the performance of free-to-play (F2P) titles on the Steam platform, addressing the inherent difficulty in tracking revenue and player metrics within the PC ecosystem.
- The median gross revenue for top-tier new free-to-play Steam releases is approximately $1.82 million, with a median player count of 763,000.
- The median revenue per player (RpP) is $2.02, though top-performing titles can achieve an RpP as high as $53.49.
- Library additions for free-to-play titles consistently exceed actual active player counts by a factor of 1.5 to 2.
Marvel Snap Generates Over $116 Million on Mobile in Its First Year: US Leading in Revenue and Downloads
Marvel Snap has achieved significant commercial success in its first year of operation, establishing itself as a leader in the mobile collectible card game (CCG) market.
- Marvel Snap generated $116.7 million in global in-app purchase revenue during its first year, making it the highest-grossing mobile collectible card game of 2023.
- The United States is the primary market for the title, contributing 60.8% of total revenue and 23.4% of its 23.7 million lifetime downloads.
- Revenue distribution favors iOS at 57% of earnings, while Android dominates user acquisition with 69% of total downloads.