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Plus: Witness the Elden Ring-ness!
Elden Ring's launch dominates this weekly PC and console performance roundup from GameDiscoverCo's Simon Carless, covering the last week of February 2022 across Steam, Apple Arcade, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and Epic Games Store.
- Elden Ring achieved a peak of 764,000 concurrent users on Steam at launch, with long-term sales projections estimated between 10 and 20 million units.
- Despite high commercial demand, Elden Ring’s PC port holds a 59% positive review rating on Steam due to technical issues involving DirectX 12 and frame-rate stuttering.
- Apple Arcade’s strategic pivot toward 'plus' titles—ports of existing mobile hits like Solitaire and Mahjong—has increased the service's broad appeal but lowered average usage-based payouts for developers of exclusive games.
VR Explosion: Examining Quest 2's Top Genres and Games
Meta's Quest 2, which has likely sold around 10 million units since its October 2020 launch, accounts for the bulk of recent VR software sales, and a guest analysis by Cassia Curran of Curran Games Agency (commissioned by Fruity Systems) examines which games and genres succeed on its heavily curated store.
- The Meta Quest 2 ecosystem, which reached an estimated 10 million units by late 2021, exhibits a 'hockey stick' revenue distribution where a small elite group of titles significantly outperforms the median.
- Multiplayer and cooperative titles generate higher average revenue than single-player games, though this performance is often tied to larger initial development budgets.
- Shooters and fighting games consistently overperform on the Quest Store, while arcade, casual, and puzzle categories are oversaturated and generally underperform.
FY 2020/21 Sales Target Exceeded
Nacon, the BIGBEN Group's video game publishing and gaming-peripherals unit, reports fiscal 2020/21 sales of 177.9 M€, up 37.5% from 129.4 M€ and above the 160-170 M€ target raised in November 2020.
- Nacon achieved record revenue of 177.9 million euros for the 2020/21 fiscal year, a 37.5% increase over the previous year that exceeded upwardly revised targets.
- The gaming accessories segment nearly doubled its revenue to 103.2 million euros, driven by RIG headset integration, strong demand for licensed PlayStation 4 controllers, and new Xbox Series X|S peripherals.
- The company maintained an 18% current operating income rate and plans to revise its 2023 long-term strategic plan upward to reflect accelerated growth and improved margins.
Four Mobile Game Trends to Look Out for in 2021
GameRefinery's analyst team identifies four mobile game design trends expected to shape 2021, drawing on observations across Chinese, Japanese, and Western markets.
- Match3 puzzle games remain the most significant sub-genre in the US market, accounting for just over 17% of all mobile game revenue on iOS.
- Mobile games are increasingly adopting 'social 2.0' features, such as virtual live event spaces and avatar-based social hubs, to foster community interaction similar to PC and console titles.
- Chinese developers are successfully exporting high-quality, feature-rich casual games to Western markets, as evidenced by the performance of titles like Project Makeover.
2021 Predictions: Sports Games Race into a Billion Dollar Club
Western-market mobile Sports & Racing crossed the billion-dollar threshold for the first time in 2020, reaching $1.2 billion in revenue, up roughly 30% from $827 million the year before.
- The mobile Sports and Racing category surpassed $1.2 billion in annual revenue in 2020, representing a 30% year-over-year growth that pushed the sector into the billion-dollar club.
- Fishing Clash achieved significant market disruption in 2020, growing revenue by 155% and downloads by 162% to capture a 19.3% market share, effectively displacing FIFA as the second-largest sports game by revenue.
- Tennis Clash experienced explosive growth in 2020, with revenue increasing 331% and downloads rising 104% following its late-2019 launch.
1 Thing to Innovate the Casino Genre
Social "hangout areas" are presented as the single most promising way to innovate the casino and slots genre, a December 2020 GameRefinery blog post by Altti Fromholdt of the Game Growth Dev team.
- Casino games can drive innovation by integrating 'hangout areas'—social spaces outside of core gameplay—similar to those found in titles like PUBG, Fortnite, Roblox, and various Chinese market games.
- The 'hangout area' concept allows for expanded player engagement through features like customizable avatars, social interaction with guild members, and dedicated spaces for different game modes.
- Successful casino titles like Slotomania have already validated the effectiveness of collection meta-gameplay, which can be further enhanced by incorporating these social hangout spaces.
Joining Mobile's Most Exclusive Members Club
Mobile game designer Niek Tuerlings of Voodoo argues that HybridCasual, a term coined roughly a year before this November 2020 guest post, risks becoming an empty buzzword unless it is defined by concrete design criteria.
- HybridCasual games combine a simple, arcade-style core interaction—optimized for low CPI and high accessibility—with a deep metagame designed to maximize long-term retention.
- Successful HybridCasual titles rely on motoric challenge and round-based gameplay, which allows developers to influence perceived skill by balancing player strength against increasing difficulty.
- The metagame in HybridCasual titles must remain simple, typically featuring only a few layers of progression such as character levels, gear, and talent upgrades to ensure the game remains easily digestible.
Sales for First Half of FY 2020/21
Nacon experienced significant financial growth during the first half of the 2020/2021 fiscal year, covering the period from April 1 to September 30, 2020.
- Nacon reported total sales of 86.6 M€ for the first half of FY 2020/21, a 35.9% increase year-over-year, leading the company to raise its full-year sales target to between 150 M€ and 160 M€.
- The accessories segment was the primary growth driver, surging 118% to 51.6 M€ due to strong demand for RIG headsets in the U.S. and PlayStation 4 controllers.
- Gaming software sales declined 13.1% to 32.8 M€ for the half-year, though the second quarter saw a 3.0% recovery following the releases of WRC 9 and Tennis World Tour 2.
24.5% Sales Increase in Q1 Despite a Strong Comparison Basis
Nacon, the video game publisher and gaming peripherals arm of the BIGBEN Group, reported first-quarter FY2020/21 sales (April 1 to June 30, 2020) of €38.0 million, up 24.5% from €30.5 million a year earlier despite a demanding comparison base.
- Nacon reported a 24.5% year-over-year sales increase for Q1 2020/21, reaching €38.0 million despite a challenging comparison basis.
- The accessories division grew 134.9% to €22.5 million, fueled by the acquisition of the RIG headset brand and expansion into the U.S. market.
- Digital distribution accounted for 80.7% of total game turnover, with back-catalogue sales surging 340% to €10.8 million.
Take Your Game's Retention to the Next Level With Collaboration Events
Promotional collaboration events, which bring IP crossovers into a game through narrative content, special modes, or exclusive characters, items, and cosmetics, are presented as a powerful live ops tool for boosting retention and lifetime value in free-to-play mobile titles.
- Collaboration events can drive significant revenue spikes, as seen with Identity V, where a Persona 5 event increased US iOS revenue from 3K to 49K and a Danganronpa event boosted it from 9K to 65K.
- Dragalia Lost leveraged partnerships with major franchises like Fire Emblem, Megaman, and Monster Hunter to achieve peak US iOS revenues exceeding 60K per event.
- Collaboration events function as powerful live ops tools to re-engage existing players through unique, limited-time content and to acquire new users with high affinity for the partner brand.
How Did April Fools Show in Mobile Games?
Mobile game publishers marked April Fools' Day 2020 with a range of one-day seasonal events, according to a GameRefinery analyst's firsthand survey of live updates in the days after April 1.
- Mobile game developers utilized April Fools' Day to drive engagement through diverse, short-term live events, ranging from social media campaigns to in-game content updates.
- ForwardWorks implemented a comprehensive April Fools' takeover in Disgaea RPG, featuring a rebranded splash screen, character model swaps to penguin mascots, a specialized gacha banner, and a unique battle event.
- Applibot’s Blade X Lord executed a one-day story event that included farmable stages, a special boss, an exchange shop, and a free 10x gacha pull to provide tangible value to players.
2020 Predictions #10: Playbook to Reach the Top of Sports Games
Sports & Racing was the smallest mobile gaming category in 2019, generating roughly $850M in revenue, up 17% year over year.
- The Sports and Racing categories saw a 17% year-over-year increase in combined revenue and downloads in 2019, though growth remains heavily dependent on established intellectual property and existing market leaders.
- Arcade Sports is the most dynamic sub-genre, with Golf Clash dominating 62% of the sector's revenue in 2019 and newer entrants like Tennis Clash successfully capturing market share.
- The Realistic Sports sub-genre is stagnant, with revenue growing only 4% and downloads declining 7% in 2019 as aging titles like 8 Ball Pool, Madden NFL, and FIFA Soccer continue to control the market.