AppMagic
AppMagic is a mobile app market intelligence service for app and game market research. It publishes reports and articles on top mobile games by revenue and downloads, hypercasual and hybridcasual markets, and app categories.
Documents
Merge Games: To Do or Not to Do?
The merge game market is currently defined by a stark divide between high-revenue, established archetypes and emerging sub-genres that offer greater potential for creative differentiation.
- The merge game market is bifurcated between high-revenue, consolidated Merge-3/5 titles and the more accessible Merge-2 sub-genre.
- Merge-3/5 games, such as Merge Dragons! and EverMerge, are dominated by large-scale organizations due to the high capital requirements for user acquisition and development.
- New entrants face prohibitive barriers to entry in the Merge-3/5 category, making the risk-to-reward ratio unfavorable for independent studios.
Idle Tycoon Games: Market Overview
The idle tycoon genre has experienced significant growth in the mobile gaming market, driven by a shift toward more complex gameplay and higher revenue-per-download (RpD) models.
- The idle tycoon genre reached a cumulative monthly net in-app purchase revenue exceeding $21 million by early 2022, with total revenue including advertising estimated at $30 million.
- Market strategy has shifted from ad-heavy monetization to robust in-app purchase models, resulting in surging revenue despite stable download volumes.
- Leading titles such as Gold & Goblins, Idle Mafia, and Idle Lumber Empire demonstrate that small teams can achieve scale through aggressive creative testing, publishing partnerships, and deep live-ops integration.
Mobile Games in 2021: The Most Notable Trends and Releases
This analysis examines the Western mobile gaming market in 2021, focusing on revenue and download trends across major genres.
- Established genres like Slots and Match-3 remain dominant in the Tier-1 West market, though Match-3 faced significant disruption from the entry of Royal Match.
- Chinese developers continue to lead the 4X Strategy segment by leveraging major Western franchises to capture market share.
- The farming genre is a high-growth area characterized by steady expansion and strong long-term user engagement.
A Statistics-Based Approach to Picking a Game Setting That Best Matches Your Chosen Genre 2021
The primary objective of this analysis is to provide game developers with a data-driven framework for selecting game settings that align with specific genres to optimize target audience reach and cost per install.
- Strategic alignment between game genre and setting is a primary driver of scalability, monetization potential, and cost per install.
- Casual and hypercasual titles achieve the highest download volumes by utilizing 'Real Life' settings, which minimize user onboarding friction.
- Core genres such as 4X Strategy and Action RPGs leverage 'Fantasy' settings to support complex monetization models and immersive world-building.
Top 10 Games in Argentina: H1 2021
The mobile gaming market in Argentina during the first half of 2021 demonstrated a notable shift in consumer preferences, characterized by a strong appetite for both established global titles and emerging children-focused games.
- In H1 2021, Garena Free Fire and Roblox were the top two games by revenue in Argentina, though their earnings decreased by 19% and 25% respectively compared to the previous period.
- Genshin Impact and Toca Life World both doubled their revenues in H1 2021 compared to H2 2020, with Toca Life World, a kids' game, notably entering Argentina's top 10 grossing games.
- Among Us maintained its top position by downloads in H1 2021 but experienced a significant 75% decrease in downloads, while Garena Free Fire, also a top download, saw a smaller 29% decline.
How to Evaluate Mobile Game Ideas
Evaluating the commercial viability of mobile game ideas requires a rigorous, data-driven approach to avoid the high failure rates common in the industry.
- With approximately 10,000 new games launching on mobile stores monthly, developers must prioritize rigorous market research over personal passion to mitigate high failure rates.
- Market viability is primarily determined by the ability to acquire users at a positive return on investment, as organic growth is rare and unreliable.
- Developers should analyze both top-performing and unsuccessful titles to avoid survivorship bias and identify whether a segment is saturated, declining, or unprofitable.
What Genres Were Booming in 2020
This analysis examines the mobile gaming market landscape in 2020, focusing on revenue and download trends across Tier-1 Western and Eastern markets.
- The mobile gaming market in 2020 remained highly sensitive to blockbuster releases, exemplified by Genshin Impact generating $520 million in its first four months and PUBG Mobile reaching $3 billion in lifetime revenue.
- Among Us experienced viral growth in 2020, recording a 735% surge in monthly downloads by September.
- Tier-1 Eastern markets saw sharp revenue spikes in the Battler subgenre, while Third-Person Shooters maintained dominance through established titles like PUBG Mobile.
A Statistics-Based Approach to Picking a Game Setting That Best Matches Your Chosen Genre 2020
This research provides a statistical analysis of mobile game settings and their correlation with genre performance, aiming to guide developers in making informed design choices that optimize target audience reach and cost per install.
- The Real Life setting is the most effective for market reach in the West, accounting for 31% of all analyzed games and 42% of cumulative downloads due to its high accessibility and minimal tutoring requirements.
- Fantasy and Oriental Fantasy settings dominate revenue charts in Tier-1 East markets (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan), while Real Life settings are primarily driving growth in the hypercasual sector.
- Complex settings like Fantasy are statistically correlated with high-grossing, sophisticated genres such as RPGs and 4X strategy games.
Building Your Product Strategy Based on Market Research
Developing a successful mobile gaming product strategy requires a rigorous, data-driven approach to market research that aligns internal development capabilities with specific market opportunities.
- Align product strategy by matching genre selection with your studio's existing technical expertise, development velocity, and financial capacity for user acquisition.
- Identify viable market niches by analyzing cumulative revenue and download trends to find segments where new titles are successfully capturing market share.
- In highly competitive markets, prioritize success by adding innovative meta-gameplay to established core mechanics or by addressing specific user experience flaws in underperforming titles.
Report on App Categories
This research provides a comprehensive analysis of the non-gaming mobile application market, focusing on shifting market shares, revenue performance, and lifetime value (LTV) across various categories.
- Video apps, led by YouTube, Twitch, and BIGO LIVE, represent the highest growth category in Western markets as of early 2020.
- Video-on-demand services account for 20% of total in-app purchase revenue in Eastern markets.
- Asian markets demonstrate a higher density of apps with high average lifetime value (LTV) compared to Western markets.
Not So Trivial Lessons Learned from Launching Mid-Core Games
The primary objective of this analysis is to provide strategic guidance for developers and publishers navigating the competitive landscape of mid-core mobile gaming.
- Games that fail to demonstrate upward momentum within the first three months of a global launch rarely achieve long-term success, necessitating a pivot or resource reallocation.
- Average cost-per-install (CPI) in the mobile gaming market is rising by approximately 30% year-over-year, significantly increasing the difficulty of scaling titles profitably.
- High-LTV genres such as 4X strategy and RPGs require substantial upfront investment in content and technical sophistication to remain competitive against high barriers to entry.