As 2024 approaches, many people predict that the game industry will be extraordinary in 2024, based on the fact that global mobile game revenue will return to an upward trajectory, and the liberalization of edition numbers will ease the pressure on the supply side. The strong performance of many products in Q1 has become the argument for this forecast.
According to the "Quarterly Report on China's Game Industry from January to March 2024" released by Gamma Data, during the entire Q1 period, the actual sales revenue of China's game market was 72.638 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.60%;
Source: China Game Industry Research Institute & Gamma Data (CNG)
The actual sales revenue of China's self-developed games in overseas markets was US$4.075 billion, an increase of 5.03% month-on-month and 5.08% year-on-year, and its increase was brought by long-term products and new products.
Source: China Game Industry Research Institute & Gamma Data (CNG)
Source: China Game Industry Research Institute & Gamma Data (CNG)
Entering Q2, the latest report of Gamma Data pointed out that the overall scale of China's game market fell slightly in April, and the decline was mainly affected by the mobile game market.
However, in May and June, the market will return to an upward trajectory.
Throughout Q2, masterpieces have sprung up, and their strong momentum is even worse than that of Q1.
For example, in the field of secondary games, the IP masterpiece "Persona: Phantom of the Night" and the open-world game "Singing Tide" have made a strong attack, and the new national style antiquities collection mobile game "Wuhua Mi Xin" is quite eye-catching; Products such as Xin's "Let's Go Muffin", Bilibili's game "Three Kingdoms: Conquer the World" and NetEase's "Firefly Assault" are so "able to fight" that people's jaws drop. And "DNF Mobile Game" has become the "king" of Q2, since its launch, it has firmly sat at the top of the best-selling list of games in the App Store, and was only killed by "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" on June 19, it is like a dome, so that all Q2 online games are covered in this "dome", and the upper limit of its flow is severely suppressed.
Let's follow the game think tank to review how the products that will be launched in the second quarter of 2024 are performing.
Perfect World Persona: Phantom of the Night
On April 12, 2024, Perfect World's Persona: Phantom of the Night (P5X) was in open beta on all platforms and gained considerable market attention.
On the one hand, "Persona IP" has a huge influence in China, and the slogan of "P5 is the first in the world" has been recognized by many passers-by. On the other hand, "P5X" has obtained SEGA's genuine IP authorization, and ATLUS is deeply involved, so the modeling, vertical painting, ui, BGM and other parts of the game are basically authentic, which is also the key driving force for players to download.
However, although standing on the shoulders of giants, "P5X" did not play at the ideal level, and many players reported that the game was too "liver" and "krypton", especially many IP players, because they did not adapt to the huge difference between stand-alone games and long-term operation mobile games, and retreated, and the game's TapTap score also fell to 5.6 points like a "cliff", and although it rebounded later, it only rose to 6.1 points.
In terms of results, Qimai data shows that "P5X" topped the App Store game free list on the day it was launched, but the follow-up was weak, falling out of the TOP20 on April 22, falling out of the TOP100 on May 7, and the ranking has been hovering between 250-350 in the last half month.
"P5X" has a considerable revenue in the early days of its launch, but when it enters the long grass period, its position on the best-selling list of games in the App Store will decline significantly, and the ranking will rise when the new version is launched, but it is basically the position of the TOP30 goalkeeper.
Throughout 2023, Perfect World's net profit will drop by 64.31% year-on-year, and it urgently needs another "Tower of Fantasy" to support the company's profits.
Station B "Materiality and Beauty"
On April 19th, "Wuhua Mixin", which was developed by Word Brand Club and jointly issued by Station B, was officially launched. The work was first revealed in 2020, when its name was still "Laigu Mixin", and it was renamed in January 2024 when it obtained the edition number.
As a mobile game for the collection of antiquities in the new national style, the vivid anthropomorphism of antiquities and the artistic and musical expressions rich in the charm of the new national style are the key to impressing many players. The core gameplay of the game lies in the development of strategic chess and cards, and "Wuhua Mi Xin" has also appropriately reduced the burden on the traditional design of the second game, which is in line with the development trend of the domestic second game category in the past six months.
On the day of its launch, the game ranked No. 2 on the App Store's free list and No. 25 on the App Store's best-selling list, and the number of first-day registrations exceeded one million.
During the entire Q2 period, "Wuhua Mixin" basically maintained the performance of a domestic second-tier game second-tier product, and the ranking of the App Store game free list in the last month was basically around 400, and basically every version update can rush to the 50th place on the App Store game best-selling list, which can be regarded as relying on its own characteristics, and successfully walked out of a path of its own.
Heartbeat "Let's Go Muffin"
On May 14th, XD's self-developed idle game "Let's Go Muffin" was officially launched, and after its launch, except for June 22nd and 23rd, its ranking was in the top 10 best-selling games in the App Store.
According to Diandian data, the estimated revenue of iOS in the first month (after deducting channel shares) is 187 million yuan.
In the eyes of many people, the results of "Let's Go Muffin" are surprising, but if you know the work, you will find that this is actually expected. "Let's Go Muffen" was launched in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in January this year, and soon achieved the "dominance" of multiple platforms and channels in the target region, and the revenue of the next month surged by 257% month-on-month.
Although the game focuses on cute, fresh, relaxed and cheerful style and casual gameplay of "placement and hang-up", it deeply integrates a large number of MMO elements in terms of content, and carries out corresponding gameplay innovation on the basis of integration with the healing theme to ensure that the needs of more users are covered.
In addition, on the marketing side, "Let's Go Muffin" adopts high-flying saturation marketing, starting from multi-dimensional and multi-circle, accumulating voice with rich content, ensuring market popularity, and improving customer acquisition efficiency, such as joining hands with Tengger, Yang Chaoyue, UZI, Li Yuling and other multi-circle stars to continue to break the circle, and the short video will grasp the head and waist experts with one hand, so as to achieve full marketing coverage, especially the linkage with the "line puppy", which has aroused strong repercussions among young people.
NetEase Octopath Traveler: The Overlord of the Continent
"Octopath Traveler: Overlord of the Mainland" was officially launched on the national server on May 16, and the work was authorized by SQUARE ENIX and distributed by NetEase.
The biggest highlight of this game is that it inherits the outstanding features of the Octopath Traveler series in terms of graphics, music, gameplay, etc., creating an authentic JRPG experience for players while telling a new story that is different from the past.
Due to the global reputation and influence of IP, SQUARE ENIX is very optimistic about the development of Octopath Traveler: Overlord of the Continent in China, and even Yuto Suzuki, the lead producer of the mobile game project, and Yasutomo Nishiki, the music composer of the Octopath Traveler series, jointly launched a live broadcast to show players the excitement of the game. THIS ATTITUDE HAS ALSO ALLOWED SQUARE ENIX AND NETEASE TO FORM A STRONG ALLIANCE TO EXPRESS THE DEEPEST CHARM OF JRPGS.
Combined with Qimai data, it can be seen that the results of "Octopath Traveler: Overlord of the Continent" have been relatively stable after its launch, and the ranking of the App Store game free list has stabilized at about 400 after a period of decline in the past month, and the App Store game best-selling list has been floating between 50-150 in the past month.
Tencent's Dungeons & Warriors: Origins
Since the launch of the national server on May 21 this year, except for June 19, when it was squeezed into second place by "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", the rest of the time has been firmly at the top of the best-selling list of games in the App Store, which is the achievement created by "Dungeons & Warriors: Origins" (referred to as "DNF mobile game").
After the game was launched, entries such as "topped the iOS free list in the pre-download stage" and "climbed to the top of the iOS best-selling list in only 6 hours" have been swiped one after another, which shows the popularity.
DNF mobile game can create such achievements, many people take it for granted, after all, there are "8 million warriors" standing behind it, and the player base and past precipitation determine that it should be able to play, not to mention that it is based on the 60 version, and the core content such as professional skills, combat experience, and sense of attack has been highly restored, awakening the feelings of countless players to DNF in the depths of their hearts.
According to the estimate of the overseas group of Guohai Securities, the first-day turnover of DNF mobile games is about 300 million yuan, and the three-day turnover is about 7~800 million.
According to Sensor Tower data, from May 21 to May 31, the revenue of DNF mobile games in the domestic iOS market has exceeded the combined revenue of "Honor of Kings" and "Peace Elite". In the first month, the turnover of the iOS platform in China reached 270 million US dollars (about 2 billion yuan), accounting for 60.1% of the total game revenue of 450 million US dollars (about 3.3 billion yuan)
On May 30, Niko Partners, a game research company, said that DNF mobile games had spent more than US$140 million (about 1.016 billion yuan) in the first week of player spending, and another institution said that if DNF mobile games can maintain this momentum, they will bring more than US$1 billion (about 7.26 billion yuan) in revenue to Tencent this year.
Kulo Game "Singing Tide"
On May 23, Kulo Games' open-world action game "Singing Tide" was officially launched in more than 170 countries and regions around the world. On the eve of its launch, 32 million global pre-orders supported the game's user base, pushing "Singing Tide" to the second place in the App Store's free game list on the first day of its launch, and it didn't begin to decline until May 28, but the decline has accelerated in the last half month.
In terms of the App Store game best-selling list, "Ming Tide" ranked among the top 10 best-selling games in 23 countries and regions around the world, and then due to the impact of the early opening of the popular character "Yinlin" card pool, "Ming Tide" equaled the best result of the 5th place on the App Store game best-selling list in its own country on June 6. On June 28th, the new character "Jinxi" debuted, and the ranking of "Singing Tide" on the best-selling list has increased significantly, but many players have reported that the lag phenomenon is more serious after the update, and it needs to be further optimized.
On May 21, the day the pre-download was opened, it rushed to the top 10 of the App Store free game list in 159 countries and regions, and Sensor tower data showed that "Ming Tide" successfully won the top spot in the overseas revenue growth list of Chinese mobile games in May 2024.
However, combined with the previous market expectations and its own category positioning, the results of "Ming Tide" at home and abroad are not amazing, which is in line with expectations.
And since the birth of "Singing Tide", its controversy has never ended. For example, in terms of copywriting, from "why are you still there" that made countless players break their defenses during the internal test, to the explosion after the open beta for a long time, it can be applied to almost all fields of "XX is like this, XX only needs XX, but there are more things to consider in XX", and even let heavy physical miners "eat lightly".
Regarding the character design, the unique design of the male character's "scar" crotch with a black bar was also criticized by both male and female users after it was released.
Nowadays, the needs of second-game players have become diverse, subdivided and acute, and the exclusivity of various communities has aggravated this trend.
But judging from the results, some of the designs of "Singing Tide" have a relatively clear tendency, and many thunder points are also hidden in them, which makes players frown from time to time. On the surface, players are playing memes or insulting catharsis, but in essence, they are expressing their dissatisfaction with the product design. The above controversy has made the bright spots that should have been discussed, such as the refreshing combat system and the "Pokémon-like" gameplay of "Singing Tide", ignored by players. Although in the follow-up, "Singing Tide" won some praise with sending self-selection and sending ten consecutive games, there are still many players who abandon the pit because of their negative experience, which has caused irreparable impact.
NetEase "Firefly Assault"
On June 6th, NetEase's "Firefly Assault" was officially launched, as early as a week before the open beta, the number of pre-orders for the whole platform of the work has exceeded 1500w, and it landed first on the overall list of the App Store free list on the day of the open beta, which is very strong.
"Firefly Assault" is a tactical gold game, and the key to its fame on the track lies in the design of "high gold rate", which also directly hits the needs of players, so that the player's game experience has been significantly improved, this simple happiness will spread to the community through social networking, and even form a consensus, affecting the attention of other circle players.
In addition, the diversified prop gameplay makes the game hardcore exciting and very strategic. As early as the beginning of the finalization, the official made it clear that the gun skin will never be commercialized, and it will impress players simply and directly, and many equipment can also be obtained through micro-krypton.
After its launch, "Firefly Assault" has always maintained a strong performance, ranking within the TOP5 on the free list of games on the App Store for a long time, and the best-selling list has also been stable in the range of 40-60.
Station B "Three Kingdoms: Plotting the World"
On June 13, 2024, "Three Kingdoms: Conquering the World" officially opened the open beta.
As early as the eve of the launch, "Three Kingdoms: Plot the World" has gained unprecedented popularity with diversified marketing, and a number of B station UP owners have spread the influence of "Three Schemes" to multiple circles in the form of videos, live broadcasts, short videos, etc., and the App Store Today recommends that the product be further exposed, and the continuous recognition of follow-up players provides a guarantee for the product's performance.
Since its launch, "Three Kingdoms: Conquering the World" has firmly established itself in the TOP5 best-selling list of games in the App Store, and it has also performed considerably in terms of the free list of games in the App Store.
The support of the excellent results of "Three Kingdoms: Conquering the World" exists inside and outside the game. In the game, it connects and reshapes the core architecture of SLG games, on the one hand, it uses innovation to highlight the gameplay of social networking and gambling, and on the other hand, it uses burden reduction to amplify the high-quality experience. Outside the game, a set of matrix marketing combinations across "multi-field, multi-form" is played, and through the divergence in a broad sense, marketing is not confined to the content itself, and jumps out of the mindset of traditional SLG marketing, so as to impress more users.
Of course, "Three Kingdoms: Conquering the World" can activate a new form of marketing with innovation, which is inseparable from the attention and support given by Station B, and Station B, which itself is a channel, can reduce the burden of game purchases to a certain extent, which is also an advantage that similar products do not have.
What's more, the emergence of "Three Kingdoms: Conquering the World" has broken the current solidified SLG market pattern, and even driven the products of the same track to start "volume innovation" and "volume welfare", and promoted the active change of the SLG track that has been quiet for a long time.
Tencent's "Taris's World"
On June 12th, the Western fantasy-themed MMORPG double-ended game "Taris World", which was developed by Tencent and Ledong Excellence, was officially launched, and quickly topped the App Store free list on the first day.
At the same time, "World of Taris" also entered the top 20 best-selling games in the App Store after its launch, and then declined. "World of Taris" is a season-based product, focusing on the team-based experience, and avoiding numerical sales in commercialization, and the best-selling list performance is looking forward to its future efforts.
On June 21st, the "World of Taris" international server was also officially launched, and on the first day of launch, "World of Taris" topped the free list of 31 countries, and topped the top 5 of the Twitch live game list in the first weekend of the server.
As a domestic Western fantasy MMO game, the main reason for such achievements overseas is that "Taris World" gives players more diverse and free choices, such as character occupations, development paths, gameplay experience, etc., and explores unique fun in insisting on freedom and inherent framework to ensure product playability.