Mobile gaming has seen incredible growth over the last two years despite a recent slowdown. With lockdowns and quarantine locking people at homes and shutting down shops in 2020, users flocked to the app stores to download and engage in casual gaming and the trend continues to grow.
According to Statista, 9/10 gamers are mobile gamers and almost 70 percent of all app store revenues are generated from gaming. The report also adds that the gaming population around the world will rise to 3.07 billion by the end of next year.
So, if you are in the business of casual mobile gaming, you are at the right vertical. In this article, we look at some major mobile gaming trends lately and also will provide some tips for casual mobile game marketers and how they can make the most of their user acquisition efforts.
Mobile gaming trends
Hyper-Casual Games have the lion’s share: The most successful genre in the gaming industry is hyper-casual games. These games don’t require too much attention and strategy and allow users to start easily and have fun. According to SensorTower, the hyper-casual gaming industry grew by a huge 45 percent in 2020. The number jumped to 78 percent in 2021, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.
In 2022 the number has again been on the rise and this genre continues to be a hot cake for mobile marketers despite the added competition in the segment.
Asian countries dominate the market: China, Japan, and the USA lead the space when it comes to generating revenue in this space while India also joins the fray when it comes to total downloads. According to AppAnnie, China had revenue of $56 billion in 2021 followed by USA and Japan respectively at $43 billion, and $20 billion.
When it comes to downloads, AppAnnie figures say China leads the download trends by a whopping 98 billion followed by India and USA at 26 billion, and 12 billion downloads, respectively.
So, if you are a mobile marketer looking to grow your app, the Asian markets along with the USA is the perfect opportunity and area to target and grow your gaming app.
Core games account for the largest revenue: In the mobile gaming industry, the consumer spend versus the number of downloads is proportional. Core games generate higher paying customers despite a low number of downloads and account for about 66 percent of the total consumer spend, reports Influencer Marketing Hub.
Casual games come in at second for about 23 percent of the total consumer spend while casino games have 11 percent of the share.
However, the number of downloads for casual games almost makes it an even playing field with core games despite its ability to draw bigger revenue.
Huge rise in ad creatives served: Ad creatives are rising and the right channels and quality of it matter the most. According to SocialPeta, last year saw a rise of 180 percent in ad creatives and as technology and optimizations grow, mobile marketers can use creatives at a much larger scale and more accurately.
Content and creative teams are growing by the day as app developers are relying on new technologies to meet the demand.
Women hold the majority share of mobile gamers: According to Statista studies, ****55 percent of the mobile casual gaming industry consists of women. MoPub studies say that women tend to play by 7 percent more often than men and for a longer duration by 25 percent (MMA). VentureBeat also reports that they spend more money on in-app purchases compared to men.
Women also tend to stick to one or two games compared to men, who tend to swing between many. Therefore, women are some of the best High LTV users and if mobile marketers can grow a strong female fanbase for their apps, the retention times, playtimes and app spend will magnify by a large number in the hyper-casual section.
Tips for casual gamers
As you can see, the casual game market is a goldmine for app developers and mobile marketers if they can make a good product and most importantly market it well in order to gain users.
Despite the huge competition, there is enough scope for good revenues for UA managers can tailor their strategy well and have an in-depth idea of their marketing campaigns and user base.
Here are some useful tips for casual gaming mobile marketers to follow:
- Make use of the data you already have: This includes data on ATT-opt-in users, data on Android users, historical campaign data, etc. For a complete overview of all this, you can use different tools that aggregate all this data in one place.
- Explore probabilistic attribution solutions: These solutions can help you link users to certain campaigns, making a useful addition to SKAN data.
- Utilize the power of predictions: Predictive marketing allows you to make quick campaign optimizations based on likely outcomes (e.g. predicted user LTVs, predicted ROAS).
- Create tailored conversion value strategies: You can measure CVs in different ways depending on the game’s main objectives (e.g. revenue or engagement-based strategy).
- Demonstrate trustworthiness: If you’re not only an app marketer but also an app owner, customize your ATT purpose string wisely. Make it clear and transparent about how it will use players’ data to reduce privacy concerns.
Use Tempr. for better results and scale faster
Mobile marketing experts can use prediction and automation to not only save time but also increase their return on ad spend (ROAS) for their casual gaming app with the help of Tempr.
Tempr. prediction tools can help user acquisition managers understand the potential return on their ad spends across various marketing channels and then make suggestions, which they can push across all the platforms with a click of a button, thus saving time and also increasing their revenue.
The platform can:
- Predict your ROAS D7, CPE D7.
- Recommending the optimal media mix across your channels.
- Implement optimizations in one click.
The mobile gaming industry will continue to grow and this is the time for app developers and marketers to work closely and have a comprehensive user acquisition strategy with the help of AI.
Prediction and automation tools will play a major role in the future of UA and the faster the companies adopt such methods, the better and quicker results will follow. With data being scarce because of privacy yet the most important factor, prediction tools like Tempr. can elevate a UA team’s efforts manifold and help in not only scale faster but also get better revenue.
So, if you want some help with prediction, don’t hesitate to reach out to us or try our 14-day free trial and check out for yourself how Tempr.’s magic can increase your ROAS and make UA more efficient.
