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The difficulty of the sea battle is about to increase
Under the background of the continuous implementation of the strictest anti-addiction measures and the failure to issue a version number for two consecutive months, game manufacturers who feel pressure have begun to look for a new way out, and the already hot sea track has once again entered the center of everyone's topic. Recently, the game tea house learned from a number of game populations: some publishers have quickly added overseas business units, some research and development is actively looking for overseas partners, while some manufacturers have made difficulties in the choice of overseas markets. So the game tea house will be the main countries and regions to introduce and summarize the main countries and regions, hoping to provide some help for the game peers who are opening up new markets.
01
Japan
Japan has always been one of the most important overseas markets for domestic games. First of all, from the data, it can be seen that the Japanese game market has the remarkable characteristics of large scale and high user value. According to the "Fami tong game white paper 2021" released by Kadokawa Ascii in July this year, the size of the Japanese game market will exceed 2 trillion yen (about 117.6 billion yuan) in 2020, and Japanese gamers will also break through the 50 million mark for the first time, reaching an increase of 110%.
Compared with other countries and regions around the world, although the number of players in the Japanese game market is difficult to rank among the top, and the number of active players is ranked outside the 10, it has always been the region with the highest revenue from in-app purchases. This fully demonstrates that Japanese players have strong spending power and high user value.
In terms of game categories, under the influence of local animation and two-dimensional culture, card RPG in Japan has the largest player volume, the highest in-app purchase revenue, and such products with IP are more likely to get players' payment; on the other hand, the payment situation of puzzle games that are integrated with elimination, simulation and other gameplay is general, but its absorption is better, and the growth of its active users is more stable.
(Source: ADTiming's 2021 Mid-Year Global Mobile Game Market Research Report)
At present, the best performance of domestic mobile games in the Japanese market is the two categories of cards and strategies. For example, the card placement game "Place Girl" developed by Ai Interactive Entertainment has been at the top of the best-seller list for many years since it was launched in Japan in 2017, and the two strategic products of "Puzzles & Survival" of 37 Interactive Entertainment and "Underworld" of Youta Network have also achieved very eye-catching results in Japan.
At the same time, with the increase in the number of domestic games that have entered the top of the Japanese game list in recent years, the revenue of China's mobile games in Japan has also shown a significant growth trend. According to Sensor Tower data, the Japanese market contributed $2.8 billion in revenue to domestic game manufacturers in 2020 (including only the top 30 games on the annual list), directly surpassing the United States and becoming the market with the highest overseas revenue for Chinese mobile games.
However, it is worth noting that the Japanese market has shown an obvious head curing phenomenon, the top of the App Store best-selling list in addition to several new IP works, most of them are old products that have been online for many years, of which "Zhilong Labyrinth", which has been sitting on the best-selling TOP10 for many years, has been released for a full 9 years, and "Monster Marbles" has also ushered in its 8th anniversary this year. From the data point of view, the card game with the most paid revenue in the Japanese market has also experienced weak growth and shrinking revenue in recent years.
A research and development team focusing on the Japanese market also told the tea house: "The competitive pressure in the Japanese market is very large, and japan needs more adequate preparation and investment." Therefore, for domestic game manufacturers who have newly entered the Japanese market, it is possible to win a place in the market in japan where the competition has become white and hot by choosing a game category with more stable market growth, polishing product quality, and using localized platforms such as social media, TV advertising, offline promotion, game magazines and IP linkage in Japan.
02
Korea
The situation in South Korea is similar to that in Japan, the market mainly shows the characteristics of large scale and high players' ability to pay. According to statistics, the total size of South Korea's mobile game market in 2020 exceeded 4.5 billion US dollars, an increase of 24.3% year-on-year, and it is the third largest market for Chinese games to go overseas in addition to Japan and the United States. And according to the "2020 Game User Fact-finding Report" released by the Korea Cultural Promotion Institute, 36.8% of players in South Korea have the habit of paying for mobile games, of which male players are more willing to pay than female players, and the largest number of payers is in the age group of 30-39 years old, accounting for nearly half of all players.
On the whole, the heavy trend of the Korean game market is very obvious, and Korean players especially prefer RPG, strategy and shooter games. According to the "2021 Mid-year Global Mobile Game Market Research Report" released by ADTiming, South Korea is the largest market for RPG games in addition to the Chinese (iOS) market, of which MMORPG and Open World have the strongest absorption and gold absorption ability in the Korean market, such as "Sword of Miracles" and "Original God" and other domestic boutique RPGs have won the favor of Korean players.
In addition, due to the similarity of the cultural roots of the two countries, Korean players are also more receptive to featured themes such as the Three Kingdoms, resulting in domestic strategy games with such themes being more easily accepted by Korean players, so domestic strategy games such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" can still sit at the top of the best-selling list under the attack of local boutiques.
Overall, although South Korea's local 3N (NCsoft, Netmarble, Nexon) giants still occupy most of the top seats in the best-seller list, after years of accumulation and hard work, the market share of domestic mobile games in South Korea is steadily growing.
According to Sensor Tower data, in this year's Q2 Korean mobile game best-selling list TOP100, a total of 31 Chinese mobile games, a total of more than 270 million US dollars, accounting for 25% of the total revenue of the Top100, although the number of shortlisted games is lower than Q1, but its revenue and proportion have increased, and a total of 6 domestic games in the quarter shortlisted for the Korean mobile game best-seller list TOP20, the number once again created a record high. In terms of new travel, the performance of domestic games is also very strong, Q2 South Korean mobile game market mobile game revenue growth list TOP5, there are 3 new games are from China, they are Lingxi Interactive Entertainment "Three Kingdoms Chronicles • Strategy Edition", Bilibili "Heavy ArmorEd Warrior" and Palm Fun Technology "One Punch Superman".
Although domestic games have strong competitiveness in South Korea, between Chinese manufacturers and Korean players, in addition to the game products themselves, there is also the issue of cultural ownership that has been controversial for many years. In October last year, hanbok's "Shine Warm and Warm" was finally closed because of the dispute over the origin of Hanfu and Hanfu; in February this year, whether a hat in "Sky Light Encounter" was made in China or Korean, also caused a fierce debate between netizens in the two countries.
Therefore, before Chinese manufacturers enter the Korean market, in addition to controlling product quality, they must also review and modify the controversial content in the game to avoid similar incidents that affect the reputation of the product to the greatest extent.
03
India
India, which is also adjacent to China, is a potential market with considerable user scale. Although india's ability to pay is very limited, India's huge demographic advantage has led to a considerable number of active users in the region, and it still maintains its position as the second largest game traffic pool in the world.
The large scale of users and the low ability to pay have led to a milder overall preference in the Indian market, and the users of ultra-casual, simulation and action games are more concentrated, among the paid products, FPS/TPS & Battle Royale is the main force of in-app purchases in the Indian market, and the in-purchase revenue of board games is the most intense.
In addition to ultra-casual games, the number of downloads of action games has also increased significantly recently, mainly due to the popularity of Ivy's two parkour games "Subway Princess Runner" and "Cat Runner: Decorate Home" in India.
From the perspective of transformational power, in India, the gold absorption ability of head SLGs such as "Kingdom Era" is still the most prominent. PuBG Mobile, which originally had a large number of players in the Indian region, was absent due to the government's removal, in fact, affected by the Indian government's decision,The number of users and revenue of domestic games in India has recently fallen sharply.
Therefore, manufacturers going to India also need to have the ability to resist certain policy risks, in addition to the possibility of domestic games being named by the Indian government, India's institutional regulations for chess and gambling games are also worth noting. The legal system for online gambling and gambling in each province in India is not the same, and the attitude of different provinces to the gaming industry is mainly absolutely prohibited, allowed and regulated according to law, so manufacturers who intend to enter the Indian market through gambling games need to do their homework in advance, avoid the provinces where gambling is prohibited, and prepare the corresponding operating licenses.
(14 states/states allow online and offline gambling under the Public Gambling Act of 1867)
04
United States
In the U.S. game market, the console market is still dominant, and console game revenue accounts for half of the overall U.S. game market in 2020. In the field of mobile games, the United States is second only to China, is the world's second largest mobile game market, according to Statista estimates, in 2021, the U.S. mobile game revenue is expected to be 20.554 billion US dollars, about twice the size of European mobile games.
And most European and American countries represented by the United States are more inclined to ultra-casual games, advertising monetization of ultra-casual games to attract a large number of active users, ultra-casual games, in recent years, parkour, simulation, puzzle play is the most popular. Since last year, after the popularity of "High Heels!", the fun parkour products that integrate stacking and collecting gameplay continue to occupy most of the top seats in the list of free games in the United States, and the "Catwalk Beauty" released by the domestic manufacturer Smillage has won a good result of sitting in the Google Play Free Game TOP10 for 26 days under such a trend.
However, from the overall point of view, in the case of Voodoo, Lion Studios and other overseas ultra-leisure manufacturers to cover a large market share, there is no domestic manufacturer that can continue to output ultra-leisure explosive models. Therefore, the game tea house believes that in the case of a huge gap in ultra-casual games, for small and medium-sized manufacturers that cannot afford huge research and development costs, it is also a good choice to target creative ultra-casual games with many users and low costs.
In terms of paid revenue, strategy games are also the head category of domestic manufacturers to obtain customers and attract gold in the United States. According to ADTiming data, compared with the second half of 2020, the active users of strategy games in the US market increased by 17% in the first half of this year, and the revenue capacity rose by 10%. And in the first half of this year, the domestic strategy game in the United States has the highest number of daily active users for Topwar Studio's "Top War: Battle Game", and the strongest revenue capacity is Qujia's "State of Survival". At the same time, the success of the cross-platform game "Original God" has also promoted the IAP revenue of domestic RPGs in the United States.
On the other hand, fusion gameplay products are also an important part of the revenue of in-app purchases in the United States, especially match-3 fusion games. GameRefinery's report pointed out that in 2020, match-3 games accounted for 21% of the revenue of the U.S. iOS game market, and until May this year, its proportion was still 16%, which is still the largest segment in the U.S. mobile game market.
And the subdivision category is still not saturated, in addition to King, Playrix, Zynga and other elimination game manufacturers occupy the top of the list all year round, there are more new games are continuing to enter the player's field of vision, such as 37 Interactive Entertainment "Puzzle & Servival" and Magic Tavern "Project Makeover" is the successful overseas case of domestic match-3 games.
05
Europe
According to the "2021 European Game Industry Report" jointly released by the European Interactive Software Federation (ISFE) and the European Developers Federation (EGDF), European game revenue exceeded 23 billion euros (equivalent to 177.5 billion yuan) in 2020, an increase of 22% year-on-year, exceeding the previous three years of growth. European console games are also larger, accounting for 44% of the overall game revenue, mobile games 40%, and PC games accounting for 14%.
Among them, the five major European markets (France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain) directly account for about 59% of the revenue share of the European game market, reaching 17.6 billion euros. And the market share of domestic games in Europe is also accelerating, according to App Annie data, in the first half of 2021, the share growth rate of Chinese mobile games in the German market soared to 28%.
(Source: App Annie,"2021 Mobile Game Insight Report")
Similar to the US market, in major European countries such as Germany and France, ultra-casual games still include most of the active users and are the most attractive category. But in terms of real income, European countries prefer strategy, elimination and card games.
Taking Germany (the world's 5th) as an example, Germany, the largest game market in Europe, has recently appeared in the top 50 of the German App Store best-selling list with a total of 19 domestic games, including "State of Survival", "Firearms Civilization", "Big Gangster", "Awakening of Nations", "Pocket Raiders", etc.; secondly, "Project Makeover" and "Doomsday Hustle" two integrated gameplay elimination games have also won the love of German players.
(Top 50 best-sellers in the App Store in Germany, September 13 data)
At the same time, with the spread of animation and two-dimensional culture in Europe, two-dimensional games have gradually been accepted by more and more players, among which France has the highest acceptance of Japanese animation culture, such as the animation IP game "Pokémon GO" and "Dragon Ball" have been at the top of the French best-seller list for many years. Now, due to the success of the global hit "Original God" into the European market, the revenue of domestic card RPGs in the region has also been correspondingly improved.
06
Southeast Asia
As a concentrated area of developing countries, the game market in Southeast Asia is small in scale, but it is developing rapidly. According to gamma data, the scale of the mobile game market in Southeast Asia in 2020 exceeded 14 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of more than 30%, making it one of the fastest growing mobile game markets in the world. Among them, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam account for the vast majority of the mobile game market in Southeast Asia.
Due to economic development restrictions, the payment ability of players in Southeast Asia is weak, but the number of active users is large, for the IAA as the main monetization method of the game, the region has a huge traffic advantage, correspondingly reducing the cost of buying the game, which also led to a large number of game manufacturers as a choice to accumulate experience in the sea.
Represented by Indonesia, the game preferences of players in Southeast Asia are very similar to those of Chinese users (except for local board games), and the players' favorite and most absorbing categories are mainly action, casual and arcade gameplay products, and the most monetizable is action, RPG and strategy games.
As the market develops, the number of players and the ability to pay in the region will continue to increase, and the market size will continue to expand, so the region is one of the potential areas that are worthy of manufacturers to try to go overseas.
07
Middle East
In addition to Southeast Asia, the Middle East is also one of the fastest growing regions in the mobile game market. According to App Growing's 2020 statistics, the market size of MENA's Greater Middle East region, including the Middle East and North Africa, reached 4 billion, with an annual growth rate of the highest in the world, reaching 25%. GCC (Six Gulf Countries) and Turkey are the main game markets in the region, with the Turkish game market of about $900 million, accounting for 40% of the size of the Middle East mobile game market.
80% of players in the Middle East are reluctant to buy in-app and prefer to obtain props through incentive ads, but among the remaining 20% of paying players, the proportion of big R is high. Among them, players in the GCC region have strong ability to pay and are more willing to pay for games, and the region's mobile game APRRU (average revenue per paying user) is even expected to reach $38 this year, while Saudi Arabia has the world's highest mobile game ARPPU, about $270.
In terms of categories, the highest revenue in the Middle East is the strategy game, contributing more than 40% of the revenue, the download volume of the action, leisure, simulation business and other categories is large and scattered, chess and card and betting games in the Middle East are also generally loved, but different countries I have different preferences, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to Rami, UNO, Ludo, Solitaire mainly, Turkish players prefer the traditional board game Okey.
At present, the Middle East mobile game market still lacks local manufacturing, mainly produced in China, Europe and the United States, but it is worth noting that due to the influence of factors such as religion, payment and language, there is still a certain threshold for entering the Middle East market.
08
Hong Kong and Taiwan
Although the population of Hong Kong and Taiwan in China is small, the share of these two regions in the overseas game market is very high. Thanks to the collective efforts of new games such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" and old games such as "Coin Master", while the in-game purchase revenue in other regions has shown a downward trend, the in-game purchase revenue in the Taiwan market has maintained steady growth. According to Niko Partners, the size of Taiwan's game market is expected to exceed 2.8 billion US dollars in 2021, while Chinese mainland games will account for 24% of the market share in Taiwan, which shows the importance of Taiwan in the domestic game market.
At the same time, Hong Kong also has the advantage of large R and high per capita payment, according to Sensor Tower data, Hong Kong's mobile game market revenue in 2019 has been ranked tenth in the world, and the lack of local explosive game products in Hong Kong has also provided more opportunities for domestic games to win local players.
In terms of categories, Hong Kong players prefer European and American-style RPGs and strategy games, such as the European and American magic-style card game "Tower of the Gods" in Hong Kong for three and a half years. In contrast, the Taiwanese market, which is more influenced by Japanese culture, prefers Japanese-style RPGs and casual puzzle games.
And it is worth noting that the proportion of female players in the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets is generally high, especially in Hong Kong, because the ratio of men to women is 1:1.18, which leads to the situation that 2 out of every 3 players in mobile games are female players. In Taiwan, the proportion of female players is also increasing year by year. Therefore, attaching importance to the needs of female players may become the key to the domestic game manufacturers to break the picky Hong Kong and Taiwan markets.
09
Going to sea is not a panacea
Overall, with the growth of downloads and expenditures of overseas mobile game users, domestic mobile games are also constantly refreshing the record in overseas markets, according to App Annie statistics, domestic games in the first half of 2021 out of the sea download volume reached 1.7 billion times, revenue reached 8 billion US dollars, an increase of 47% year-on-year, accounting for 23% of global mobile game user expenditure.
The competitiveness of domestic games in different categories and market segments is also continuing to increase. In addition to the revenue of the two main overseas categories of RPG and strategy, which still maintains steady growth, the revenue of betting games in overseas markets is also increasing rapidly, of which the player spending growth rate of slot machine play products in traditional betting alone has reached 107% in 2020, and the market share of integrated elimination gameplay products has gradually increased with the overseas participation of high-quality products such as "Project Makeover" and "Puzzle & Survival". In 2020, its downloads surged by 88% year-on-year, and the download volume of puzzle hyper-casual games also reached a growth rate of more than 361% in 2020.
But while seeing the considerable gains brought about by the sea boom, we can't ignore the increasingly prominent competitive pressure. As more and more game manufacturers actively or passively go abroad, many countries and regions have seen an increase in the price of purchase volume and a prominent head effect. Especially in mature markets such as Japan, South Korea and the United States, where mobile game penetration is high and potential markets are small, there are many boutique products and players, and only products with high quality or high investment in marketing can emerge in the market.
Therefore, going to sea is not the universal answer for domestic game manufacturers to get out of the current dilemma, after all, global players have a common point, that is, what they need is not domestic labels, but higher quality products and more appetizing content. And the game market in various countries and regions around the world has its limitations, so for most game manufacturers, blindly following the trend to the sea may not be able to get out of the predicament, and may even be just anxious to transfer.
For those manufacturers whose target market clearly points to overseas, it is possible to increase the chance of success in entering the target market by choosing a more suitable subdivision category for the team, polishing the quality of the game, selecting a more suitable country and region according to the characteristics of the target audience, and localizing adjustments, promotion and operation according to local conditions.