Some time ago, the launch of "Return to Empire" once again showed their dedication to this track, which also means that Tencent once again got the ticket to the head competition of the SLG track. Today, in the iOS best-selling top 30, there are already five SLG products from five different manufacturers.
The five products of "The Coast of the Land", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition", "Return to the Empire", "Civilization and Conquest", and "Awakening of All Nations" met in the best-seller list, which made us think more about the current situation and future of the SLG track.
The SLG track has become a must for the head of the mobile game, is this track already too crowded? Why are there countless manufacturers pouring into this track without hesitation?
01
There are 3 SLGs in the top 10, and 12 in the top 100
On the iOS list some time ago, after Tencent's "Return to Empire" landed, the best-selling list Top 10 once again appeared three SLG competitions. These three head products precisely represent the dominance of NetEase, Lingxi and Tencent in SLG.
The recent hit "Return to Empire" is another SLG product that Tencent has high hopes for, and the super-standard graphics, the gameplay of introducing many RTS features and the overwhelming publicity make it look almost impeccable, greatly elevating the competitive barriers of the track and becoming the top 10 upstart in the best-seller list.
Whether it is the "let the strategy come alive" embodied in the product quality, or the continuous operation follow-up of intensive cultivation, "Return to the Empire" seems to be promising in the future.
As a pioneering product, after simplifying urban construction and cultivation, there is a new reset season system, which fully allows players to dominate the game ecology, highlighting the strategic gameplay of SLG, and has not seen any decline in the past 7 years since it was launched, sitting in the iOS best-seller list Top20 for many years, and is also a frequent visitor to The Top5.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms • Strategy Edition", which has the bonus of the genuine IP of the Three Kingdoms, reduces the difficulty of getting started in the game in details, expands the user group, and also goes out of its own way on the SLG track, and after it was launched in 2019, it has always been the top 10 player in the iOS best-seller list.
And when we look a little longer, we will find that the crowding of this track has exceeded imagination. Within the Top30, the new product "Civilization and Conquest" launched by 4399 at the end of last year is the first successful product after their transformation, ranking 19th; the "Pocket Raiders" that was launched in 2019 ranked 28th; the "Awakening of All Nations", which was exported to domestic sales and was crazy at home and abroad, ranked 29th.
In the best-seller list Top50, there is also NetEase's "Endless Lagrange" at no. 39, and Tencent's first SLG "King of Trouble", located at No. 47, FunPlus's "King of Avalon" ranked 61st, Tencent's "Red Alert OL" ranked 77th, IGG's "Age of Kingdom" ranked 96th, and Shell Wood's "City of the Rising Sun" ranked 98th. In the Top100, there are already 12 SLG products.
It is rare for three SLGs to gather in the Top10, and 12 models squeezed into the Top100 is enough to see that the track is experiencing another round of hustle and bustle. At the same time, we also found that the plot of new explosive models on the line, the reverse growth of old products and other plots have been staged in this track, and almost every year there will be some new products to impact the head position.
02
Eight years later, the SLG category is still hot
Although SLG is not a young category, it can even be called one of the most "ancient" categories in mobile games, but under the development of the times, it has not entered rigidity and homogenization, but has been revitalized in recent years, becoming the fastest growing category under the influence of the "home economy", and it is also the category with the highest global mobile game revenue in 2021.
Since the main arena of SLG games in 2014 has basically completely shifted from the web to mobile games, almost every year there are head hits, and the excitement continues.
In 2014, after the success of Zhixingtong's "Clash of Kings" in overseas markets and soaring in value, it was acquired by Chinese Media, which aimed at the game track, for 2.66 billion yuan, with an appraisal appreciation rate of 28 times. After that, "Clash of Kings" only brought 7 billion yuan in revenue to Zhixingtong and Chinese Media in the two years from 2014 to 2016, making it the best Chinese overseas game company at that time.
In 2015, NetEase's "Coast of The Land" was launched, dominating the domestic iOS best-selling head for many years, and together with "The Dispute of kings", it laid the foundation for the two types of COK-like and rate-like for the subsequent SLG.
In 2016, IGG's "Age of Kingdoms" was launched overseas, and by the end of 2020, it also broke through the new high of $66 million in global monthly turnover, once again verifying the long life and gold absorption ability of SLG products. Also released in the same year were Lilith's "Sword and Homeland", FunPlus's "King of Avalon" and so on.
In 2017, SLG mobile games ushered in an explosive development.
Tencent tested the SLG track for the first time, and the first shot was "Three Kingdoms Heroes" and "Gone with the Wind", of which "Gone with the Wind" had an average quarterly turnover of $43.66 million in 2018. At this time, overseas, Youta's "Underworld" and FunPlus's "Age of Muskets" have also been launched.
In 2018, after "Sword and Homeland", Lilith came up with the "Awakening of All Nations", which has become another benchmark product of SLG in the world, and once again made this track boil with fusion innovation. Although it only landed in the national service two years later in 2020, "Awakening of All Nations" still broke into the top 3 of the iOS best-seller list at that time with the theme of "Three Kingdoms". In the same year, Tencent's "Red Alert OL", Youzu's "Thirty-Six Plans" mobile game, Longchuang Yuedong's "Watching the Dawn" and so on were also launched.
In 2019, the glorious Tekumo genuine license "Three Kingdoms • Strategy Edition" was launched, aimed at the mobile game market for a long time Ali with a SLG on a blockbuster, in 2020 the average daily income of up to 10 million yuan, a "Three Kingdoms • Strategy Edition" contributed 80% of the income to Lingxi Interactive Entertainment. In the same year, FunPlus's State of Survival was released overseas.
In 2020, the "Awakening of All Nations" national costume was launched, and by March this year, it has brought a total of 20 billion yuan of global flow to Lilith. Tencent also launched the first SLG mobile game developed by UE4, "Under the Red Map", taking the lead in pushing this track into the "true 3D" era.
In 2021, Xinghe Interactive Entertainment's novel insect theme of "Little Ant Country" was launched overseas, sharing a piece of the pie among many SLG giants, and at the end of the year, 4399 "Civilization and Conquest" was launched, and the first month of flow exceeded 100 million, taking an important step in their transformation.
In the past eight years, we have seen many manufacturers succeed with the power of a single blockbuster, and for some manufacturers who went to sea in the early years, such as Shell Wood Games, FunPlus, IGG, Youta, tap4fun, Longteng Jianhe, Longchuang Yuedong, etc., the SLG product matrix is the foundation for them to stand in overseas markets.
They form a brand matrix with a large number of SLG products, and explore in many overseas markets and regions, making SLG the most successful category of Chinese games going overseas. The SLG track, which has a high payment rate, is generally stable and long-lived, has not diminished in vitality, and there are always new manufacturers trying to join in. The SLG products in the past eight years have still been shining in the track until now, and they have continuously set new milestones in the domestic market or overseas markets.
03
Competition from SLGs has intensified, and a large wave of new products is pouring in
In 2021, in the case of slower or even lower revenue growth in other tracks, SLG is still the fastest growing category in the global mobile game market, with an increase of nearly $2 billion compared with 2020, with a total revenue of $9.7 billion.
Today, the nearly $10 billion market pool continues to expand, SLG has become a track that is still tempting even if it is already difficult to achieve a breakthrough, and more manufacturers are competing for a piece of the pie.
Not to mention whether "Return to Empire", which has not been online for a long time, will become another head product of Tencent that has a voice on the SLG track, they still have a lot of product reserves, and they are bound to win the head of the SLG track, "New Nobunaga's Wild Hope" and "Codename: Three Kingdoms", "Codename: Departure", "Codename: Tinder" and so on.
Zulong, who created "Under the Red Map" for Tencent, wrote in their 2021 annual results announcement that they will launch an SLG product every year for the next two years, namely "Project Code: Sigmar" and "Three Kingdoms Heroes".
Gigabit also said at its investor relations event in March that MMO and SLG are still the main directions of their research and development focus.
On March 25, 37 Interactive Entertainment mentioned on the investor interactive platform that their new SLG product "CodeName Three Kingdoms BY" has opened a soft-start test in the Southeast Asian market.
Product reserves are on the one hand, and on the other hand, the competition for talents is equally fierce. In April, Palm Fun Technology opened the SLG recruitment session, rewarding the successful Bole of recommending producers with a bonus of 100,000 yuan, and also encouraging the recommendation of the main planner and value, system planning, and distribution direction of talents with high bonuses.
Although it is difficult to call the SLG track a blue ocean now, it is still a category that can form stable monetization through differentiation and good operation.
Under the general trend of product quality and R&D industrialization, SLG is the most suitable category for manufacturers to pursue stable output and income, with an SLG like "The Coast of the Land", which can maintain a certain level of revenue for a very long time, and based on a successful product framework, to expand more themes, IP content.
Therefore, almost all domestic game manufacturers with spare strength and ambition have added it to their product matrix. Maybe that's the temptation of SLG.
In the foreseeable future, perhaps the SLG track will be more lively and crowded, but with more and more successful products, integration innovation is facing difficulties, and user acquisition is becoming more and more difficult, how many manufacturers will fold, and how many manufacturers will be able to break through?