Unlike the relative calm in March, the news of the version restart announced that the game industry in April was unusual, and as the entire industry picked up, manufacturers with a backlog of many resources also vigorously promoted game research and development and promotion, not only the old game activities continued, but also a number of new games were also strongly launched, seizing the market in a new round of competition.
According to the list information of Qimai Data, the mobile game matrix sorted out the TOP 10 list of domestic mobile game iOS revenue in April 2022, as shown in the following figure:
Compared with March, the index in April was more dispersed, especially in the second half of the month, when major games competed to leave a footprint at the top of the best-seller list with their activities.
In the April TOP 10, Tencent Games still occupies half of the country. In addition to the stable performance of "Glory of Kings", "Peace Elite", "League of Legends Mobile Game" and "Crossfire", "Return to Empire", which began in March, also entered the list. The head product "Glory of the King" ushered in S27 in April, in addition to the two battle order limited skins of the new season, the new hero Sang Qi and its companion skins, in mid-April, the new skins of the three heroes of Irene, Lan and Luna were also launched. In addition, the game also announced the upcoming "May 5th Friends Festival" activity content at the end of April, in addition to the popular hero Sable Cicada's 55 limited skin, as well as the return of "Wuling Immortal", Xiahou Huan's new skin also continued the KPL series of preferential activities, I believe many players will not miss. Therefore, it is foreseeable that with the blessing of the annual festival, "Glory of kings" will have a more eye-catching performance in May.
"Fantasy Journey to the West" also ushered in the S4 season of the Martial God Peak League in April, and also launched a new batch of summoning spirits, surpassing "Original God" and returning to the top three of the list. "Original God" performed mediocrely in April and fell out of the top 5 on the best-seller list at one point. The main reason is that "Harajin" happened to be in the transition period of the version in April, and only a replica character "Ayahua Kamidato" was launched, although the high popularity of the character made Harajin top the best-seller list for two consecutive days, but the popularity was not lasting, and it did not have an advantage in the fierce competition for new content in other games. In addition, the postponement of the new version also makes the mood of players not high, after all, during the epidemic in Shanghai, the development of many Shanghai game companies has been greatly affected, the main feedback is in the iteration of the game version, and it is also hoped that the Shanghai epidemic will be controlled as soon as possible, which will not only help the version update of "Original God", but also play a further role in promoting the overall game industry.
"Return to The Empire" and "Ask" replaced "Fishing Battle" and "Battle of the Golden Shovel" to occupy the last two seats in the April TOP 10. "Return to the Empire", which has a bright performance after being launched in March, stabilized in the top ten of the best-seller list in the first half of April, and retreated to the top 20 in the fierce competition in the second half of the month, and the overall situation was relatively stable. On the one hand, this is due to the innovation of the game screen and gameplay mechanics compared with similar games, and on the other hand, it also benefits from the escort of Tencent and Microsoft. As a long-tail product, the subsequent ranking of "Return to Empire" may rise.
Contrary to Return to Empire, Q.Q. is home in the second half of the month. The game reached number 9 on the best-seller list on April 18 and remained in the top 10 for the next 10 days. This is mainly due to the strong investment of "AskIng Questions" in its sixth anniversary celebrations, not only launching the "Qingdao into Henan" documentary in conjunction with Henan Satellite TV, co-creating the Theme Fashion of Tang Feng Music and Dance, but also inviting Chen Xiaochun to bring the theme song and MV of the sixth anniversary to "Friends of the Same Way", and combining his life experience and game connotation to trigger player empathy. With the national style and feelings, the publicity effect of the anniversary celebration is outstanding, injecting a wave of vitality into "Ask the Question".
Today, linkage is an effective way to launch new content and engage players. In addition to the recent launch of fashion with Henan Satellite TV, which has recently exploded with the promotion of excellent traditional culture, "Ask The Question" has also been linked with the intangible cultural shadow puppet play and the animation of "A Zen Little Monk". In addition, "One Thought Runaway" is also linked to the animation of "Mortal Immortals". When choosing the object, in addition to influence, the manufacturer also pays attention to its fit with the game, such as the national style background of "Asking Questions" is consistent with traditional culture, the cultivation of players in "One Thought" and the spiritual fit of Han Li, the protagonist of "Mortal Cultivation Immortals", pursues the immortal path, etc., so that players can easily accept it. This is also reflected in the events of other games that have briefly appeared on the list.
In April, these games also briefly appeared in the top 10 best-selling list, as shown in the following chart:
Among these games, "After Tomorrow" was listed twice, during the cherry blossom series at the beginning of the month and the plant crisis version at the end of the month. According to Sensor Tower data, on the day of the launch of the Plant Crisis version, the game created a single-day flow peak since its launch.
"Light Encounter" and "Yin and Yang Division" were on the list again with activities after a month. "Light Encounter" opened a new version of the "Performance Season" on the 28th. In addition to the "Residual River Night" activity, the Yin-Yang Division also opened the second bullet of the Yin-Yang Division × Kyogoku Natsuhiko, during which the SSR-style Divine Night Sword God returned to the scene for a limited time. There is also a linkage between "Tianya Mingyue Knife" and the co-creation of fashion in Guangzhou Cantonese Theatre, as well as cantonese opera theme role standby action.
In addition, two new tours have entered the TOP 10.
One is DreamShare Studio's Dragon Country Story, which was actually launched on March 31, attracting players with its dragon training and social themes, and promoting and draining traffic through major platforms. However, just a few days after the launch, the game's ratings plummeted, and it was called a legendary skinning game by players. In the promotional CG, the player and the cute dragon become companions to go on an adventure together, but in the early part of the game, the dragon is only used as equipment to increase the player's attributes, and the game is essentially a numerical MMO. Despite poor reputation, "Dragon Country Story" still drives Purple Dragon Games back to the top 20 of the publisher revenue list with its strong gold-absorbing ability. In addition to the important equipment "Dragon Crystal" in the game, its PVP gameplay also drives players to invest resources in numerical cultivation. In addition, the feelings for dragon training and related IPs are also one of the reasons why players are attracted.
The second is the 3D action mobile game "Eye of Deep Space" developed by Yongshi Network, which is set in the post-disaster world, and the player plays the role of a manager, fighting side by side with the correction squad to guard the civilized order. The game uses AI teammates on the same screen in battle mode, and focuses on open-ended genre raising and high-freedom Roguelike, which continues to maintain a best-selling advantage after launching, but due to the limited index accumulated in time, it seems to have a similar momentum after returning to the Empire at the end of March. However, after 28 days, the index continued to fall, showing a downward trend. The main reason for the weakness of the successor is that the game itself is decent, and the character development mechanism is more complicated, which is not outstanding in similar games such as battle double and collapse three. At present, "Eyes of Deep Space" announced the event preview of "Biwei Hongwei" in early May, as well as the information of new S-class characters, as to whether it can be re-listed with new content, there is still a good performance after the dissipation of the new tour heat, and it is necessary to continue to wait and see.
In addition, the other two new games launched in April: Tencent's open world "Noah's Heart" and South Korea's terminal game IP "Black Desert" have also topped the free list after launching, but they have not entered the top 10 of the best-seller list.
April is also the financial reporting season of listed game companies, so at the beginning of the new quarter, many game manufacturers will continue their operating plans or make new attempts according to the financial reports. With the restart of the version number, the industry picks up, game manufacturers are ready to show their fists, and the situation of several major game giants sitting firmly in the country will not necessarily be broken, but it is foreseeable that the appearance of new faces and ranking changes on the index list will be more frequent.