DataEye's "2023H1 Domestic Game Effect Advertising White Paper" was officially released today! This article is a lite version.
After reviewing the launch of domestic mobile game performance advertising in the first half of 2023, DataEye Research Institute found:
1. Delivery: The total amount of materials has soared, of which mobile game apps have increased by more than 80% month-on-month, and WeChat mini games have increased by five times;
2. Number of games released: In the first half of 2023, there will be more than 15,000 mobile game apps, and nearly 10,000 WeChat mini games will be invested;
3. Material utilization rate: The efficiency of individual materials has been slightly improved, but the overall is still low. In the first half of 2023, the proportion of new materials that were delivered for more than 11 days (inclusive) exceeded 6.5%.
4. Mobile game APP buying list: the status of MMORPG buying volume cannot be shaken, the two-dimensional track launch has increased, and the popularity of SLG investment has cooled down;
5. WeChat mini game purchase list: "King of Salted Fish" invested 1 million sets of materials in the first half of the year, and the number of medium and heavy themes soared, and the growth was obvious.
With the normalization of game version numbers in the first half of 2023 and the launch of new games one after another, the entire game buying marketing industry has also shown signs of accelerating recovery. This also means that the competition in the game marketing market will intensify in the second half of the year, and the difficulty of breaking through will become more and more difficult.
One. Game buying volume trend
(1) The daily amount of material in the market in the first half of 2023
In the past, the volume of large-market material delivery tended to peak twice throughout the year (the highest during the Lunar New Year and the second most during the summer vacation). This year is more special, at the beginning of the Lunar New Year, the material of the Lunar New Year market was lower, and the Dragon Boat Festival and the summer period hit a new high in the amount of material (especially the higher-cost video material).
This is mainly due to: cost reduction and efficiency increase at the beginning of the year and fewer new games online, resulting in not much material; In the Dragon Boat Festival and summer, the economy gradually picked up, and new tours were intensively launched, and the amount of large-market materials increased.
(2) Mobile game APP: In the first half of 2023, the amount of deduplication materials in mobile game APP exceeded 13 million, nearly doubling
In the first half of the year, the purchase volume of material expanded. In the first half of 2023, the amount of mobile game APP materials increased significantly, and it is expected that more than 13 million sets of mobile game APP materials will be released in China, and the amount of deduplicated materials released in China will exceed 13 million, nearly doubling year-on-year and month-on-month. The factors that inflate the purchase volume include: (1) the normality of the game version number; (2) New games (especially mini games) are online; (3) May Day, the summer node buying volume market competition is fierce; (4) Tencent Byte has upgraded its delivery system and added new functions.
Buying volume is increasingly becoming a must for new travel acquisitions. In the first half of 2023, the number of mobile game apps exceeded 15,000, an increase of 6.3%. Factors such as the normalization of domestic game version numbers and the slight relaxation of the subject matter review margin, the positive trend of game public opinion, and the upgrade of Tencent's byte-based advertising platform have all stimulated the purchase volume of games.
Delivery entities are on a downward trend. In terms of delivery entity data, there was a significant decline in the first half of 2023, down 17% year-on-year. The previously difficult market environment made it difficult for many small and medium-sized manufacturers (including agency investment enterprises) to operate. At the same time, it is also common for large companies to lay off project teams and close subsidiaries. In the first half of the year, the main body of participating companies decreased by 17% year-on-year, but there was not much change compared with the second half of 2022. The industry concentration of buying volume enterprises increased in the second half of 2022, and it is currently stable, and self-research and self-development have become a trend.
(3) WeChat Mini Games: The amount of material investment has soared, and WeChat Mini Games have gradually become a growth point in the game industry
In the first half of 2023, the overall launch performance of WeChat Mini Games was strong, increasing by 5 times month-on-month. The cost of buying Mini Games is generally lower than that of APP, and there is a lot of room for operation in the attribution stage: APP games are generally reported by platform SDKs on the Android side, and advertisers have little room for strategy optimization, while the Mini Game ecology cannot be subcontracted, and SDK reporting is replaced by API postback. Different from SDK reporting, API backhaul gives advertisers more room to operate.
In the first half of 2023, nearly 10,000 products will be put into operation, and the market is in the stage of big waves. In terms of the number of games launched, there is still a distance from mobile game apps, but the growth rate is stable. Because WeChat Mini Games have the advantages of low purchase cost, short conversion link, diversified channels, and wide user base, a large number of developers have entered the market. Moreover, the profit of WeChat mini games is thin, and although the number of games launched has increased, there are still fewer products that "run out", and the market is seriously involved.
The WeChat mini game has nearly 1,000 main bodies, and the waist and tail continue to shuffle. The ratio of launching company entities to launching games is 1:10, which means that on average, there are about 10 products in 1 company entity. Because the product life cycle of the mini game market is short, there are many cases of "trial entry" of enterprises, and it is more common for a developer to try to invest in multiple new products within half a year. This has also led to a faster reshuffle of waist and tail mini-games on the market. In addition, most of the small and medium-sized manufacturers behind Mini Games mean that the number of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs around Mini Games continues to increase.
Two. Game purchase volume asset delivery data
(1) Theme & gameplay delivery: Modern themes remain strong, and strategic gameplay has been "rolled up"
From the perspective of subject matter: In the first half of 2023, the amount of material in the entire market has increased significantly, but modern themes (mainly HYIP, leisure, etc.) are basically flat. Popular themes such as legend, fairy tales, and magic have achieved substantial growth, firstly, because of the significant increase in materials for mini-games of related themes, and secondly, because of the increase in material investment by individual manufacturers (such as Sanqi and Thunder).
From the perspective of gameplay: MMO track materials continue to grow significantly, mainly due to the fierceness of fairy and legendary product materials. The growth of strategy and HYIP materials has stagnated; The competition between these two tracks is too fierce, the market is too saturated, and they have entered a "roll-up" situation.
(2) Material usage: The proportion of new materials is increased, and the efficiency of using individual materials is low
In the first half of 2023, the proportion of new materials added to mobile game apps exceeded 95%, an increase of about 6 percentage points compared with the first half of 2022, an obvious increase. The proportion of new materials has increased, perhaps because: (1) new materials brought by new games, (2) the rapid failure of materials renewed last year to this year, and the need to continuously produce new materials, (3) an increase in the number of "second creation" materials that split and edit splicing an original material.
In contrast, WeChat mini games only began to rise in the second half of 2022, and entered 2023 to usher in an outbreak, and the proportion of new materials remained at a high level, accounting for about 97%. This is mainly due to some head mini-games pushing up the amount of new material.
Among the new materials added in the first half of 2023, the average number of days used by a single asset was 3.9 days, a slight decrease from 4.2 days in 2022, and at a low level compared to the previous data. 86.1% of the total number of new materials released for 1-5 days (inclusive), and only 6.6% of the new materials exceeded 11 days (inclusive). In other words, the proportion of materials that have been delivered for 1-5 days (inclusive) has declined, which means that the efficiency of material use has improved, but not much.
According to the efficiency of the use of new materials in the first half of 2023, DataEye Research Institute believes that:
1. Positive factors: the entry of new game products stimulates players to taste new demand, resulting in an increase in the click rate and conversion rate of new game materials (a large number of new game materials trigger clicks/conversions within the first 2 seconds, which is actually game brand word-of-mouth and video copywriting to stimulate clicks, not material creativity);
2. Disadvantages: As the sinking market becomes the main user pool of acquisition, superimposed on user personalization and stratification, it is becoming more and more difficult for advertisers to accurately perceive potential users, and there are many tentative production materials, secondary editing splicing, and trial delivery, and the overall efficiency of material use is still not high.
These two factors cancel each other out, resulting in the above data results.
(2) Material delivery: mobile game APP live material has decreased, and iOS end investment has continued to grow
Mini games are biased towards image material. In the first half of 2023, the proportion of mobile game APP image materials is about 47%, which is slightly higher than the proportion of mobile game APP image materials in the first half of 2022. In contrast, WeChat Mini Games accounted for nearly 60% of the picture materials in the first half of 2023, mainly because most of the Mini Games are small and medium-sized manufacturers, and most of them are tested and put into action, paying more attention to cost.
Affected by cost reduction and efficiency increase, mobile game APP live materials continued to decline. Mobile game APP live materials account for only 8%, and WeChat mini games account for 6%. Under the continuous influence of cost reduction and efficiency increase, game manufacturers strictly control the budget of production materials, because the budget of live materials is often higher, and the real material of APP declines; Manufacturers are more focused on low-cost material, or more content-based live-action material (such as short dramas).
The mini-game side showed a situation of first increasing and then decreasing, mainly because the launch of mini games at the end of last year broke out, and head and shoulder games cast a large number of live materials. This year, due to the macro environment and cost reduction and efficiency increase, the production volume of live-action materials declined.
The proportion of Apple-side materials continues to increase. Although the Android side is still the main acquisition port of the game, the proportion of the Apple side continues to increase. In the first half of 2022, the proportion was only 29%, while in the first half of 2023, it has risen to 45%.
Under the trend of cost reduction and efficiency increase, the buying industry tends to use a limited budget to obtain better quality users, rather than more widely obtaining "relatively unquality" users; In addition, Apple's IDFA policy makes attribution more difficult, reducing the efficiency of asset acquisition, resulting in the need to invest more creative conversion users.
Three. Marketing of game products
(1) Mobile game purchases:
DataEye Research Institute has sorted out the top 10 medium and heavy mobile game APP release materials in the first half of 2023, and the specific list is as follows:
1. The MMORPG track continues to heat up, and multi-theme melee is rushing
There are 6 major gameplay methods in the TOP50 material list of medium and heavy mobile game apps, and MMO (including turn-based MMO) ranks first, accounting for more than 60%. Among them, Sanqi New Tour "Mortal Cultivation Immortal Legend: Human Realm Chapter" has cast more than 200,000 sets of materials in less than 60 days after its launch.
In terms of subject matter, fairy tales, martial arts, and legends are the main categories, and the head products are put into larger quantities. In terms of turn-based MMOs, the large-scale products are mainly old tours, and "Fantasy Westward Journey" and "Qandao" have a good amount of investment.
2. SLG materials were put into cooling, and Lingxi, Sanqi, and Lilith were prominent
"Three Kingdoms Wargame Edition", "Hegemony" and "War Medal" all performed fiercely in the early stage of product launch, and SLG purchases in the first half of 2023 were mainly driven by these new games.
Following the battle of the Three Kingdoms, the war of multiple civilizations, the war of differentiated themes, and the war of ants, the competition for the purchase volume of the SLG track has come to an end, most of the old products have been "not moved", and the return cycle of the SLG track is expected to exceed 12 months.
3. The secondary element material is heated up, and Mihayou and Deep Blue pay attention to the purchase volume
After experiencing the trough of two-dimensional games last year, the projects that have survived so far have good capital strength. In 2023H1, a number of blockbuster second tours will be launched, including Mihayou's "Honkai: Star Dome Railway", Tencent's "White Night Aurora", and Deep Blue Interactive "Back to the Future: 1999".
In the past year, more and more two-dimensional products have paid more attention to the purchase volume of launch, among which "Back to the Future: 1999" public beta has nearly 16,000 sets of materials in a single day.
4. The card track is flat overall, and "Super World" is at the top of the list with full firepower
The card track was strong in May due to the launch of "Back to the Future: 1999", which increased the overall amount of material, and the rest of the time the overall launch was relatively flat and did not fluctuate much.
Glacier "Super World" topped the list of medium and heavy mobile game APP materials in 2023H1, which is mainly based on "sub-gameplay" materials (its acquisition cost is lower, so its amount of materials is larger, which does not mean that the consumption scale is higher than other products).
5. Women want to stay away from buying volume, and friendship time is still ahead
The overall material for women to the track has decreased. Even the relative "big buyers" "Dulara Promotion" and "My Money" have slowed down their release after entering June, with an average daily release of less than 100 sets of materials. In the top 50 heavy game list, there are three women-oriented games, but they are all old friendship time products that are known for their purchases.
In the context of fewer new tours, on the one hand, cost reduction and efficiency improvement continue, on the other hand, creative bottlenecks and routines are difficult to break through. Women turn to talents, social media.
(2) Purchase volume of WeChat mini games:
DataEye Research Institute sorted out the top 10 WeChat Mini Games in the first half of 2023, and the specific list is as follows:
1. Mini games are going to be moderate, MMO, and placing more materials
The proportion of heavy gameplay in WeChat mini games continues to increase, with MMORPGs accounting for more than 45%. More and more medium and heavy theme categories have entered the WeChat mini game track, and the gameplay & picture is constantly approaching the mobile game APP.
On the one hand, this attracts a large number of theme lovers, and on the other hand, it can try to retain more pan-user players through in-depth gameplay.
2. The amount of material in "King of Salted Fish" is overwhelming, and the purchase volume has bought 73 million monthly lives
"King of Salted Fish" has been outstanding in material investment in the first half of 2023, with a total of more than 1 million sets of materials. According to a report released by QuestMobile at the end of April, the monthly activity of "Mad Knights" in March was nearly 85 million, and the monthly activity of "King of Salted Fish" was 73.81 million, both of which exceeded the monthly activity of Take a Look and Tencent Health Mini Program.
"I Am the Big Owner", "Little Ant Country", "Mad Knights" and "Original Legend" put a total of about 790,000 sets of materials in the first half of the year, which is not as good as "King of Salted Fish".
3. The materials of the Yi World Simulation Management Mini Game are super 37, and the content of the new game roll
"I Am a Big Owner" and "Call Me a Big Treasurer" both entered the top 10 of WeChat mini game purchase list. However, the amount of material in "Call Me Big Treasurer" was gradually surpassed by "I Am a Big Owner", or because Sanqi Q2 released 4 new products, resulting in internal fluctuations and reducing the material of "Call Me Big Treasurer".
Since the beginning of this year, new simulation business products with novel themes have emerged. Including "There is a Family in the Depths of Taoyuan" that came out in the first half of the year, these games are more about volume content (story, music, characters, etc.), and the purchase volume is still more of a dispute over mini-games.
4. Medium and heavy APP products turn to mini games, SLG and legend are particularly prominent.
The material of the mini-game pays more attention to the performance of the real core gameplay. Editors need to fully understand the content of the game, grasp the core highlights of the game, and exaggerate and highlight moderately.
At present, due to the advantages of extremely short conversion link, click-to-play, and no download, Mini Games can acquire users at a very low price in terms of purchase volume, taking SLG Mini Games as an example, the CPA cost of a single user can reach single digits. (For comparison, the CPA on the SLG app side is 300-500 for iOS.) ）
On the whole, the game content of a certain game WeChat Mini Game and the mobile game APP is basically the same, and there is no secondary development, so the research and development cost is not high.
Four. Focus on creative insights on the game track
(1) Two-dimensional: "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" buying volume marketing insights
DataEye-ADX delivery data shows that "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" was officially launched in public beta on April 26 this year, with more than 2,700 sets of materials released on the first day, and then maintained a stable delivery, with an average daily delivery of more than 2,000 sets of materials. The delivery channel of "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" did not have obvious focus, and today's headlines ranked first with 13.1%, and Station B ranked second with 12.5%.
DataEye Research Institute has sorted out the top 40 mobile game purchase material plans for the first half of 2023 (efficient materials).
Specifically, the game materials mainly revolve around characters, background world view, plot, and music, and the characters have the most material content, and the music, standing paintings, and details are the top in the industry.
From the perspective of editing techniques and packaging methods: "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" mainly uses a combination of actual recording / plot + picture standing painting to show characters, and there are also live-action plots, photo frames, but not much.
From the user feeling, coolness, and hi point of view created by the material: cute milk cuteness, relaxed and fun, sense of substitution/resonance with reality, and cool sense are all highlighted by Mihayou, especially the first three, which are different from the grand, cool, and mysterious tonality of most two-dimensional games.
(2) SLG: "Three Kingdoms - Warchess Edition" buying volume marketing insights
DataEye-ADX delivery data shows that "Three Kingdoms History: Warchess Edition" was officially launched for public beta on March 17 this year, but the material placement on the first day was not strong, and the amount of materials in a single day did not exceed 800 sets. In mid-April, it began to increase the number of deliveries, peaking at nearly 60 million units in a single day, and then maintaining an average of more than 3,000 sets of materials per day.
DataEye Research Institute sorted out the top 40 mobile game purchase material plans in the first half of 2023 (efficient materials). Specifically, efficient materials highlight strategies/operations and related formations to show the core product characteristics of the strategic category. The introduction of tactics/skills is to enrich the game content and convey the playability of the game. The material is tonal hardcore and dignified (rather than witty). In addition, the resource/welfare/card draw elements are to lower the player's game threshold and attract the attention of more category players.
(3) Xian Xia: "Mortal Cultivation Immortal Legend: Human World Chapter" buying volume marketing insights
DataEye-ADX launch data shows that "Mortal Cultivation Immortal Legend: Human Realm Chapter" was officially launched in public beta on May 23 this year, and the purchase volume soared to 23,000 sets on the first day of release, and then the overall launch trend declined, but compared with other products in the market, the launch volume is still strong. At the end of June, the daily average of 13,000 sets of materials was maintained.
DataEye Research Institute has sorted out the top 40 mobile game purchase material plans in the first half of 2023 (efficient materials) in "The Legend of Mortal Immortal Cultivation: The World of Humans". Specifically, the selection of immortal cultivation factions accounts for 30%, and the material has in-depth content through the difference between immortal cultivation factions, hoping to attract more theme lovers. In addition, the project team invited international martial arts superstar Jet Li as a brand endorsement, trying to highlight product features and content gameplay through celebrity endorsement. In addition, the project team will highlight the rapid upgrade and easy gameplay.
(4) Cards: "Free Westward Journey" buying volume marketing insights
DataEye-ADX delivery data shows that "Free Westward Journey" was launched at the end of 2022, and the overall delivery performance after the product was launched was stable, with a peak of nearly 6,000 sets of materials in a single day, and the overall delivery performance declined since April this year, basically maintaining an average of 1,000 sets of materials per day.
DataEye Research Institute sorted out the top 40 mobile game purchase material plans for "Free Westward Journey" in the first half of 2023 (efficient materials). Specifically, focusing on character introduction and character standing modeling display, the project team cuts through the character role, the former is more about the character itself, which improves the player's cognition by explaining and is better started; The latter is to enrich the characters and deepen the player's influence through some animations and small theaters. In addition, the material also has commentary materials such as lineup and skill matching, but the proportion is not high.
(5) WeChat mini game: "Awakening of Sub-God Light" buying volume marketing insights
DataEye-ADX delivery data shows that "Awakening of Sub-God Light" began to increase its launch at the end of April, reaching a peak of more than 3,700 sets in mid-May. Since then, the delivery volume has dropped significantly, and the current average daily delivery position is about 1100 groups.
DataEye Research Institute sorted out the top 40 mobile game purchase material plans for the first half of 2023 (efficient materials). Specifically, equipment/upgrade-related elements account for the largest proportion, and the material increases players' feelings about the gameplay through changes in the gap before and after upgrades. This is followed by the introduction of heroes/characters, highlighting the richness of the game. In addition, the project team will highlight the elements of ease/refreshment/simplicity, which is suitable for the WeChat Mini Game user group.
Five. Analysis of the amount of material of key manufacturers
(1) 37 Interactive Entertainment: The amount of material investment doubled, and 23H1 deeply entered the WeChat mini game
With the new game "The Legend of Mortal Immortal Cultivation: The Human World", Sanqi bought a lot of money in the first half of the year, and the amount of investment doubled compared with 22H2.
The investment of WeChat mini games of "Call Me Big Treasurer" and "Little Ant Country" continues to increase, which means that 37 Interactive Entertainment has entered WeChat mini games in 23H1.
(2) Thunder Game: The amount of material in "One Thought Getaway" continues to be strong, and "Ask the Way" suddenly increases its release
"One Thought Getaway" continues to maintain a strong position in the dimension of purchase volume and delivery, and after 23 years, the volume of investment has further increased, becoming a representative product of domestic evergreen launch.
The turn-based MMO "Qandao" suddenly increased its launch in the first half of the year and is now the second main product launched by Thunder.
(3) NetEase games: NetEase has an active amount of materials, and "Against the Water and Cold" invests 30,000 sets of materials in a single day
NetEase 23H1 has significantly increased its launch, and due to the launch of a number of new products in the first half of the year, buying volume marketing has become active, including "Against the Water and Cold", which was launched at the end of June, and more than 30,000 sets of materials were released on the same day.
"Fantasy Westward Journey" is the product with the largest amount of materials released by NetEase in the first half of the year, as the absolute trump card product of NetEase, the stable release volume can not only ensure the popularity and influence of the product in the market, but also extend the life cycle of the product.
The above is the full content of DataEye's "2023H1 Domestic Game Effect Advertising White Paper".