As an important growth point in the development of the industry in recent years, the recent momentum of mini games seems to be getting stronger and stronger, and both manufacturers and platforms are accelerating their layout.
In March this year, WeChat announced a new policy for mini games, raising the proportion of IAA developers' advertising incentives to a maximum of 40%, plus a 50% cash share, developers can receive up to 90% of the revenue, and in early April, Douyin also further increased the income of IAA developers. There's no doubt that mini-games are becoming the new focus of growth.
Recently, DataEye released a 2024Q1 WeChat Mini Game Data Report, giving statistics covering various aspects such as category track, market size, business model, and delivery consumption to help you further understand the current Mini Game market.
The unboxing theme is fiercely competitive, and the dominance of Salted Fish Like is still there
According to the report, the popular categories in the Q1 WeChat mini game track are highly competitive, and the ranking of medium and heavy categories is gradually climbing.
According to the ranking of the best-selling list of WeChat mini games in March, the number of products related to the placement (including unboxing) category accounted for 20% of the market. Card RPG ranked second with 14% of the total, and salted fish like related products were the mainstay. It is worth noting that the SLG of medium and heavy categories accounted for 6%, and the ranking of related products in the best-selling list continued to improve, among which Jiangyu's "Pocket Shock" and Sanqi's "Baye" rose to the top 30 of the best-selling list. The new product "Fingertip Warriors" rose to No. 31 on the best-selling list at the end of March.
In March, the proportion of the top 100 categories on the best-selling list of WeChat mini games
Specifically, the market in the open box track is fiercely competitive, and it is basically a "fight" for large manufacturers. Taking Sanqi as an example, in addition to the long-term dominance of the list of "Seeking the Way", this year's online "Nameless" and "Spirit Sword Immortal" have all landed in the top10 best-selling list after their launch; Haoteng's "Crazy Knights" fluctuated in the best-selling list at the beginning of March, but stabilized at around TOP20 at the end of the month, which still has a certain market competitiveness; in addition, 4399's two unboxing products that integrate gameplay still perform well in the domestic market.
In general, at present, the products of the open-box track have gradually moved from the differentiation of the theme to the integration of gameplay, and the competitiveness of the simple open-box gameplay has declined.
Mainstream track product trends in March: unboxing
"King of Salted Fish" still has strong market competitiveness as a track pioneer and still leads the card RPG track. At the same time, it was also found that more and more salted fish-like products ran out, and in the best-selling list in March, "Journey to the West" and "The Last King" were basically stable in the TOP40 of the best-selling list. And "The Legend of the Snow Knife Heroes" soared all the way on the best-selling list, once rising to No. 20 on the best-selling list.
At present, it seems that salted fish-like related products have entered the stage of theme differentiation competition. In addition to the common Journey to the West and martial arts themes, "The King of the Last Days" is dominated by the theme of apocalyptic zombies. The emergence of diversified theme products reflects the good acceptance of innovative themes by salted fish like players.
The best-selling trend of mainstream track products in March: Salted Fish Like
On the WeChat best-selling list in March, the overall ranking of SLG-related products was stable. "Pocket Shock" basically remained within the TOP20 of the best-selling list, and "Hegemony" experienced a shock in early March, and its subsequent performance stabilized at around the TOP30. The ranking of "Soldiers of the Three Kingdoms" shows the characteristics of small fluctuations.
It is worth noting that "Fingertip Warriors", which integrates more gameplay, continues to improve in the best-selling list, entering the TOP40 of the best-selling list at the end of March, and will continue to rise in the future; Similarly, with the integration into the WeChat mini game ecosystem as the core element, the business model of "Behemoth Battlefield" has transformed from IAP in-app purchase to a more mainstream hybrid model. Judging from the data, "Behemoth Battlefield" returned to the best-selling list at the end of March and maintained a steady upward trend.
The best-selling trend of mainstream track products in March: SLG
The monthly active activity increased by 20% month-on-month, and the live broadcast of mini games became a new channel for growth
In the case of the continuous development of the mini game market, the Spring Festival stalls will be superimposed to stimulate the overall growth of the scale of mini games. Judging from the market data, the monthly active scale of WeChat mini games will reach 755 million in February 2024, an increase of more than 20% month-on-month, a new high in the past year, and higher than the mobile game APP industry.
Trends in the user scale of WeChat Mini Games
From a product point of view, WeChat mini games with more than 100 million active users are frequent. According to the data, the number of active users of "Seeking the Way of Daqian" exceeded 160 million, ranking first, while "The King of Salted Fish" ranked second with 110 million monthly active users, and the monthly active scale of the mini game version of Tencent's new party game "Yuan Dream Star" exceeded 78 million, and the combination of party type + mini game products also seems to have good market potential.
WeChat Mini Game TOP10 monthly active in February
In the first quarter of 2024, IAA's WeChat Mini Game grew rapidly, reaching a new high of 500 million monthly active users. Among them, the IAA mini game "Sheep is a Sheep" has a monthly active scale of 24 million in February, ranking 8th in February.
IAA's WeChat Mini Game continues to make breakthroughs at the user level and has become a major contributor to the growth of users in the broader market.
IAA WeChat Mini Game user scale
In addition, IAA's WeChat mini game has also achieved a breakthrough in the commercialization model. According to official data, IAA advertisers increased by more than 35% year-on-year, and traffic owners increased by 15%.
IAA Mini Game Commercialization Scale
The breakthrough of the commercialization model of IAA's WeChat mini game can be seen from three aspects:
First, the scale of buying volume has increased rapidly and the coverage is wider. According to official data, the scale of IAA mini game purchase consumption has increased by 100%, and the participating products have increased significantly year-on-year. This is mainly due to the diversification and abundance of traffic inventory, which efficiently covers more target user groups.
Second, around the gameplay path, the advertising placement has a high degree of fit. Based on the characteristics of IAA products, the target system is formulated to improve the comfort of ad placement, reduce the resistance of players to ads, and then increase the frequency of ad playback and user penetration.
Third, the rise of live streaming of mini games has become a new channel for growth. In March '24, the IAA mini game live broadcast audience increased by 220% month-on-month, and the scale of live broadcast showed a rapid growth trend. According to official data, the current performance of the category of finding faults and breaking through the level is outstanding, the game turnover of related products has increased by 10 times, and the user value has also increased significantly. According to official sources, it is expected that the live broadcast of IAA mini games will be fully released to the public in June.
Overall, IAA WeChat Mini Games have achieved breakthroughs at both the user level and the commercial scale, and with the continuous growth of IAA Mini Games, it is expected that the total commercial volume of IAA Mini Games will exceed 10 billion in 2024.
Mixing mini-games has become a mainstream trend
Judging from the consumption list, "Seeking the Way" and "The King of Salted Fish" are basically stable in the top two on the list, and there are no other products that can surpass it for the time being. In addition, in addition to the head products, the waist changes significantly in the best-selling list, which shows that the market is in the stage of high-speed blood exchange, and the marketing rhythm is efficient and rapid.
Q1 WeChat Mini Game Consumption List
From the perspective of the marketing growth list, the overall change is obvious, and different products are at the top in 1/2/3 months.
In addition, the trend of buying the leading manufacturers is obvious, and they take the initiative to launch new products of the same type to consolidate the product moat, and new products are often the main force on the list. For example, Sanqi's "Nobody" launched in February entered the TOP10 of the consumption growth list, and "Spirit Sword Immortal Master" launched in March ranked 6th on the consumption growth list. and 4399's "Peach Blossom Master" ranked 9th in consumption growth.
Extrapolating from the data, it is found that the consumption performance of hybrid products is obviously strong. According to the data of the WeChat consumption growth list in March, hybrid products accounted for 70%, an increase of 20 percentage points compared with January.
Q1 WeChat Mini Game Consumption Growth List
The proportion of hybrid mini games
At the same time, as more and more heavy mini game manufacturers actively accelerate the transformation of hybrid games, it shows that the boundaries of hybrid mini games are gradually expanding. Hybrid is not only suitable for light casual games, but also for some products with medium and heavy gameplay.
The data shows that "Behemoth Battlefield" was still an IAP in-app purchase model in January this year, but it was internally transformed into a hybrid mode from February to March. On March 23, it returned to the best-selling list of mini games and ranked 45th, and then maintained an upward trend, and now (April performance) basically remains around 20th.
"Behemoth Battlefield" WeChat mini game best-selling list ranking
Judging from the current situation, the hybrid monetization business model has attracted more and more developers' attention and has gradually become the development trend of Mini Game products. At the same time, it also means that the layout of hybrid products in advance, or transformation, will have the opportunity to achieve greater development advantages.
Nearly 50% of the total material consumption ratio of placement and character cards is placed, and the effect is put into the standard for mini game marketing
Judging from the consumption data, the total number of placement (including unboxing) and character cards is close to 50%, which belongs to the head consumption camp, but it has been squeezed by other camps in Q1, followed by traditional game categories such as legendary RPG, Xianxia RPG and simulation management, with a stable consumption proportion and belongs to the second camp of consumption.
It is worth noting that the consumption of chess and card categories accounted for more than 4% in February, mainly based on the Spring Festival holiday, and the consumption of chess and card game content tends to intensify, but this increase is often short-term.
Proportion of consumption of popular categories in Q1 of WeChat mini games
According to the delivery data, the average daily delivery volume of WeChat mini games in Q1 this year is about 159,700 sets, a decrease of 5% from Q4 in 2023.
Specifically, January and February are the Spring Festival marketing nodes, and the amount of materials placed in WeChat mini games has risen again, with an average daily volume of about 170,000 in February. After entering March, the amount of materials placed has declined.
WeChat Mini Game Q1 single-day delivery material trend
WeChat Mini Game Q1 Placement Material Trend
According to the report's analysis, the decline in volume delivery may be affected by the differentiation of marketing strategies.
On the one hand, the head manufacturers enter the mini game track, and small and medium-sized manufacturers will grab the volume through "off-peak buying";
On the other hand, the diversification of WeChat mini game marketing is gradually emerging, in addition to traditional effect advertising, it can also be obtained through influencer marketing, community private domain operation and other methods.
In terms of the number of games, judging from the data, the average number of games in Q4 23 is about 3,900. After entering 2024, the average number of games in Q1 will rise to more than 4,500, an increase of about 15% month-on-month. In Q1 2024, the number of IAA WeChat mini games will account for about 65% of the market.
WeChat Mini Games have been investing in game trends in the past 180 days
The number of WeChat Mini Games in investment continued to rise in Q1, which means that effect delivery has become the marketing standard for Mini Games, and more and more Mini Games are gaining volume through effect advertising.
From the perspective of new participating games, more than 900 mini games entered the market in Q1, which will make the number of WeChat mini games continue to grow in 2024. Specifically, more than 1,000 products entered the market during the Spring Festival holiday in February, and fell back in March, mainly due to the decrease in the number of IAA new tour participants.
WeChat Mini Game Q1 new investment game
At the same time, this data shows that the current supply side of the mini game market is stable, the number of entrants continues to increase, and new products frequently run out, which also means that the market is still in the stage of continuous reshuffle.
In terms of hot investment gameplay, the launch data shows that the number of games in the casual category such as casual/puzzle/elimination in Q1 has increased significantly, which means that the market space is not yet saturated, which is suitable for more mini game developers to enter the game and test the waters.
In addition, the number of MMORPG games in Q1 increased by more than 50, and the traditional medium and heavy gameplay has received more and more attention from players in the mini game track. It is worth noting that the card category has declined significantly, with a decrease of more than 50 products from the previous month.
WeChat Mini Game Q1 Hot Category Situation