Text: DataEye
Mini games going overseas are a new outlet for going overseas in the first half of 2024.
Today, DataEye and Diandian Data jointly released the "2024 First Half of 2024 Mini Game Overseas Report"!
Foreword: There are three types of overseas mini games, one is mainland mini program games, which are launched overseas APP; the second is the popular mini-program game of "skinning" by mainland manufacturers, and the APP is launched overseas (there is no such game in the mainland); The third is the mini program games launched by mainland manufacturers on overseas platforms such as FB, TikTok, and YouTube. This report focuses on the first case and uses 17 products as a sample of the better performers.
The 17 samples of the Voyage Mini-Games are: Adventure Battle, Seeking the Truth, Soul Prologue, King's Will, Cannon at the Zombies, Fat Goose Gym, Dao Tianlu, Sub-God: Awakening of Light, Five Thousand Years of Heroic Righteousness, Geometric Kingdom, Chicken Fleet Attack, Three Kingdoms Bar Brothers, King of Salted Fish, Nameless, Phantasmagor, Hundred Tempered Heroes, and Modified Battles (all of which have merged versions in different overseas markets).
Market performance
In the first half of 2024, all of these 17 mini games will be launched in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, but only 7 will be launched in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea with certain results, of which the revenue contribution of the European and American markets is low. This reflects that the mini game is in a relatively early stage of going overseas. T1 markets with large cultural differences and mature players are not easy to enter.
(1) Income
In the first half of 2024, the total revenue of these 17 mini games going overseas (after deducting platform shares) will exceed 472.8 million US dollars.
Among them, the Japan market accounted for 31% of about 147 million US dollars, Korea accounted for 27% of about 129 million US dollars, and Taiwan, China accounted for about 74.39 million US dollars, accounting for more than 15%. The contribution of the Japanese and South Korean markets is mainly due to the outstanding ability of "Adventure Operation" ("The Legend of the Mushroom Brave") to attract gold. If this extreme value is excluded, among the remaining 16 overseas mini games, the Taiwan market accounts for 28%, which is the market with the highest contribution.
In terms of games, in the first half of 2024, among the 17 overseas mini games, the total revenue of the overseas version of "Adventure Wars" (after deducting the platform share) was 378 million US dollars, leading the cliff. Revenue was mainly contributed by Japan and Korea.
三七互娱《寻道大千》（《小妖問道》《Nobody's Adventure Chop-Chop》），《灵魂序章》（《小小斗羅》《Mini Soul Land》）分列二、三。
It should be noted that the above games have been going overseas for a long time or a short time, and the time peak for obtaining income varies greatly. The data here only counts from January 1 to June 30, 2024. In addition, most of the overseas mini games are mixed monetization, and the data of advertising monetization is not counted here.
(2) Download
In the first half of 2024, these 17 mini games will be downloaded a total of 31,285,100 times (excluding duplicate downloads) on both ends.
Southeast Asia (which is part of other markets), United States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan contributed mainly to downloads. Although Japan and South Korea contribute higher revenues, the number of downloads is not outstanding, mainly because mini games are driven by gameplay and values, and are mostly medium products, and they are often inferior to the stock games in the market, especially high-quality games, in terms of quality and long-term operation.
There are only 30 million+ overseas, but the downloads attract 472 million US dollars, that is, the average single download absorbs more than 15 US dollars. This is mainly due to the fact that some of the top popular mini games have significantly increased their revenues, and secondly, because mini games are numerically driven and have proven their business models in the mainland market.
According to the game score, in the first half of 2024, among the 17 overseas mini games going overseas, "Adventure Operations" was downloaded 13.1676 million times (excluding duplicate downloads), ranking first, accounting for 42% of the total. "Seeking the Way" and "Shooting at Zombies" won 6.26 million and 3.86 million downloads overseas, respectively, ranking second and third respectively.
Overall, these 17 mini games are evenly distributed in various markets around the world, and other markets (mainly Southeast Asia) contribute slightly more downloads, followed by the United States, mainly because of the large population base, early adopters and players in all circles. Southeast Asia and United States are both multicultural markets, which also shows that mini games go overseas to leverage the underlying human nature (such as coolness), which can often break through cultural barriers. However, some overseas mini games are limited by themes (such as Xianxia and cartoon healing) and have a mediocre download performance in the European and American markets.
Buy volume and invest in streams
The overseas version of ADX shows that 17 TOP-level mini games have been incarnated into APPs to go overseas, and the cumulative amount of materials released in the whole cycle has reached 75,700 (video + pictures, deduplication), of which videos account for more than 72%.
"Adventure Wars", "Bull's-eye/King's Will", "Seeking the Way", and "Shooting at the Zombies" are the four games with the highest amount of material. Among them, "Shooting at Zombies" was only launched in May, but the amount of materials increased rapidly. In terms of the material list, South China manufacturers are still outstanding, and most of the products at the top of the list are launched in multiple markets, and the R&D and publishers behind them are strong, so they invest a larger number of materials. Among them, the material forms of "Adventure Ops" are diverse, and it not only obtains players who place unboxing, but also includes a large number of pan-users, including RPG players and pixel theme players. On the contrary, "King's Will/Bull's Eye" and "Gun at Zombies" are more focused on strategy, mainly converting tower defense mowing and shooting players.
In the first half of 2024, the overseas version of ADX shows that 17 overseas mini game materials are invested, with the Apple side accounting for nearly 40%, the Android side accounting for about 60%, and some games are even half open. This proportion is slightly higher than that of other games going overseas (Apple Android 3:7), and the proportion of Apple is slightly higher. This is mainly because the mini games go overseas mainly for Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. Among them, the Taiwan market and the Japan market share of Apple machines are relatively high.
In addition, it is difficult for most mini games to operate in the long run, and they tend to pursue short-term quick recycling. Therefore, it is more inclined to the Apple side with higher user quality.
Case 1: "The Legend of the Mushroom Brave" is creative and diverse, breaking the circle of RPG, and there are many local stars
ADX overseas version displays: As of July 16, the overseas versions of "Legend of the Mushroom Brave" have collectively voted 18,770 videos + pictures (deduplication), which is the most of all overseas mini games. And in the first half of the year, the game continued to increase investment, and ushered in two peaks in March (transferred to 58 markets) and July. In terms of markets, the materials are mainly invested in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and other markets; In terms of media, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and FacebookAudience were the most widely placed, and there was little difference between the four media materials (mainly due to general investment); This is followed by AdMob and YouTube. Specific to the idea:
In the first half of 2024, the overseas version of ADX shows that according to the estimated number of downloads, the TOP100 video materials of each overseas version of "The Legend of the Mushroom Brave" are more diverse. More than half of the materials introduce gameplay or character weapons, as well as IP funny materials and 3D mushroom man materials.
The game strives to break the circle to acquire RPG players. The creative routine is similar to 4399's previous overseas RPG games, such as "opening apology", "random selection at the beginning but unsatisfactory results", etc. In addition, the game has a lot of materials that are actually not actual game situations, such as pixel painting, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division gameplay.
The game has already put a lot of creative materials in the mainland market, and a large number of non-live materials are actually re-dubbed and modified after the text is put overseas. For localization, the game has a large number of local celebrities and anchor materials.
Case 2: The idea of "Shooting at Zombies" focuses on gameplay and coolness
The overseas version of ADX shows that as of July 16th, the overseas versions of "Shooting at Zombies" have combined and invested a total of 9286 video + picture (deduplication) materials, ranking third in the list of overseas mini game materials. And after the overseas launch in May, the launch was stable, and it has declined slightly recently.
In terms of markets, the materials are mainly invested in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States; In terms of media, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and FacebookAudience were the most widely placed, and there was little difference between the four media materials (mainly due to general investment); This is followed by AdMob and Pangle.
Specific to creativity: In the first half of 2024, the overseas version of ADX shows: According to the estimated number of downloads, the TOP100 video materials of each overseas version of "Shoot at Zombies" are mainly used to show lawn mowing/meat pigeon/RPG character equipment and other gameplay, mainly to obtain lawn mowing and shooting players.
Among all the materials in this game, vertical screen materials account for more than 65%, mainly to introduce the gameplay and the coolness of mowing the lawn. Among them, there are many game records or pseudo game records, and the material cost is low.
Mini-games go to sea for research and judgment
Research and judgment 1: one core, two models, three factors
First, small and medium-sized game manufacturers should pay more attention to human nature rather than localization.
The second mode, the mini game goes to sea to form a unique mode. It can be used as a reference for small and medium-sized manufacturers to go overseas. As shown in the figure, this mode is lighter, which is different from that of large manufacturers. In contrast, manufacturers such as Tencent, NetEase, miHoYo, Lilith, and Eagle Corner are often "heavy mode" when they go overseas. Small and medium-sized manufacturers naturally cannot follow suit in terms of resource endowment.
Three factors: fast, wide and deep. Looking at the successful companies of domestic games going overseas in recent years, there are three main factors, and they are also three roads: fast, wide, and deep. Fast: market positioning and entry speed, identify the target market, and seize the first-mover advantage in time, such as FunPlus, Mutong, etc.; Deep: For specific target markets, carry out product transformation, in-depth operation, and localization deep cultivation, such as NetEase's deep cultivation in Japan; Wide: Relying on overseas distribution capabilities, we empower self-developed/agent products to test and issue in batches, such as Sanqi and Tencent. At present, successful manufacturers going overseas are often not weak in the capabilities of the three, but they will be biased towards one or two core capabilities. Mini games go overseas is that Chinese games go overseas and re-embark on the road of "fast". However, it is lacking in terms of "deep" and "wide".
Research and judgment 2: the market and issuance are concentrated
From the perspective of publisher attribution, behind the 17 overseas mini games, 7 are published by Guangzhou manufacturers, accounting for the highest proportion; The second is Shenzhen manufacturers. The South China games represented by the two have outstanding overseas performance. From the perspective of market selection, only 7 products can be released globally and have certain achievements. This means that in this round of mini games going overseas, South China manufacturers, especially large manufacturers or "old guns" with experience in going overseas, take the lead in leading the way and sailing the world. However, there are also some products that are just lingering in the prosperous market and waiting to be driven to a broader market.
Research and judgment three: casting/welfare code + linkage/star combination boxing
The industry tends to think that South China manufacturers will only buy and invest in traffic. But this round of mini-games went to sea, and the combination of quality and effect was more mature (more inclined to effect). In terms of streaming, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea celebrities, rubbing Japan animation IP, welfare code/sending XX consecutive draws, etc. are more common; In terms of social media, on the one hand, the lottery welfare code, on the other hand, it is more common to link the IP of the local market (and display the linkage IP in the icon).
Judgment 4: The gameplay/content is monotonous, and the long-term is worrying
In the Taiwan market, 8 overseas mini games have fallen out of the top 200 of the iOS best-selling list, and 5 of them took less than a quarter.
This may be because: in terms of retention, due to the gameplay-driven, weak social attributes and insufficient content depth, overseas mini games often have problems such as fast content consumption, not long-term, and players feel boring and monotonous and lose (retention problems or long-term operation problems). In terms of volume, because the carrier of mini games going overseas is APP (while the mainland market is H5 and mini programs), they have lost the advantage of "click and play", and have to compete with the stock games in the overseas market. Faced with difficulties in terms of volume price. There is a theoretical solution to the above problem: the Mini Game incarnates H5 (browser-based, not APP or Mini Program) to go overseas. However, the reality is that there are very few cases in which the results have been outstanding.
Judgment 5: Under the opportunity, the risk coexists
First: there are intellectual property risks and platform regulatory review risks due to IP and sub-gameplay materials;
Second: the probability problem of the unboxing mode and the reputation of public opinion. Regulators and courts in the European Union, Canada and other countries have regulated the treasure chest opening model; China, Taiwan and Korea require mandatory probabilistic disclosure. In the first half of the year, Haoteng's box-opening game "Crazy Knights" was removed from the shelves in the United States and Japan, and I don't know if it is related to the probability announcement.
Third: the cottage "skin" to seize the deity market. After a certain gameplay of the mainland mini game became popular, it was common for copycat "skin-changing" products to be quickly launched overseas. For example, the stacking match-3 of "Sheep is a Sheep" triggered a large number of overseas skin changes; Another example is that "The King of Salted Fish" went to sea late, and similar gameplay products with different themes seized the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets in advance.