It has been 120 days since the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" was launched in South Korea.
The game was a hit when it first came out, making it into the top five of the game's best-seller lists at both Ios and Google Play. Now, four months later, it still looks strong.
As can be seen on Google Play, which has more users in South Korea, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" remains in the top 10 most of the game's best-seller list. In the category of "strategy games", it ranked second, of course, the first place is also a domestic game, from Lilith's "Awakening of All Nations".
From the above achievements, it can be seen that "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" has indeed achieved the level of blockbuster games in South Korea.
In the past 90 days, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" has ranked the trend on the Korean Google play best-seller list
Although Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan went online three months earlier, the performance of the Korean market has surpassed these three markets. If you look at it from the beginning of the Korean version, then the gap is even greater. According to the data monitored by Sensor Tower, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition has the highest revenue in South Korea, accounting for 9% of total revenue (Chinese mainland market share is 74%).
However, it is worth noting that the Japanese version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was also launched in mid-May and can basically maintain the top 60 best-seller lists of iOS games in Japan, and Japan also has the opportunity to catch up with South Korea and become the first market for the game to go global.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition" February 23 to June 21, each market revenue
In the Chinese mainland market, everyone knows that the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms • Strategy Edition" is publicized in a strong way. This style of play has also continued to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as southeast Asian markets (mainly Singapore and Malaysia), and the amount of materials to be bought ranks in the top five levels. In the Korean market, this style of play is still adopted.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms • Strategy Edition" launch material, source: dataeye-adx overseas version
So around the game's purchase of materials and celebrity endorsements, we can explore what the game has done in the Korean market.
1. The amount of materials bought in the early stage is mainly to highlight the game content.
In the warm-up before the game was launched, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" invited Nagano Tsuyoshi to tell the story of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" hetu production process. Tsuyoshi Nagano is a well-known Japanese illustrator who endorsed koei's game series by designing the cover of the game series produced by Koei (Glory).
Tsuyoshi Nagano
Most of the promotional materials in this period are game content materials, which cover gameplay, game character modeling, special effects and so on. Help them circle the first core players.
2. Enable national-level artists with high popularity.
The next strategic adjustment of Alibaba Interactive Entertainment is the domestic "celebrity endorsement + purchase" model.
The spokespersons for the early cooperation of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" were Sung Dong-yi, Kim Sung-kyun and Choi Moo-sung, all three actors participated in "Please Answer 1988", and are very well-known middle-aged actors in South Korea. In terms of the content of the purchased materials, the gameplay is expressed through the competition between the three actors.
Since the end of April, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms • Strategy Edition" has added comedian "Zhang Dongmin" to the amount of materials purchased, and the process of Zhang Dongmin's joining is also worth mentioning.
On April 30, 2021, a day before the release of the second season of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition"), qookka games (Alibaba Interactive Entertainment's subsidiary in South Korea, hereinafter referred to as qookka) unveiled the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms " Strategy Edition" talk show hosted by Zhang Dongmin and the players. It is worth noting that Zhang Dongmin at this time was not yet the spokesperson of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms And Strategy Edition".
Due to Zhang Dongmin's own humorous nature and understanding of the history of the Three Kingdoms, the 8 o'clock talk show that night worked well and did not become a shoddy TV commercial.
This also stems from the fact that Zhang Dongmin himself is a Fan of the Three Kingdoms and has a deeper understanding of the history of the Three Kingdoms than the average user. As early as 2018, Zhang Dongmin began to upload his explanations and views on the version of the history of the Three Kingdoms and the interpretation of the history of the Three Kingdoms on YouTube.
Later, the first talk show of the second season of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" (the second season of the game) was hosted by Zhang Dongmin, who has become a spokesperson.
Zhang Dongmin
In the process of interacting with the guests, Zhang Dongmin is not only familiar with the allusions in the history of the Three Kingdoms, but also can integrate his humor well into the interactive game.
Draw pictures to guess the allusion - Zhuge Liang borrowed the East Wind
In the comments section of the youtube festival directory broadcast, the audience acknowledged this variety show that was actually a TV commercial:
"영상잘봤습니다~^^ (this show is very good)
I look forward to the next video.
언제나 응원해요 화이팅입니다！ (Cheer up at all times!) ）」
It is worth mentioning that after becoming the spokesperson of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms • Strategy Edition", most of Zhang Dongmin's purchased video materials are clips of talk shows.
Among Zhang Dongmin's related buying materials, some of the materials also have the relevant content of Cheng Dongyi, Kim Sung-kyun, and Choi Wu-sung, and use copywriting such as "Zhang Dongmin's Recommended Three Kingdoms Game":
「장동민도 추천하는 리얼 삼국지!」 (To the effect: Zhang Dongmin recommended the real Three Kingdoms.) ）
During this period, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" mainly used the high visibility of the spokesperson in the local area to screen out the target users of the game from the mass user base.
3. Take the writer who compiled the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as the spokesperson
At the beginning of June, the purchase material of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" was replaced by the famous Korean writer Lee Moon-yeol.
Li Wenlie's process of becoming the spokesperson of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Strategic Edition" is also worth mentioning.
In mid-May, qookka held a guessing spokesperson event, allowing players to vote for their spokespersons based on the criteria of "characters that come to mind when you talk about the Three Kingdoms". According to qookka's silhouette on the poster and hints of the "Master of the Three Kingdoms", the new spokesperson was quickly guessed by players - Lee Moon-yeol, the Korean writer who compiled the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Among the dozens of Korean translations, commentaries, and rewrites of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in Korea, Lee Wen-yeol's compilation is the most popular. For Koreans, the popularity of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is also closely related to Lee Wen-lie, and it can even be said that in South Korea, Lee Wen-yeol can almost represent "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Then the intention of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" to make Li Wenlie the spokesperson of the game can also be understood: to bind this writer who represents "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" with the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" to focus on "raiding" all Lovers of the Three Kingdoms.
In addition, because Li Wenlie has endorsed the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms m(삼국지m)", by choosing Li Wenlie, it may also be possible to attract the player resources of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms M" to the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition".
Of course, the achievements of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" in South Korea today are also related to the strong cultural genes of the three countries in the market itself. In recent years, domestic games with the theme of three kingdoms have achieved good results in South Korea.
After inquiring about the top 200 Three Kingdoms theme games on the iOS best-seller list from January 2014 to June 2021 in the Korean market, it is even more certain that China's Three Kingdoms theme slg games have great advantages in the Korean market.
In the period from 2014 to 2021, there are not a few Chinese overseas products that have been active in the top 200 list for several consecutive years.
Efun's "삼국지pk", which was launched in the Korean market in 2013, remained within the top200 for most of the two years in 2015 and 2016.
Three Kingdomspk
Hangzhou Jedi Technology's "짐의강산- 통일하라 (three kingdoms: overlord)" has remained within the top 200 for one year after 2017. From 2019 onwards, as the game's operating years increase, 짐의강산- 통일하라 can remain on the top 400 for most of the time.
Alibaba Interactive Entertainment's "New Three Kingdoms Chronicles (신삼국지 모바일)" performed better, starting from 2018, maintaining nearly two years in the top200, and then with the increase of the game's operating years, most of the time can remain within the top400. Perhaps it is precisely with this foundation that the re-release of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" is easy to master.
"New Three Kingdoms Mobile"
The best performing Chinese overseas product in the Korean market is the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" developed by Xinghui Tiantuo and issued by efun. From its launch in March 2018 until May 7, 2021, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" fell out of the top 200 of the South Korean IOS best-seller list for the first time, but then continued to rise, and currently only 2 days have fallen out of the top 200.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
In contrast, South Korea's local Three Kingdoms theme mobile games are more outstanding with RPG games. One of the best performers is 킹덤스토리: 삼국지 rpg.
Kingdom Story: Three Kingdoms RPG
After the game was launched in November 2016, there were not too many highlights, and its best result was also in the short period of service, but it only came to the 18th place in the best-seller list, and then showed a downward trend, and is now outside the top 300 for most of the time. Compared with China's overseas products, "킹덤스토리: 삼국지 rpg" has declined much faster.
Judging from the data of these years, the only game that can really be called a three-kingdoms theme hit in the Korean market is "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Although the rest of the games have their own peak periods, they have maintained a short period of time in the top ranking, and the ranking ranking is not much bright compared with other genres and theme games.
In addition, in the same time period on the top 200 Three Kingdoms theme games, most of the Korean domestic three countries mobile games in the best-seller list is also lower than the Chinese sea mobile games. After 2020, the top200 is almost impossible to find a Three Kingdoms theme mobile game in South Korea.
As an important user acquisition method, the purchase volume provides a great boost to the target users of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms And Strategy Edition", and the targeted play method in the selection of spokespersons and materials has also achieved obvious results. It is foreseeable that while maintaining the advantages of the domestic market in the future, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Strategy Edition" will continue to rise in overseas markets.