Weekly Gaming Reports Recap: April 8 - April 12 (2024)
F2P in Steam status in 2024; March UK PC/Console sales are good; Pinball/Brick Breaker subgenres overview by Sensor Tower.
Reports of the week:
Newzoo: Helldivers II became the highest-earning game of February
Sensor Tower: Analysis of Pinball/Brick Breaker Subgenres
GSD & GfK: Game sales on PC and consoles in March in the UK grew by 26%
Sensor Tower: Strategy Games in the South Korean mobile market in 2024
Ampere Analysis: EA Sports FC 24 dominates by console players engagement
data.ai: Royal Match became the fastest game in history that went from $2B to $3B in Revenue
Video Game Insights: F2P Games on Steam in 2024
Newzoo: Helldivers II became the highest-earning game of February
Newzoo takes into account 37 markets, excluding China and India. Revenue is collected from the USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
In February, Helldivers II earned more than any other game on PC and consoles. The main markets in terms of revenue are the USA and the UK.
The game ranked 15th in terms of MAU. Within its genre, the game ranked sixth across all platforms.
Considering only shooters, Helldivers II holds the third position on PS and sixth on PC in terms of MAU.
4.8% of the entire PC and PlayStation audience played Helldivers II in February.
The average player spent 20.2 hours per month battling for the future of Super Earth in the game. This ranks 75th among all games and 7th among shooters.
35.3% of Helldivers II owners also play Fortnite; 31% play Palworld, and 28.4% play Lethal Company.
In terms of shooters, the biggest overlaps are with The Finals (17.5%), the Call of Duty series (16.5%), and Evil West (16.5%).
The largest overlap among paying players is with the Call of Duty series (44.6%), Lethal Company (42.6%), and Fortnite (37.8%).
In February, the game accumulated 21 million hours of views. It ranks 17th in terms of views for the month and 7th among shooters.
Sensor Tower: Analysis of Pinball/Brick Breaker Subgenres
Overall Figures
From January 2012 to the end of November 2023, games of these subgenres were downloaded 948 million times.
62% of all downloads were hyper-casual projects (monetization only through ads); 28% were hybrid-casual projects; and 10% were casual.
❗️There is at least one mid-core game - World Flipper. More about it below.
During the same period, Pinball/Brick Breaker subgenres games earned $296 million.
63% of revenue comes from hybrid-casual games; 24% from mid-core; 8% from hyper-casual; 5% from casual.
World Flipper by CyberAgent is the highest-earning game. It's a pinball game with RPG elements and gacha. The game has $71 million in lifetime revenue. PunBall by Habby has $39 million and ranks fourth.
❗️Sensor Tower does not specify whether ad revenue is included. Judging by the overall revenue volume and the share of hyper-casual projects in revenue structure - it seems not.
State of Genres by Revenue and Downloads
Snake VS Block - a game that reached peaks in downloads. In October 2017, it was downloaded almost 17 million times.
Bricks n Balls - another interesting project. The game hit its record in September 2018 (6.5 million installs), but in April 2023, it surged again (+2000% in downloads).
Neither World Flipper nor Punball managed to stabilize revenue at any level. After each revenue spike, there is a sharp decline. There seems to be an issue either with user monetization or long-term retention of payers.
Retention and UA for the main hybrid-casual representatives of the subgenres
It can't be said that games of the genre have bad Retention figures. For example, D1 Retention for genre leaders ranges from 38% to 54%. And D60 for Bricks Breaker Quest reaches up to 10%. This is a clear leader; for other projects, this indicator is around 5%.
Bricks Breaker Quest relies on organic traffic (86.5%). Meanwhile, the share of paid traffic for Bricks Ball Crusher is 74.4%; for Bricks n Balls - 66.2%.
GSD & GfK: Game sales on PC and consoles in March in the UK grew by 26%
Analytical platforms report only the actual sales figures obtained directly from partners. The mobile segment is also not taken into account.
Game sales
3.65 million games on PC and consoles were sold in March. Growth compared to last year - 26%.
Helldivers II became the best-selling game for the second month in a row. Now its cumulative two months of sales have surpassed Marvel’s Spider-Man II. However, in monetary terms, the superhero game is ahead (it was almost twice as expensive).
Dragon’s Dogma II took third place; Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - fifth place.
WWE 2K24 had a decent start - 8% better than the previous installment in the series. The game took the 4th position on the chart.
The launch of Rise of the Ronin was not particularly successful - the game took the 21st position on the chart.
Hardware and accessories sales
117,000 consoles were sold in the UK in March. This is 22% more than in February, but 15% less than in March last year.
PlayStation 5 confidently leads in sales. The console sold 25% better than in February, but 9% worse than in March last year.
Nintendo Switch sales fell by 20% YoY; Xbox Series S|X showed an 18% YoY decline. However, both consoles grew by 20% and 19% respectively compared to February.
733,000 accessories were sold in the UK in March. Growth of 20% compared to February and 16% compared to March 2023. DualSense Midnight Black is the sales leader. DualSense Edge is in second place.
Sensor Tower: Strategy Games in the South Korean mobile market in 2024
General numbers
In January 2024, the strategy genre set a record for monthly revenue in 2.5 years.
Strategies accounted for 12.7% of all mobile revenue in 2023. This is the second place, second only to the RPG genre.
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If we consider the whole world, then strategies account for 32.8% of all iOS mobile game revenue in China; in the USA, the share is 16%; in Japan - 12.4%.
Most notable projects
In the top 6 highest-earning projects, there are no games from Korean developers.
❗️In Sensor Tower's taxonomy, Brawl Stars is classified as a strategy, which slightly deviates from the overall picture - the entire report is about 4X strategies.
Whiteout Survival is the top-grossing strategic game in 2023 and the first one and a half months of 2024 in the South Korean market. It surpasses Top War (second place) by about 3 times. The project has earned over $90 million in South Korea since its release.
The Last War: Survival showed the most rapid growth from July 2023 to January 2024. The project grew by 380% in monthly revenue and reached $11 million in January 2024. The game topped the chart in the first one and a half months of 2024.
South Korea accounts for 29.4% of all revenue from Last War: Survival. The second place is the USA (27.4%), the third is Taiwan (8.5%), the fourth is Japan (6%).
Last War: Survival ranked in the top 3 positions for purchases on AdMob, YouTube, and TikTok in December 2023-January 2024. The project also launched TV advertising and integrated celebrities.
Ampere Analysis: EA Sports FC 24 dominates by console players engagement
The company measured how often console users launched games in January 2024.
Xbox owners logged into Palworld an average of 3.5 days per month. Despite the impressive launch, it can't be said that the game showed excellent player retention. However, only half of the month was taken into account (the game was released on January 19).
On the other hand, in EA Sports FC 24, PlayStation and Xbox owners logged in an average of 10.6 days per month. This is the market leader. However, this is not a record - in October 2023, the game had 11.3 days.
Interestingly, in January, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege showed audience growth - it increased by almost 40% compared to December 2023. At the same time, over a million players joined the game either for the first time or had not played for more than 18 months.
data.ai: Royal Match became the fastest game in history that went from $2B to $3B in Revenue
It took the game 5 months - from October 2023 to March 2024 - to achieve this.
The previous record was held by Clash of Clans, which reached $3 billion in revenue from $2B point in 6 months in 2015.
For ROBLOX and Genshin Impact, a similar journey took 7 months.
Video Game Insights: F2P Games on Steam in 2024
VGI is a Steam analytics service. I myself often use it, and part of the functionality is free.
In 2023, 51% of gamers' time on Steam was spent on F2P games. 31% on games priced from $10 to $50. 11% on games priced above $50. 8% on games priced below $10. The majority of games on Steam are Premium.
8 out of 10 games in 2023 in the top by average CCU were free. Counter-Strike 2 had 877 thousand peak CCU players; DOTA 2 - 429 thousand. Baldur’s Gate III - 95 thousand (the only paid game in the top 10); Rust - 83 thousand (the only paid game with a GAAS approach in the top 10).
❗️Since the data were accounted for a full year, Lethal Company, for example, did not make it into the rating.
Since 2022, F2P games have been losing their share. The time spent in free games decreased in 2023 to 51% (from 56% in 2022). And in the first few months of 2024 - to 44%. F2P games are losing to projects priced from $10 to $50 with GAAS approaches - Palworld; Helldivers II; New World. Since 2021, there has also been a significant increase in the share of AAA projects priced above $50 - partly due to the release of projects from Xbox and Sony on Steam.
The top 10 F2P games accumulate over 70% of users' spent time. Counter-Strike 2 accounts for 25% of all time spent by users on F2P games on Steam.
The top 50 F2P games have 95% user engagement. Top 50 paid games - only 50%.
❗️This once again confirms that releasing an F2P game is an adventure in which the winner gets everything, and the loser is left with nothing.
The average age of F2P games from the top 10 on Steam is 7 years.
❗️It is worth noting that the chart includes not only oldies - Team Fortress 2; Counter-Strike 2; DOTA 2; Grand Theft Auto V. There are also (relatively) new releases - The Finals (just released); Lost Ark (2 years on Steam); NARAKA: Bladepoint (3 years).
However, over the past 3 years, only 2 new F2P games have entered the top charts in Steam by CCU, which remained there in 2024 - Call of Duty: Warzone and NARAKA: Bladepoint.
Examples like Helldivers II and Palworld show that it is not necessary to release a free game to launch a game with a large audience. Helldivers II sales are estimated at 11 million copies; Palworld - at 18 million.
The United States (15%), China (12%), and Russia (11%) are the main countries for F2P games on Steam.