Sensor Tower: The Impact of Film Adaptations on the Metrics of the Games they’re Based On
Details of Revenue/DAU upside Minecraft, Fallout titles, and The Last of Us have seen after their transmedia efforts.
Minecraft
In April, a successful Minecraft film adaptation was released—the movie grossed over $900 million at the box office. As for the games, the release had the following impact: on mobile devices, IAP revenue grew by 44%, and console game sales in April increased by 36%.
There was also a positive effect on DAU—it grew by 9% on mobile devices and by 41% on consoles.
❗️However, the chart shows that DAU quickly returned to previous levels. On consoles, this metric even dropped below prior periods.
Fallout
The release of the Fallout series coincided with a 23% increase in Amazon Prime Video app downloads.
For the mobile game Fallout Shelter, the series premiere resulted in a 150% increase in IAP revenue and a 77% increase in DAU.
On PC, Fallout 3 sales jumped by 125%, and Fallout 4 by 410%. DAU for PC projects grew by 110%. However, it’s important to note that this growth was driven by a significant discount, so the net monetary benefit was smaller.
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Interestingly, DAU for Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 was 225% above average figures, even 20 weeks after the show’s release. This suggests that the TV adaptation succeeded in bringing back old users and attracting new ones.
DAU in Fallout Shelter stabilized at +26% above previous values several weeks after the show’s release.
Notably, a week after the Fallout series premiered, Amazon increased its desktop video advertising budgets in the US by 20 times. Half of this spend was directed to gaming platforms (IGN, Twitch, Gamespot).
The Last of Us
The release of the second season of the series helped significantly boost DAU for both the first and second games. However, the direct impact on sales was weak—The Last of Us: Part II did see a sales uptick after the show’s release, but it was minor.
