Weekly Gaming Reports Recap: October 9 - October 13 (2023)
2023 Layoffs number; EA Sports FC 24 launched 20% better than FIFA 23; Sensor Tower shared a case study of how Bethesda launched Starfield.
Articles of this week:
Sensor Tower: How Bethesda and Microsoft Launched Starfield
Reports of this week:
AppMagic: Hypercasual Market in Q3 2023
In 2023, layoffs affected more than 6,000 employees
EA Sports FC 24 launched 20% better than FIFA 23
Sensor Tower: Konami dominates the sports mobile game market
AppMagic & WNHub: Top Games by Revenue & Downloads in September 2023
Sensor Tower: RPG is the main mobile genre in South Korea
Famitsu: Pikmin 4 has become the best-selling game of the month in Japan for the third consecutive month
Sensor Tower: How Bethesda and Microsoft Launched Starfield
Before Launch
Announcement and First Trailer
Bethesda announced Starfield in September 2018, noting that it was the company's first major new IP in 25 years.
The first trailer was shown in June 2021. The company allocated 90% of its marketing budget to advertising on desktop YouTube, 9% on Twitter, and 1% on Facebook. Interestingly, the trailer on Twitter spread organically, accounting for 24% of all views (YouTube had 74%).
In the debut trailer, the company emphasized that Starfield would be available on Game Pass from day one.
First Gameplay Demonstration
Gameplay was first revealed at E3 2022, one year after the teaser trailer. This time, the company focused on YouTube and major gaming platforms such as Reddit, Twitch, and GameSpot. It's worth noting that the company once again ignored mobile devices for these showings, allocating all expenses to desktop.
Pre-Orders
Pre-orders opened in June 2023. Bethesda launched a multi-channel advertising campaign, covering Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
The premium edition of Starfield was highlighted in the advertising campaign, allowing players to start playing five days earlier. Bethesda actively referenced The Elder Scrolls, Skyrim, and Fallout 4 in its creative materials.
Collaborations
Microsoft actively promoted Starfield through the Xbox Game Pass.
Bethesda collaborated with AMD, MSI, CLX Gaming, and NZXT to reach a more hardcore audience.
Target Countries for Marketing
70% of the entire advertising budget was allocated to the United States. The debut trailer was also advertised in Canada.
In 2022, after showcasing gameplay, the advertising spread to Germany. Later, Bethesda added the United Kingdom and Italy.
After Launch
Advertising Approach
35% of Bethesda's budget after launch went to OTT (advertising on various streaming services). They actively advertised on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok.
Most creatives, lasting 15-30 seconds, conveyed the message that the game was available for purchase.
Countries
The share of the United States in marketing expenditures increased to 77%. The United Kingdom accounted for 10.7%, and Canada for 8.2%.
Results
Starfield became Bethesda's biggest launch in history. Within a couple of weeks after release, more than 10 million people played it.
However, the quality of the game proved to be a subject of debate. The game has a rating of 3.3 out of 5 on Game Pass and 72.09% positive reviews on Steam. Critics on Metacritic rated the game at 84 points, but users gave it 6.6 points.
In terms of marketing budgets, Starfield, with combined spending from Bethesda and Microsoft, exceeded Hogwarts Legacy ($33 million). According to Sensor Tower's estimates, the companies spent over $40 million promoting the game in the United States.
The popularity of the game on Twitch was highest during its release. After that, the number of views steadily declined, with the game trailing behind in views compared to games like Baldur's Gate III.
AppMagic: Hypercasual Market in Q3 2023
Overall Trends
Downloads compared to the previous quarter dropped by 8%, from 3.8 billion to 3.5 billion.
Compared to the previous year, the decline is even more significant - by 14%, from 4 billion. However, analysts note that quarterly declines in Q3 have been observed for several years.
Eastern Tier-1 countries saw a 7% increase in downloads in the third quarter, while Western Tier-1 countries dropped by 10%; all other countries also decreased by 7%.
Top 10 Games by Downloads
My Perfect Hotel - the chart leader in the third quarter. The game, launched in April 2022, has garnered more than 28 million installations.
The second newcomer is Magic Piano Tiles: music game from the Pakistani studio XGAME STUDIO. The game has been downloaded more than 26 million times.
Twerk Race 3D - Running Game - the third newcomer of the quarter with 22 million downloads. Interestingly, behind the simple runner game, there is a gym management meta.
The chart also features many old hits such as Race Master 3D - Car Racing, Bridge Race, Burger Please! (its downloads increased, for example, by 13%).
In 2023, layoffs affected more than 6,000 employees
Game Industry Layoffs collected the data about all known layoff rounds in 2023. And they look scary.
The exact number of laid-off employees is 6,131 people as of October 9.
Companies conducted 107 rounds of layoffs, with the majority occurring in September of this year.
Unity, Epic, Amazon, Electronic Arts, and Embracer Group are the companies that laid off the most people.
Constantly updated statistics on layoffs are available at the link.
EA Sports FC 24 launched 20% better than FIFA 23
In the first week after release, the number of users in the game reached 11.3 million. This is 20% more than in the previous year during the same period.
EA Sports FC Mobile gained over 11.2 million users in the first 10 days. 2.2 million downloaded the game on the first day.
Sensor Tower: Konami dominates the sports mobile game market
The top 10 highest-earning mobile sports games in the world are represented by football (5 projects), racing games (2 projects), baseball, golf, and pool.
The leader of the global chart is Professional Baseball Spirits A, a baseball game by Konami. According to AppMagic data, the game's cumulative revenue is $1.86 billion. In the last 30 days, it earned $19.5 million, only in Japan.
Konami dominates the domestic market for sports games. It publishes 6 out of the top 10 highest-earning mobile sports games.
AppMagic & WNHub: Top Games by Revenue & Downloads in September 2023
Revenue
Honor of Kings continues its top-grossing journey. The game earned $115.8 million in September, excluding Chinese Android stores.
Monopoly GO! by Scopely is second in terms of revenue, with nearly $88 million in earnings.
Genshin Impact returned to the top ten highest-earning projects, earning $69.1 million in September.
Downloads
Build A Queen is the second most downloaded game in September, with 16.5 million downloads. It is a runner game in Supersonic Studios' portfolio.
Nextbots In Backrooms: Sandbox is eighth in downloads in September, dedicated to the currently popular trend of "skibidi-toilets."
For the first time, High Energy Hero (高能英雄) entered the charts. It is a royal battle game from Tencent, borrowing many of its mechanics from Tencent. The game was released on September 21 and received 2.7 million installations and $1.1 million in revenue during that time.
Sensor Tower: RPG is the main mobile genre in South Korea
It accounts for 57.5% of the revenue of the local gaming market.
South Korea holds 13.5% of the RPG genre market share. Ahead are Japan (34%) and China (20.9%). South Korea surpasses the USA (13.1%) by the share of the revenue in the genre.
RPG sub-genres in the South Korean market
The share of revenue from mobile MMORPGs dropped from 77% in 2019 to 69.5% in 2023.
The share of revenue from Squad RPG (Cookie Run: Kingdom, Goddess of Victory: Nikke) increased from 12.7% in 2019 to 17.7% in 2023.
Idle RPGs significantly increased their share from 1.7% in 2019 to 4.4% in 2023. Major representatives include Legend of Slime: Idle RPG and Blade Idle.
Famitsu: Pikmin 4 has become the best-selling game of the month in Japan for the third consecutive month
Famitsu only considers physical copy sales.
Games
Pikmin 4 sold 111.6 thousand copies in Japan in September. The total sales in the country have reached 864.2 thousand copies since its release in July.
The release of Pikmin 1 + 2 from Nintendo took 6th place on the Japanese chart, selling 23.9 thousand copies.
Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon for PS5 took second place, selling 39.9 thousand copies, losing to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Consoles
Nintendo Switch is the leader in sales in Japan. In September, over 307 thousand consoles were purchased.
PS5 is in second place, with over 181 thousand units purchased in September.
The total sales of Xbox Series S|X in Japan have reached 500 thousand.