Except for the Qixi Festival in China, there were no major holidays or seasonal events in July that resulted in a surge in mobile activity. However, there have been many collaborations with major movie and TV franchises such as the dominant game Vikingard collaborating with the Vikings TV series, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang working with Kung Fu Panda, Game of Thrones Conquest, which launched a series of dragons. Themed events to promote House of the Dragon and One Piece Treasure Cruise celebrate the release of the new One Piece movie by collaborating with not just one, but six different mobile games!
Apart from events and collaborations, July is one of the biggest games on the mobile market, including new PvE and PvP modes for Diablo Immortal, a massive new map for Japan’s survival game LifeAfter, and some improvements to Cookie Run: Kingdom’s Guild Battle. Important updates have been introduced for some of them. system. And on the subject of guilds, this social feature continues to grow in popularity with Words With Friends 2 and Episode – Choose Your Story, which added guild mechanics in July.
In the wake of BLACKPINK’s performance in PUBG: Mobile, the music industry’s interest in mobile gaming continues to grow after Justin Bieber’s latest performance in Garena Free Fire. Find out more about this and all the other biggest events, updates, and the 200 top-grossing new entrants from August below.
US Market Overview
Whether mobile players like it or not, Diablo Immortal is still going strong and August has brought some major updates to the game, namely a special PvE mode with Roguelite mechanics called Fractured Plane and a limited time 1v15 asymmetric PvP mode called Echo of the Echo. Negative. The interesting thing about both of these mods is that your character’s stats scale to the same level, allowing everyone to enjoy the experience on an even playing field.
Raid: Shadow Legends has made some changes to its friend referral plan; This means that players above level 50 can now earn referral points when IAPs make referrals. Cookie Run Kingdom added two new enemies to the Guild Battle system, while Word with Friends 2 and Episode – Select Your Story both brought guild mechanics: Clubs and Book Clubs. In the case of Chapter – Choose Your Story, this is not only surprising for how light most interactive story games are, but this is the first time we’ve seen guild mechanics grace an interactive story game. Players can now chat with other players and play in co-op challenges where points are earned for reading story chapters.
In August, things turned musical on the events side. As self-proclaimed rap god Eminem takes over the new PvP event named after Beatstar’s Curtain Call 2 album, Garena Free Fire celebrates its 5th anniversary by hosting his first in-game concert with Justin Bieber (which also marks the singer’s debut performance). (in a video game) and Roblox collaborated with the MTV Music Video Awards with the MTV VMA Experience event; here players could earn coins to vote in Rewards directly from the Roblox platform.
And in the entertainment world, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’s Kung Fu Panda collaboration rewarded players with themed skins and decoration events, while Game of Thrones: Conquest™ celebrated the launch of the dragon-themed Beasts of Dragon TV series. The events of ancient Valyria. Netease’s Vikingard has climbed to the top 200 thanks to a collaboration with Vikings, the TV show promoting cross events and Easter eggs.
Interesting top 200 grossing exhibitors in the market
- Tower of Fantasy is excited to be the next “Genshin Impact but MMORPG”. The game was ranked 13th highest-grossing.
- Shoot/Beat ’em up game Survivor!.io is among HABBY’s top 40 grossing hits.
- The MMORPG Dragon Trail: Hunter World was the highest-grossing 110 in August.
- The dominant game Vikingard reached the top 200 last month, most likely due to its collaboration with the Vikings TV series.
Chinese Market Overview
Thatgamecompany’s Sky: Children of the Light (光・遇) has been a hit in China since its release, with the new season update introducing an event store and a special level called ‘The Void’. The update resulted in a huge increase in revenue. Turn-based RPG Ling Yun Nuo (凌云诺), Peng You Quan from WeChat’s Moments, new side modes to Ao Bi Island: DreamLand (奥比岛：梦想国度) Mystery of Shadows event, and Tower defense game Fusion Crush (球球)英雄-奥特曼联动) added a Battle Royale game mode.
Speaking of new game modes, Infinite Lagrange celebrated its first year with an impressive fireworks minigame where players can fly a ship and launch fireworks by tapping them at the right time to create different images with fireworks. In the Chinese market, Qixi events (Chinese Valentine’s Day), Revelation Online (天書), Battle of Fishing Recommended, Three Kingdoms Fantasy Land (Three Kingdoms Fantasy Land – Guochuang Enhanced Edition), Shén wǔ 4 (神武4) all participated in the festivities, while Match3 puzzle game Anipop (happy Xiao Xiaole) held a big collaboration event with Dunhuang museum, divided into several different stages.
Interesting top 200 grossing exhibitors in the market
Japanese Market Overview
The massive August update for NetEase’s zombie survival game LifeAfter was a huge success, driving both downloads and revenue soaring. He added Sea of Zombie, a massive sea map complete with its own main story, new enemies to fight, and loads of new areas to explore. To celebrate the launch of this update, a new event, Sail Away, has been added, along with new permanent gachas and a tactical belt gear system.
Japan’s mobile market loves collaborations with other popular gaming IPs and August has been particularly busy on that front. The 22 million download campaign celebrated the release of the new One Piece movie by collaborating with six different mobile games including One Piece Treasure Cruise, Monster Strike. and Knives Out.
August also marked the anniversary celebrations for Umamusume Pretty Derby (1.5 anniversary), which added a new playable scenario and training mechanic, Dragon Quest Tact celebrated its second anniversary with new campaigns, DQ III events and a simultaneous PvP mode, and Onegai Shachou! For the game’s 2nd anniversary, girl group PPE41.Youkai Watch Punipuni also collaborated with popular V-tuber agency Hololive to increase the game’s daily iOS revenue from $20,000 to over $280,000 during the event!
Interesting top 200 grossing exhibitors in the market
- FullMetal Alchemist Mobile (鋼の錬金術師 MOBILE) is Square Enix’s new turn-based RPG with massive anime IP and high-quality graphics. The game was mainly in the top 20 grossing in August.
- The MMORPG Tower of Fantasy is also performing well in the Japanese market. The game ranked highest in the top 3 grossing after launch.
- Quantum Maki (クァンタムマキ) is a “3D War Machine Shooting RPG” launched in collaboration with Code Geass. The game peaked at GR 19 and has remained in the top 70 ever since.
- HABBY’s platform game Kinja Run stayed in the top 100 for a week at the beginning of August.