September is a busy month for battle passes, with new and additional battle passes added to major titles including Hearthstone, Diablo Immortal, League of Legends: Wild Rift, Merge Mansion, Fishing Clash, and Three Kingdom Tactics (三国志·战略版). it’s been a month. . In response to Apple increasing App Store prices in Europe and certain Asian markets, we expect to see more mobile games offering additional monetization mechanics in the coming months. The latest update for League of Legends: Wild Rift announced that gachas will be added to the store in the not-too-distant future.
On the events side, things were calmer in September due to the lack of major seasonal and holiday events, but some games like #Compass are starting to offer Halloween updates, while Japanese games including Umamusume Pretty Derby and Blue Archive are launching new updates ahead of the school sports season. Anniversary celebrations were held for Candy Crush Saga, which celebrates its 10th anniversary, and State of Survival, which celebrates the third year of its global version.
Major game updates have led to success for several games as well. The worldwide celebratory update for Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle topped the iOS top-grossing charts in Japan and the US, while the Forgotten Nightmare update for Diablo Immortal was the biggest ever, causing download numbers to double.
Find out more about this update, as well as this month’s most interesting updates, events, and top-grossing listing entries below.
US Market Overview
Let’s start with content updates for the big names. League of Legends: Wild Rift’s latest update introduced a new Battle Pass currency/shop and limited-time 1v1 mode. Forgotten Nightmare for Diablo Immortal has added the first major dungeon since launch, a new event, a Battle Pass season, new ways to get Legendary Crests (premium gacha tickets) with items and cosmetics, and free currency. Garena Free Fire’s latest update adds a new purpose for trial weapons with the addition of the weapon skin lifetime progression system – something free players of the game will love.
Elsewhere, popular Match3 game Project Makeover has finally added a guild mechanic to the game with its new Clique feature, Marvel: Contest of Champions has added a new synchronized PvP mode, and Lily’s Garden has interestingly added a Home Design side rework mode. permanent game mode instead of a limited time game mode.
Candy Crush Saga turns ten! The popular puzzler held the Candy Cup, a massive multi-week tournament to celebrate. Rise of Kingdoms celebrated its fourth anniversary with a five-interval IAP draw, while State of Survival hosted a three-year anniversary event that took place in three stages and hosted several events as part of Guns of Glory: Conquer Empires. on his fifth birthday.
Dragon City Mobile has partnered with AMC’s The Walking Dead for an interesting collaboration that shapes their dragons around The Walking Dead characters, and Solitaire Grand Harvest has teamed up with actress Jane Seymour for a limited-time collectible album event. Roblox leads the way with regular music collaborations, and its latest release with The Chainsmokers has added an enduring Chainsmokers World Experience that mixes hybrid and tycoon gameplay mechanics in a variety of minigames and missions accompanied by the Chainsmokers music.
Finally, in other music-related news, Cookie Run: Kingdom started ramping up BTS concert collaborations a month ago, with social media (and sometimes the cast too) getting something new almost daily. More on that in next month’s Market Overview.
Interesting top 200 grossing exhibitors in the market
- One Punch Man – The Strongest is a new turn-based RPG from Shanghai Moonton. It ranked highest at the 99th highest-grossing position in September.
- Triple Match 3D, a game very similar to a game called Match 3D, has been scaling up lately. The game’s top-grossing ranking is slowly rising and is currently top-grossing at 150.
- Infinite Magicraid is a turn-based RPG similar to RAID: Shadow Legends. The game ranked highest at the 126th highest-grossing position.
- Another game that entered the top 200 last month is the MMORPG, The Legend of Neverland. The game ranked highest in 148 top-grossing positions.
- Wolf Game: Wild Kingdom is the highest ranked 4X Strategy game, ranked 147th last month.
Chinese Market Overview
One of the biggest updates in September was for 5v5 MOBA League of Legends: Wild Rift (英雄联盟手游), which introduced a new 1v1 PvP mode and added gachas to the Chinese and US versions of the game, but the Chinese version took advantage of it. from some additional store gachas and events. The introduction of the single-player competitive mode adds a whole new dimension to the League of Legends experience. This, combined with the additional monetization elements from the gachas, resulted in an almost 10x increase in revenue.
Three Kingdoms Tactics (三国志・战略版) will see a surge in revenue in the coming months, thanks to the expansion of the deco item system with win streak banners, as well as the addition of a Battle Pass. Fantasy Westward Journey (梦幻西游) has given its hardcore players a surprise by adding a new dungeon for players above level 50. In September, a new event was also introduced that allows players to use a new limited-time character, Tang Yuan. , a reward for completing event quests, through the use of bamboo.
The Chinese version of PUBG Mobile, Game for Peace (和平精英), hosted a major collaboration event with the China Space Flight Program that added space travel-related items to the game’s main Battle Royale map. A character-based mode similar to Apex Legends was also included in the game in September. Call of Duty Mobile’s (使命召唤手游) collaboration with Ghost in the Shell IP adds limited-time gachas, cosmetics, new main menu visuals, cutscenes, and a new Battle Royale map design, while Onmyoji (阴阳)师) ‘ The latest update included an event with multiple PvE modes, a betting contest, battle pass and an event shop.
Interesting top 200 grossing exhibitors in the market
Japanese Market Overview
Worldwide celebration of Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle: The Mightiest in the Universe campaign introduced new rounds of co-ops and event levels. The update was a huge hit among gamers, resulting in massive revenue and download growth that drove the game to the top. Rhythm game BanG Dream! Girls Band Party also took advantage of the iOS Store’s top-grossing charts in Japan and the US, thanks to its collaboration with Ling Tosite Sigure, a rock band who wrote a new song for the game.
Monster Strike has made Starter packs repurchasable for existing players and released two new gacha systems. With school sports season just around the corner in Japan, we’re seeing themed sporting events appear in games like the Blue Archive. and the Umamusume Pretty Derby, both featuring new sports-themed story events. #Compass also almost launched a Halloween event in collaboration with That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.
Dragon Quest Tact’s collaboration with Final Fantasy War of the Vision Brave Exvious marks the first time they have collaborated with a franchise outside of the Dragon Quest universe, while Puzzle & Dragons experienced a spike in revenue and downloads thanks to its collaboration with One Piece. To celebrate the release of the latest movie, One Piece Film Red.
Finally, September has been a really busy month for anniversary events in Japan. The Japanese version of State of Survival celebrated its first anniversary, Shishi no Gotoku – Sengoku Haousenki and Sakurazaka46・Hinatazaka46 UNI’S ON AIR celebrated their third anniversary, and there were various anniversaries events taking place on Idolish7, Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS), Ensemble Stars!! Music (Ensemble Stars!! Music).