Hottest Monetization Trends for Mobile Games

what is up app nation it is Stevie Young founder of app Masters dot-com the place you go when you want action-packed content in the app business because I talked to some amazing founders in the mobile app space so that we all can collectively learn from them and today I've got phenomenal guests we're gonna talk all about games what are the hottest trends how are they making money and what features matter the most when you're trying to build a sustainable mobile game business so without further ado let me introduce the guest he is the head of analytics and co-founder at game refinery go check him out game refinery calm if you want insights on all the latest happening in the mobile game space let me introduce his name is Joel you look : and like I said he's the founder of co-founder at game refinery Joel welcome to the show thank you Steve lucky lucky had excited to be here kinda screwed up

on that intro but thank you so much for coming here so game refinery you guys provide insights so it's sort of like an intelligence platform for those in the mobile gaming space yes yes that's correct so yeah we are kind of a data provider for the mobile gaming industry so we of course we focus on on kind of let's say deeper insights game features what features and mechanics are trending what genres are trending what the best players in the in the market are doing and all that kind of stuff so we kind of I go under the hood of the games and make the App Store more transparent for anybody who's interested the monetization trends what what are some of the things that are happening in the mobile gaming space in terms of monetization well if I have to pick just one thing kind of touches all of these genres nowadays it has to be the battle to pass system I don't know if you're familiar with what it means the retail

so it's it's kind of a monetization mechanic that is based on seasons they can be monthly mantra seasons or bi-weekly seasons whichever and the idea is that when new season starts there is a kind of tasks for the players to complete or thresholds reach and then they get rewarded for reaching those fish holes and of course there is there's usually three layer which is available for everyone so that's something that kind of drives engagement all across the broad board and then there is the premium layer which kind of fact requires you the purchase the battle pass which can be called like : pass her : ticket depending on the game and the idea is that if you purchased a premium layer of the update of the pass the you rewards increase in value and then you get more of those rewards and almost always there's some exclusive stuff also that for example skin C meaning fortnight or other games and the thing is that the

battle pass system white works so well is that it can be actually implemented in any kind of game so no matter the genre you can have it started of course in the west from fortnight and was adapted by other miracle shooting games but now as the 2019 and moved along we could see in game refine because we are following all our other trends in the games we could see that even casual games like much free games and started to implement the feature because it doesn't wreck the balance or the or the normal gameplay of the game because it's kind of on the sidelines so you don't have to think about that for losing your games essence or soul to the Evo monetization mechanic and then and also for something for everybody for free so so even if you are not kind of paying pay to win a player per se you get more engagement engagement kind of content to the game and that's of course then tribes play royalty and and and if

you're paying clientele to be in 12 is there like a mobile only game that you like they've done battle pass really well yeah so yeah of course it is used in some kind of cross platform the same mechanic was personal platform as well but but in in mobile it it is it is now the one one of the biggest things and and as I said for 10 was maybe the one title or the game that kind of familiarize that mechanic with the industry but now as I said clash of clans was able to kind of make one of 29 in one of its greatest years in revenue wise mainly thanks to that battle past system that they implemented clean last year many of the match 3 games like like Hunger Garden escapes or fish dome have implemented as well we have seen some slots games so kind of casino games implementing the same kind of mechanics so it's it's it it's it's coming hard and it's not only us and the Western Western markets because in China

we also follow Chinese mobile game markets in China it is even kind of a bigger and a trend almost if I remember correctly like one-third of all of the top 100 crossing games in China so that one her games that makes the most money are utilizing the battle has assists is it a subscription-based system isn't one time it's kind of if it's not kind of Auto Auto renewal subscription so it's not like that but the idea is because it usually monthly seasons or whatever it's usually go so that you purchase the pass and then for the season which is usually month or five weeks or whatever you get those benefits and you get to get you can get those exclusive rewards from those tasks and then once the season is over you have to repurchase it so it's not an ultra renewable subscription but it has those kind of subscription elements to it yeah and it sort of you know like I interviewed Brian from he's that may

thinking I forgot where he's out now but back then he was that backflip he was talking about monetizing off of impatience right and it's sort of and you I'm kind of going through this blog post as you talked to Joel but you have this a great example where you can activate a premium account and it's usually for 399 for a season it's usually locked in for 15 days or 30 days but it gives you that reduced crafting time we do spell time enhanced daily chess rewards so it's sort of like a jolt of a little jolt of adrenaline for a little bit and get people to sort of buy a smaller I guess in-app purchase at the same time sort of like the psychology of it we're gonna get into the psychology of it yes you're exactly right and then and then there's the other element on top of that that because you get those stress holes and I'm during that season and both milestones and those tasks to complete it also kind

of makes you want to play the game more but then when you play the game you you unlock those additional remorse on on top of those let's say automatic benefits and and then kind of as you play here on my clothes for higher grade rewards and then you can see that okay I haven't still unlocked those really cool let's say exclusive skin is important and then that makes you play and after the season ends you have you have to make the decision that do you want to kind of renew your pass and usually if the content is good enough if you get value for your money if they implement annotation is right more often than not players decide to bring you and that's of course good for the developer but what I want to move on to next joel is when now we talked about how to make money won't talk about some of the features that matter most like when you're thinking about building game this is more for the studios out there just

thinking about that ideation phase maybe thinking about the next title what features are the most important to really get engagement hike which will ultimately lead to more monetization yeah that's a that's a that's the big question and something that we actually get a lot in game refinery and and it can be said that it's it's a bit genre dependable so depending on the genre that game you make of course because certain features kind of cry of success more in some joints than others for example if you think about like some synchronous PvP player versus player action it's much more important in PS games or something like that then let's say clash sorry like a battery game schedule game so it's John independent but there is a big if you think about the whole of the market all of the games in general there's kind of a big awkward strength when it comes to we call them deeper social mechanics we are talking

about guild mechanics or alliances in client systems and then different kind of co-op cooperative playing playing mechanics in casual games and mid core games I like and and this is this speaker at the moment so guild mechanics in quantum mechanics have British elite mobile gaming view that's the more mythical feature like a strategy games are using in RPG games are using it but during 2019 we talked about paddle paths but another big trend was to guild mechanics and clan mechanics being making their way to casual match 3 games dice games board games and I'm so on and so forth and that's it that's the kind of fun that's a feature that acts as a platform for other engagement features so if when you have a guild mechanic system in place it makes it much easier to seamlessly add stuff like coop coop play modes like let's say a team the team of competitions live events that kind of utilize those those elements and

that's so that's the one one big thing so guild mechanics and everything around that and different co-op modes score playing much like now almost all of the top top match three games have some kind of co-op events or competitions and where your match we've gotta find teamed up with random players or your guild team members to compete and there's other teams in in matching those gems or candies or whatever and that's so that's that I think is big one so that's one one one and then of course live events in general in mobile are getting bigger and bigger so having a good live ups to rotate those effective events to give players more kind of diverse and then refreshing content to keep the experience new and and exciting all the time so give them more things to do and that's that's what live events are extremely good at and and you can also test new kind of gaming modes and an libre mechanics true live event so you

can spin up a live event and to test something that you don't want to kind of take a solid part or kind of a permanent part of the game just yet but then if the results are good if your players engage more room but that event and spend more during that event that can be something that you can think about it hey maybe we want to turn this to a kind of permanent aspect of the game so so did you sum up I would say after this long monologue and game mechanics and everything deeper social so coops and guilts and and then on the other hand live of live oaks and and live event related feature so those are if you have to name something that is important in all mobile game genres all right well let's talk about the the let's move on to the next topic games that have the most potential what are you gonna get yeah what I'll just ask for that okay of course it definitely depends a bit if you stick with the dubious market start with the

US market because it's a bit different thing in Japan and China if we talk about Jonas and game times in u.s. it's it's it's kind of a good situation because there are plenty of strong genres on top crossing and that are gonna having a pool and and demand to be able to kind of sustain a couple of hip-hip titles and even the kind of let's say kind of other other tile as well making enough money to support developers and for example match three games slots games turn-based RPGs Forex strategy games are doing really good at the moment so those type of games are kind of of course the competition is fierce but but there is the market we speak enough to sustain several players several titles then of course there are some genres like MOBAs card battlers action RPGs in in West that are not doing as well as there for example doing in like action RPGs are doing extremely well in China and in u.s. they are

struggling a bit it might change in in the near future because mobile Mobile onre that is bringing Marvel Super Ball which can be actually actually analyzed in our system it looks pretty promising then in riots League of Legends mobile game while rift is coming in card banner games do you have legends of runeterra in in close field at the moment so a lot of interesting things is happening at the moment so in general you can kind of have success in any genre of course you have to have extremely competitive features that implement those features real well and of course take good care of tu a and and kind of really give you a but of course I said if I have to say that mmm what genres are the biggest ones and enemy there's room for other many player kind of her games I would say mastery of different kinds for strategy games turn-based RPGs and slots just based on the numbers but of course now somebody

comes and says hey my endless running game is making enough money for me and it's a great game so of course that's that's possible but the bigger big should look like this and then we in China of course it's all about RPGs action RPGs MMORPGs Japan is all about turn-based RPGs so if you look at us and Western markets there are more unavoidable genres kind of sharing the biggest part of the cake the name in China you