Based on the massive amount of advertising intelligence it has tracked, App Growing has a comprehensive insight into the global mobile game advertising trends. This white paper on media buying 2021 covers a global mobile games market overview, global popular regions, global mobile top games, top publishers, and creative strategies. Hope it helps you rise above the competition.
Let’s dive right in!
1. Global media buying increase by 64% in 2021
In 2021, more than 11.7 million mobile gaming ads were fetched, a YoY increase of 64%. With the update of the iOS14.5 IDFA privacy policy, the market share of iOS shrank 18 pct and dropped to 21% in 2021 while Android surged from 61% in 2020 to 79% in 2021.
Source: App Growing Global, a leading mobile ad intelligence platform. China mainland data is not included.
2. Casual games were the largest advertiser, with an increase of more than 200%
The media buying of casual, racing, arcade, action, and card mobile games increased rapidly and exceeded 150% compared with 2020.
Core games such as RPG, SLG rose 31% and 58% respectively. It proves that the numbers of new core games are not much and maintained a steady growth overall, while casual games were booming in 2021.
Source: App Growing Global, a leading mobile ad intelligence platform. China mainland data is not included.
3. Global mobile games advertising occupied in Tier 1 countries
It is worth noting that the United States accounts for 8.2% of media buying share, far exceeding the share of other regions.
In terms of the number of advertisements, Hong Kong, the United States, and Singapore are the countries with the fastest MoM growth, with an increase of more than 50%, which means that user acquisition in this region will be more intense.
Source: App Growing Global, a leading mobile ad intelligence platform. China mainland data is not included.
Top mobile games market — Japan
In Japan, an average of 6,372 mobile games are promoted per month, with an average of 2,445 developers.
When it comes to player spending and high ARPU, Japan is one of the top generators. Casual, RPG, and simulation are Top3 genres, according to App Growing Global. In particular, it's a hub for animation, comics, games. Most mobile game shares are occupied by local developers and publishers. Localization is crucial when trying to enter Japan.
Source: App Growing Global, a leading mobile ad intelligence platform. China mainland data is not included.
Top mobile games market — USA
The average monthly of 11,867 promoted mobile games in the United States is nearly twice that of Japan, with an average of 4539 developers per month. A single developer promoted 2.6 mobile games monthly.
Thanks to a mature Internet environment and a large number of female Internet users, the United States is the largest market for casual & puzzle games, with a market share of 35%. High-quality shooting and strategy games ranked firmly on the US top charts. Notably, although casinos did not in the top 5 in terms of advertisement, it is one of the genres with the largest revenue, and the App Store accounts for more than half of the revenue.
Source: App Growing Global, a leading mobile ad intelligence platform. China mainland data is not included.
Potential mobile games market — Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia promoted an average of 4,095 mobile games per month, with an average of 1,758 developers per month. Compared with other markets, localization requirements are high, and the competition is not fierce.
Saudi Arabia has the world's highest ARPPU of mobile games and is well-known as a big spender. Action mobile games, casual, simulation, and arcade games represented by "PUBG MOBILE" are the mainstream mobile games in Saudi Arabia.
"Mafia City" is the most popular strategy game in Saudi Arabia.
Source: App Growing Global, a leading mobile ad intelligence platform. China mainland data is not included.
Top 50 global advertising mobile games
Coloring game "Tap Color" ranked No.1 in media buy ranking, followed by shooting and SLG games, including "Free Fire", "PUBG Mobile", "Mafia City".
Source: App Growing Global, a leading mobile ad intelligence platform. China mainland data is not included.
Tencent Games advertising analysis
Tencent Games has the largest revenue worldwide. The team focuses on PUBG Mobile, one of 2021's top-grossing mobile games, continuously promoted worldwide. Popular MOBA game Arena of Valor (Honor of Kings in China) is on the 2nd top advertising ranking and a new title Alchemy Stars on the 3rd, which performs well in the top-grossing chart. Data shows that Japan, Russia, and the Middle East are the markets that Tencent focuses on, and it only launches mid-core and core games.
Source: App Growing Global, a leading mobile ad intelligence platform. China mainland data is not included.
PUBG MOBILE: Arcane
More than 80% of "PUBG MOBILE" ad creatives are promoted on Admob & Youtube. Ads with the longest active days show gameplay from the player's perspective and it delivers the most intense scene during the game, such as squatting on the bridge and guarding the enemy.
Arena of Valor: 5v5 Arena Game
Ads show a Classic 5v5 match in Arena of Valor （AoV）and show off heroes' skills and combos to appeal to players.
Meanwhile, AoV collaborated with properties, such as DC Comics, and began advertising, which expect to have a broad reach to more audiences especially DC comics lovers.
Supercell advertising analysis
Supercell, which is good at developing high-quality games in a long term, still keeps on media buying of "Clash of Clans" released in 2013, and its advertising ranking ranks first among its games.
In 2021, three new games were released in succession, namely "Clash Mini" for strategy tower defense, "Everdale" for co-operative village building, and "Clash Quest" for turn-based strategy.
Source: App Growing Global, a leading mobile ad intelligence platform. China mainland data is not included.
Clash of Clans
As the most well-known Clash series, CoC is still a popular game with a worldwide fan base and has been in the top 20 top-grossing list for a long time, and global advertising remains active.
Ad creatives are mainly 15-30s video materials, mainly about strategic planning, resource management, showing the process of beating a player in real-time.
Everdale
Supercell released a farm building simulation game Everdale in August 2021. The game focuses on creating a dream, peaceful, relaxing community with other players. Ad creative mainly highlighted gameplay with multiplayer social cooperation and brings out a pleasant storyline. At the same time, some ads tried to show bad days in real life. The purpose of this ad is to engage and move people to find peace in the game.
Lilith advertising analysis
Lilith Games is a hitmaker for strategy games. Rise of Kingdoms keeps continuous promotion worldwide. After accumulating a successful mobile marketing experience, the team release another high-quality strategy and RTS game Warpath in 2021. It advertised a lot in high ARPU regions of Europe and the United States.
Source: App Growing Global, a leading mobile ad intelligence platform. China mainland data is not included.
Rise of Kingdoms
Rise of Kingdoms uses a lot of creatives, showing real people defeating other players by tactical planning. It describes how players choose a strategy to double the power in a short time and depicts a thrilling battle scene to bring out the fun of real-time strategy.
In addition, creatives highlight friend cooperation, which shows that the game pays much attention to its social system.
Warpath
With World War II as the background, Warpath also used storylines in creatives to connect people emotionally. i.e. real people explain the game strategy and bring out the gameplay screen.
In addition, the creative also includes multiple sets of interactive videos and poster pictures taken by movie stars wearing military uniforms, which effectively reach wide broad gamers and push beyond the military enthusiast.
To get the 2021 mobile games advertising full report, please download it here.
About App Growing Global
App Growing Global, as a professional global mobile advertising intelligence analysis platform, provides enterprises with ad intelligence tracking around the globe and helps advertisers gain insight into new advertising trends and optimize the advertising strategy through functions such as Ad Creative Search, Top Apps, and Media Analysis.
To get the 2021 mobile games advertising full report, please download it here.
More intelligence on the advertising market can be found on the official website of App Growing Global.
- The above-related advertising materials are from App Growing Global, which is only used for research and analysis. All Rights Reserved.
