Here is AppGrowing's analysis of the global mobile game advertising markets in September 2023, based on advertising data from 25 global media platforms in 50 countries/regions.
01 Advertising Trend
From the overall trend, the weekly ad volume of mobile games in September 2023 remained in the range of 1M~1.5M, of which Week 4 was the most, reaching 1.46M. App volume showed a growing trend, with Week 4 and Week 5 exceeding 15K. Creative volume was relatively stable, basically above 450K.
In terms of single-day data, the peaks of ad volume and app volume appeared in the latter part of the month, with both being the highest on September 24, at 770K+ and 12,378 respectively, a slight increase from August.
In terms of market, the TOP 3 regions are North America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, all accounting for more than 30% of the ad volume. The No.4 region, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China, accounted for 25.4%. Specifically, the share of the USA increased slightly to 26.9%. The TOP2-5 regions were Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia, indicating that the European and American markets remaining the main battlefield for game publishers in September.
From the perspective of categories, Casual still took No.1 in terms of app volume and ad volume, at 19.5% and 16.8% respectively, with a slight increase over last month. The No. 2 is still Puzzle, with 13.4% of app volume and 14.4% of ad volume. In addition, Role Playing accounted for more than 10% of ad volume.
The Top 5 categories in terms of the average ad volume for a single app are Word, Strategy, Role Playing, Sports, and Music. With the exception of music, which is new to the list, the rest all saw declines MoM.
Looking at the media trends for September, Facebook, Instagram, Meta Audience Network, and Messenger are the TOP 4, with over 60% of ad volume. Specifically on Facebook's ads by category, Casual, Puzzle, Role Playing, and Strategy are the main forces.
02 Most Advertised Games
In terms of mobile game developer regions, China's mainland led the way, with 38.6% of ad volume, a slight decrease MoM, while the proportion of app volume increased to 22.1%.
The 2nd place in terms of ad volume is Vietnam with 12.9%, while Turkey is in 3rd position with 7.5%. As for app volume, France remained in 2nd place with 14.2%, followed by Vietnam with 10.7%.
Among the most advertised developers in September, Matchingham Games remained at the No.1 spot, with Playrix and Rollic Games in No.2 and No.3, respectively.
For the most advertised mobile games in September, Google Play was dominated by light core and mid core, with only 3 hard core titles on the list, namely FunPlus' Stormshot: Isle of Adventure, IGG's Viking Rise, and LPGame's 《月光魔盜團 (Moonlight Pirates)》, all from Chinese developers.
Besides, MysteriousQueen, a Match3 game featuring pretty girl characters, has newly entered the Top 15 and is also from China.
On the App Store, the No. 1 spot went to HongCheng Games' 《無名江湖 (Unknown Jianghu)》, a Wuxia-themed card idle mobile game that launched on Sep. 5 in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan of China and some Southeast Asian markets. It's reported that its estimated revenue for September reached 30M. According to AppGrowing, it started mass pre-registration advertising campaign a week before launch, with the highest ad volume exceeding 2,300 in a single day.
Onet Match Puzzle was second on the list, LPGame 《月光魔盜團》 was third, the top 3 are all from Chinese developers. From the same region comes GOAT Games' classic sequel Dungeon Hunter 6, Habby's new game SOULS, and Esky Fun's Among Heroes: Fantasy Samkok. Pinko Wunderland, based on a fashion brand, is new to the list at No. 6.
Among the Top Pre-registrations, on the App Store, 《神魔传说：灵山遗迹 (Legend of Gods and Demons: Ruins of Lingshan)》 took the No.1. Games on the list are mainly aimed at the Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan of China and Korea markets, but the No. 2 Dungeon Hunter 6 , a game based on Gameloft's famous IP, is aimed at Europe and the United States, where the game have a high influence. Also of note is BluePoch's [리버스: 1999 (Reverse: 1999)], which is aimed at the Korea and came in at No. 6.
On Google Play, the No. 1 is the Sports game Ultimate Draft Soccer, and the region in the pre-registration is Russia. In comparison, games on Google Play's list are richer in categories, including Casual, Word, Manage and other light core genres, and more for Europe and the USA.
03 Mobile Game Advertising Case Analysis
According to AppGrowing, Dragonheir: Silent Gods opened pre-registrations globally on June 21st and officially launched on September 17th. The game kicked off its ad campaign during pre-registration on May 26, with post-release ad marketing in September.
The TOP 3 main regions for Dragonheir: Silent Gods during the pre-registration period were Australia, Korea and France. Creatives are mainly images, accounting for 66.2% of the total. As images are cheaper and faster to produce than videos, many game publishers tend to use images for their campaigns during the pre-registration period.
The game was relatively conservative with ad creatives during pre-registration. The character showcase video, which can't go wrong, showing the Western fantasy-style art on the one hand, and the DND-based worldview on the other through the details on the right.
After the official launch, Dragonheir: Silent Gods ads were spread more evenly globally. Among them, Taiwan of China and the USA had the highest percentage of ads, at 4.6% and 4.5% respectively. At the same time, the game has increased the amount of video ads, accounting for 59.5% of the total.
The game produced a number of ads that actually showed game footage at this stage. For example, the following video centers on a 4-player team, showing them traveling through different seasons and scenarios, expressing the game's high-quality arts and realistic and rich map resources. The "In-game Footage" at the bottom right corner increases the credibility of the ad.
SOULS is a new idle and card gamelaunched by Habby, a "hit maker", in June 2023. Compared to its past hits such as Archero, Survivor.io and SSSnaker, SOULS looks a bit different. In terms of gameplay, according to the official description, the game currently features more than 60 characters, and players need to form squads to fight, which is a more strategic test. In terms of art, the more detailed and healing graphics will be reminiscent of Jenova Chen's Journey and Sky: Children of the Light.
The game is still in beta, but the ad volume has increased significantly recently. According to AppGrowing, the game's main regions advertised in September were Korea, USA, Japan, Canada and Australia. The creative is dominated by video at 99%, with verticals making up the majority.
Creatively, the idea of SOULS is currently focusing on the game art, attracting users with fresh and healing graphics and colors. For example, The video shows the character walking on the grassland, the circle shaped clouds increase mysteriousness, overall highlighting the game's high quality art. Such creatives are usually in line with the images on the download page, enhancing the credibility of the ad.
It's worth noting that some of the videos use the Habby brand as an eye-catcher, drawing on past hits like Archero to spark user interest.
