As the year-end sprint period approaches, game publishers' willingness to utilize ads to acquire users becomes strong. According to AppGrowing, the Ad Volume and App Volume of the global mobile game market in November 2023 maintained a high scale with a small rise. Besides new games, we saw some older products that have been released for years skyrocket in Ad Volume and entered the TOP 15, such as Top Games Evony, FunPlus Guns of Glory and Tencent PUBG MOBILE.
Here is AppGrowing's analysis of the global mobile game advertising markets in November 2023, based on advertising data from 25 global media platforms in 50 countries/regions.
01 Advertising Trend
In November, the Ad Volume of mobile game was above 1.50M every week, and exceeded 2M in Week 2. The App Volume stayed above 20K in the first 3 weeks, and dropped slightly at the end of the month. The weekly trend of Creative Volume was stable, all above 500K.
On a single day perspective, Ad Volume and App Volume peaked in the early part of the month. 1st November saw the most Ad Volume and App Volume, at 1.28M+ and 19509 respectively, a significant increase from October.
In terms of markets, the Top 3 regions were North America, Southeast Asia and Western Europe, consistent with October. North America accounted for 32.8% of Ad Volume. In addition, Japan and Korea accounted for more than 20% of Ad Volume. Specifically, the Top 3 markets were the USA, Germany and France, with the USA taking up 27.3% of Ad Volume. In addition, Italy ranked 10th with 11.3% of Ad Volume.
In terms of categories, Casual held the No. 1 spot in terms of Ad Volume and App Volume, at 15.8% and 17.1%. Puzzle followed with 15.1% of ads and 15.1% of apps. Simulation, Role Playing and Strategy ranked TOP 3-5 in terms of Ad Volume, while Simulation, Role Playing and Action ranked TOP 3-5 in terms of App Volume, with little difference from October. Moreover, the Top 5 in terms of average ad volume for a single app were Music, Word, Strategy, Role Playing and Arcade.
In terms of media, AdMob overtook Meta Media to take the No.1 place, accounting for more than 40% of the Ad Volume, while the Top 2-5 were dominated by Meta Media, accounting for more than 30% of the Ad Volume. In terms of categories on AdMob, Casual, Puzzle, Role Playing and Strategy were the main ones, with the Top 3 accounting for more than 12% of the Ad Volume.
02 Most Advertised Games
In terms of developer regions, China's Mainland ranked No. 1, with 33.6% of ads and 20.8% of apps. Vietnam, the 2nd in terms of Ad Volume, accounted for 13.5%, while it ranked 3rd on App Volume, making Vietnamese publishers the main competitor of Chinese publishers in the global market.
The Top Developers list continues to be filled with casual and hyper-casual titles, with SayGames and HOMA Games outpacing Matchingham Games, the previous leader of the list, with IGG being the only publisher on the list with a focus on midcore & hardcore mobile games.
In November's Most Advertised Games list, Google Play featured mainly lightcore & midcore, with more Casual, Puzzle, Word. Two hardcore games entered the TOP15, IGG's Lords Mobile and Tencent's PUBG MOBILE, both of which are familiar games from Chinese publishers. (Xiamen SkyGame's GlamourGirl, also from China, is categorized as a strategy but is actually a Match-3 game.)
On the App Store, MONOPOLY GO! remained No. 1. There are more hardcore games on the list, with 4 Role Playing games. It's worth mentioning that two long-launched SLG games, Top Games Evony and FunPlus Guns of Glory, saw their ads soar and hit the Top 15.
On the Top Pre-registrations list, 《作死火柴人(Tricks with Stickmen)》took the first place on the App Store, and also ranked second on Google Play's list. Its target markets are Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan of China, Malaysia and Singapore, focusing mainly on the global Chinese community.
Funtoy Games' Anime turn-based RPG 《貓之城(Cat Fantasy)》hit #3, with Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan of China as its pre-registered regions. HAOPLAY's Revelation M also made Top Pre-registrations, with North America and Latin America as pre-registered regions. It's actually the global version of NetEase's 《天谕(Revelation)》, which is published in Southeast Asia by Vietnamese publisher VNG.
On Google Play, the No. 1 is One Punch Man World, which is based on manga IP. NetEase's new tactical competition game Blood Strike came in at No. 6 and also ranked No. 5 on App Store. The game soft-launched in Latin America at the end of September and launched in Southeast Asia at the end of October, and is currently pre-registered in Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan of China on Google Play.
03 Mobile Game Advertising Case Analysis
Case 1: Fortress Saga: AFK RPG
According to AppGrowing, Fortress Saga: AFK RPG started its pre-registration ad campaign in late October and was released on November 16th. The game hit No. 5 on November AppStore Top Pre-registrations, with Taiwan of China as its pre-registration region.
The idle RPG mobile game comes from CookApps, a Korean game studio that previously focused on casual games, but has shifted to the Idle category in recent years, releasing AFK Three Kingdoms : idle RPG, IDLE Berserker : Action RPG, and more.
AppGrowing data shows that Fortress Saga: AFK RPG was mainly advertised in the Japanese market during the pre-registration period, with over 70% of the ads dominated by video, which in turn was predominantly horizontal and square.
Creatively, the game mainly relies on anime art style to attract users during the pre-registration period, with rewards to drive downloads. In addition, some of the creatives fit the game style in presentation design. For example, this is a common game content showcase. Specially, the screen is presented in the stage play format, with Q-images of game characters sitting in the audience area below, adding interest. Pre-registration rewards and CV cast jointly attract downloads.
After the official launch, the TOP1 ad market for Fortress Saga: AFK RPG is still Japan, but the second share has changed from Korea to Singapore. The percentage of video creatives increased further.
The difference in ad strategies was more apparent in the creative aspect. CookApps used a lot of live-action elements after the game's launch, with celebrity and KOL testimonials to reach a wider audience.
Case 2: PUBG MOBILE
Tencent's PUBG MOBILE has seen heavier ad campaigns recently, hitting the top 10 of Most Advertised Games this month. AppGrowing data shows that the game's top 5 regions in November were Germany, the USA, Canada, Indonesia, and Malaysia, with a concentration on Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia. The creative format is dominated by video, accounting for 86.5% of the total, of which nearly 70% are horizontal and square.
PUBG MOBILE's new version 2.9.0 in November features an Ice Festival theme, including snowy mountain town scenes and ice-themed props, which are at the center of its advertising creative this month. The following video shows the gameplay of the new "Ice" version, such as the environment changes in snowy days. Besides the common shooter gameplay, the extreme environment survival content of hunting, making fire and eating cooked food to regain strength are also shown to attract the attention of the audience of this genre.
There are some creatives making innovations in the presentation. This is another creative for the new version. the Q-image characters and Side-Scrolling format are funnier and appeal to users who are interested in such art style. The Christmas element at the end of the video is a warm-up for later festival marketing.
