Chinese strategy games have proven successful in the West, making up 56 per cent of revenue generated by the genre in the US, according to GameRefinery.
In the US, the strategy genre is the third most popular game type, taking up 13 per cent of the market. However, looking at sub-categories, mainly Western, there has been a year-on-year drop in revenue generated by games such as Mobile Strike and Clash of Clans.
In terms of sub-genres, strategies biggest driving force is 4X games – hardcore strategy games with a focus on exploration, expansion, extermination and exploitation. Currently, 22 of the 27 strategy games within the US’ top 200 are in the 4X sub-genre, namely Clash of Clans and Rise of Kingdoms. The former of which had its best-ever month for revenue in December 2019, and is closing in on $7 billion in lifetime earnings.
Talking strategy
However, as found within the report, the strategy genre could do with some new games, new titles to freshen things up given 67 per cent of the top-grossing 200 strategy games are over two years old.
“The strategy genre has always been one of the cornerstones of modern and midcore mobile gaming,” said GameRefinery chief game analyst for the US Erno Kiiski.
“Games like Clash of Clans and Game of War – Fire Age were among the super hits in the early days of smartphone gaming, and the genre hasn’t stopped there. If we look at the current statistics for the genre, it is very much driven by 4X strategy. From the current top-grossing 200 strategy games in US iOS, for example, 22 of 27 fall under the 4X strategy sub-genre. Interestingly, three out of five games that are not 4X strategy games are Supercell’s games.”
Back in July, GameRefinery took a look at the shooter genre, which happens to be the sixth biggest mobile genre in the US.
