This article is part of an ongoing series of data-driven articles from PocketGamer.biz and App Annie highlighting trends in the global mobile games sector using App Annie’s Game IQ analytics.
Game IQ enables mobile game developers to dig into the data and discover not only which games are performing best but what characteristics they have.
In this week’s column, we consider the most popular Casual Party games in terms of downloads from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Good times
There’s nothing casual about casual mobile games, nor anything trivial about trivia.
Although a mixture of well-known brands and generic copycats, this is a genre that remains fiercely competitive, partly because it is both relatively easy to launch into and always popular with players.
Indeed, as App Annie’s senior market insights manager Lexi Sydow points out, “casual party games saw a surge in popularity in 2020 as more consumers at home turned to mobile games to recreate the experience of in-person gatherings and group-based play through simple casual games.”
Yet despite this particular uplift, it’s significant to note that over seven years since it first launched Trivia Crack Argentine developer Etermax retains a strong presence in the top download chart, with spin-off Trivia Crack Adventure also sitting pretty.
Most other apps in the chart are the product of low cost developers based as widely as China (Joyy), Brazil (Fanatee) and Russia (Playneta).
“Games within the Quiz/Trivia/Word subgenre tend to perform among the best in terms of downloads, as these do not involve complex or quick reaction-based gameplay mechanics, making them accessible for gamers and non-gamers alike,” comments Sydow.
This subgenre tends to perform among the best in terms of downloads, as these do not involve complex or quick reaction-based gameplay mechanics.
“Social features such as real-time voice and video chats, ease of setting up game sessions and the ability to play with both friends within private circles as well as with random online players are key components behind the success of these games, as they provide opportunities for repeat engagement and longer play sessions.
This is particularly relevant in the case of Hago (aka Have A Good One), which is a fully-fledged social network in which players create and watch livestreams, as well as interacting with over 100 mini-games.
They can also earn and withdraw money, albeit at the cost of getting their friends to also sign up to the app. That’s its trick for viral growth.
Game IQ is a vertically tailored analytics product, developed by App Annie, that provides insight into dimensions such as class, genre, subgenre and tags. Games can now be analyzed by broad category class (tuning), genre, subgenre, and tags (modifiers) such as IP, art style, settings, monetization mechanic, and more.
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