With the aid of its App Intelligence and other modules, SocialPeta sorted out the top 20 global mobile games by advertising, revenue, and download in March 2024, hoping to be of assistance to more people in the mobile game industry who are trying to understand the changing trends of the global mobile market.
The overall performance of global mobile games in March:
- SLG led in revenue with Fun First! Games’ Last War, achieving a combined revenue of $83.3 million across platforms in March;
- Activision Blizzard‘s shooter game finally launched, with Call of Duty®: Warzone™ Mobile, achieving 15.2 million downloads across platforms in its debut month;
- SpringGame topped MMO advertising, deploying 10,000 promotional creatives for Pandora in March.
Top 20 Mobile Games by Advertising in March 2024
The Demon Lord Defeats the Hero: A Reverse-Trope Idle RPG Mobile Game Launches Globally.
Leiting Games’ anti-cliché Western fantasy-themed idle RPG mobile game, Monster Never Cry, was officially released on March 18, 2024. According to SocialPeta, Monster Never Cry deployed nearly 7,000 unique promotional creatives throughout March, with a total advertising duration of 45 days. The specific distribution on the iOS platform is as follows:
- Video creatives under 30 seconds accounted for 75.3% of the content;
- The majority of video creatives were square, measuring 720×720, comprising approximately 27.51%;
- In the past 30 days, image types made up 46.5% of the advertising creatives;
- The predominant image creative size was square, measuring 1080×1080, which represented about 82.34%.
The promotional creatives for Monster Never Cry did not focus on the game’s narrative of a nefarious demon lord defeating the hero. Instead, the videos typically featured standard influencer narration combined with gameplay footage, with video lengths usually ranging from 31s to 45s. Besides the typical influencer endorsements, Monster Never Cry also used character sketch flashback montage materials to showcase the physiques of high-tier characters prominently.
Suffering from its reputation, “Star Descendants 2D,” dubbed the Korean “Genshin Impact,” has received overwhelmingly positive feedback.
HYBE’s 2D dark fantasy-themed MMO mobile game, ASTRA: Knights of Veda, was officially released on April 1, 2024. According to SocialPeta, ASTRA: Knights of Veda had approximately 7,400 unique promotional creatives deployed over 39 days in March. The specific distribution on the iOS platform includes:
- Video creatives under 30 seconds accounted for 55.8%;
- The majority of video creatives were vertical, measuring 720×1280, comprising about 23.7%;
- In the past 30 days, image types made up 66.94% of the advertising creatives;
- The predominant image creative size was landscape, measuring 1200×628, which represented about 22.66%.
One week post-launch, ASTRA: Knights of Veda received mixed reviews that were polarized to extremes. On the one hand, its exquisitely detailed 2D art and Lovecraftian dark fantasy setting, reminiscent of Vanillawar’s Unicorn Overlord, were universally praised. On the other hand, its monetization system, which not only mimicked MiHoYo’s Genshin Impact’s gacha mechanics but also mixed characters and weapons in the same pool with even lower drop rates, led to a flood of negative reviews on Steam.
From the promotional materials, ASTRA: Knights of Veda emphasizes its artistic and thematic elements. The visuals are dark and gory, maximizing the visual impact and targeting a specific audience.
MMO Giant SpringGame Makes Another Move, Launches an Occult-Themed Game in the Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan Markets
SpringGames’ occult and magical art-themed MMO mobile game Pandora: Prophet of Fate was officially released on March 6, 2024. According to SocialPeta, Pandora: Prophet of Fate deployed nearly 10,000 unique promotional creatives over 83 days in March. The specific distribution on the Android platform includes:
- Video creatives under 30 seconds accounted for 42.2%;
- The majority of video creatives were landscape, measuring 1280×720, comprising about 40.61%;
- In the past 30 days, image types made up 37.63% of the advertising creatives;
- The predominant image creative size was square, measuring 1080×1080, which represented about 66.03%.
From a marketing strategy perspective, Pandora: Prophet of Fate follows the standard MMO promotional formula of pre-registration, high-profile endorsements, initial high login rewards, and significant cash/digital product giveaways. For instance, this campaign featured pop icon Cyndi Wang as the game’s spokesperson. The promotional videos emphasized landscape orientation, showcasing different professions of beautiful female characters and highlighting high-quality artistic visuals. Some creatives, in both character design and composition, bear similarities to classic scenes from the popular manga Guilty Blade.
Top 20 Mobile Games by Revenue in March 2024
App Store’s top products by revenue in March include:
- Fun First! Games’ 2024 SLG hit, Last War: Survival, recorded a single-platform revenue of $38.2 million in March, marking a month-on-month increase of approximately 40%, with American players contributing up to 40% of the game’s revenue.
- Cygames’ anime-themed mobile game ウマ娘 プリティーダービー continued its third-anniversary event gacha’s spectacular revenue, with a single-platform revenue of $34.6 million in March, representing a month-on-month increase of approximately 195.7%.
- 4399’s international release, Mushroom Hero Legend, far surpassed other regions with a single-platform revenue of $25.5 million in March, an increase of approximately 165.6% month-on-month.
Google Play’s top products by revenue in March include:
- Developed by RedLab Games and published by Kakao Games, the MMO mobile game ROM: Remember Of Majesty launched on February 27 and achieved a single-platform revenue of $16.3 million in March.
- Plarium’s team RPG card game RAID: Shadow Legends generated a single-platform revenue of $15.7 million in March, marking a month-on-month increase of approximately 45.4%, with American players contributing up to 62.3% of the game’s revenue.
- Thanks to the 2.0 update “Midnight Phantasmagoria” and the main storyline update featuring Penacony, miHoYo’s anime card game Honkai: Star Rail saw a single-platform revenue of $20.9 million in March, an increase of approximately 21.5% month-on-month.
Top 20 Mobile Games by Downloads in March 2024
App Store’s top products bt downloads in March include:
- 4399’s international release, Legend of Mushroom, launched on March 7 and recorded approximately 7.2 million downloads in its debut month (March).
- Activision Blizzard’s shooter mobile game, Call of Duty®: Warzone™ Mobile, launched on March 21 and achieved around 7.1 million downloads in its debut month (March).
- Leiting Games’ idle RPG mobile game, Monster Never Cry, launched on March 18 and saw approximately 3.8 million downloads in its debut month (March).
Google Play’s top products by downloads in March include:
- 4399’s international release, Legend of Mushroom, launched on March 5, recording approximately 14.2 million downloads in its debut month (March).
- Vietnamese mobile game developer ABI Games’ puzzle casual game, Left or Right, saw about 13.2 million downloads in March, marking an approximate 780% increase month-on-month, with Indonesian players contributing 18.3% of the downloads.
- South Korean mobile game developer Supercent’s ultra-casual game Pizza Ready achieved around 10.4 million downloads in March, an increase of about 33.3% month-on-month, with Indian players accounting for 10.9% of the downloads.
The above are insights into global mobile game launches in March 2024, as well as mobile game revenue and download situations across both the App Store and Google Play. For more mobile marketing data, please visit www.socialpeta.com.
