This is the final part of the report of AppMagic that covers the social media trends that inspire mobile games. The first part of the report and the second part can also be accessed. The final part of the report covers more social media trends, along with the one that has even been banned by a major social media platform yet still gained popularity along mobile gamers.
The final part of the report covers the milk crate challenge, men’s hairdos, and save the doge trends. Fridge restocking, lunch box organizers, and closet organization trends are also covered as subgenres of the organizing trend.
The milk crate challenge is a social media trend that involves climbing a ladder made up of milk crates, which gained popularity in mid-August 2021. After some injuries were reported, TikTok banned videos of this type from its platform. However, despite the ban, games inspired by viral videos, such as Milk Crate Challenge 3D by Game Theory Games, have been released and gained downloads. While more than 30 games inspired by the trend have been released.
Men’s hairdos have gained popularity on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Mobile games have been created that allow players to experiment with virtual hairstyles and colors to see how they would look in real life.
Barbershop hyper-casual mobile games are basically barbershop simulators. The hyper-casual arcade game “Hair Tattoo: Barber Shop Game” by Azur Games has acquired 38.5 million downloads since its release in December 2021, making it the leader in the barber shop mobile game category. The game developer attributes its success to factors such as game ideas based on real life, unique visuals, and hybridity through meta and in-apps. They also noticed that the game received a warm welcome on TikTok, and its cost-per-install was lower than on Facebook. Azur Games also took a risk and introduced female characters to the game, which made the audience more balanced and helped the game reach its high mark.
Inspired by the same type of videos, organizing mobile games let the players organize various containers, rooms, or storage areas such as a lunch box or a fridge. Divided into many subgenres, these videos became a trend because they lead to behavioral activation, reducing depression symptoms. Even videos belonging to subgenres of this category have hundreds of millions of views, while the top mobile games in these categories achieve millions of downloads easily.
Save the doge trend involves videos in which people save dogs from life-threatening situations. This trend has mixed with the viral doge meme, which found its reflection in Wonder Group’s game Save the Doge.
The report concludes that when studying social media trends for mobile games, it is better to focus on trends with more than 1 billion views on TikTok. Most games inspired by social media are hyper-casual in the arcade, simulator, or puzzle genre. They typically reach their peak installs 2-3 months after release before experiencing a quick drop. There is often one leader on the list of competitors, but games with unique solutions to the basic game formula can still make it to the top. Studios that want to create games inspired by social media require similar resources to a typical hyper-casual match. They need to be fast and thorough to release a high-quality product. TikTok is an excellent platform for inspiration due to its fun, relaxing, and fast-paced content.
You can access the full version of the report here: “Mobile Games Inspired by Social Media Trends Part 3”.
