Nowadays, if you start talking about NFTs, you’ll get a lot of backlash. They’ve developed a bit of a negative reputation. But this is largely because some NFT companies are selling NFTs without really adding any value.

From what we can see, it’s a different story when it comes to gaming. Being able to earn and own cards, items or characters is much more tangible than just buying an image. And people understand the purpose.

Has the hype died, though? Have NFTs run their course? We’re not so sure. It seems to us that there’s still potential. Here’s what we found.

Awareness of NFTs is growing

Research shows that while the majority of people may not currently be considering purchasing NFTs, there is a growing awareness and curiosity surrounding them. According to a survey conducted by Security.org, a significant number of people (19%) expressed interest in purchasing an NFT in the next twelve months.

The NFT market has also experienced significant growth, with sales increasing from $13.7 million in 2017 to $2.5 billion in the first half of 2021. Although they might not be actively purchasing NFTs at present, the growing awareness signifies the potential for future interest and exploration. It’s encouraging to witness an increasing number of individuals becoming familiar with NFTs and engaging in conversations about them.

Source: Security.org

While some may currently hold reservations about the value and purpose of NFTs, it is essential to recognize the evolving nature of this emerging technology. As more people become informed and gain a deeper understanding of NFTs, their perspectives and inclinations may shift positively, leading to potential engagement and participation in the NFT market.

Some people are buying them

Despite not being a mainstream purchase as of yet, people are slowly buying NFTs. The number of people who have bought one has doubled – from 2% to 4%. It’s not many people, sure. But that’s a significant increase.

Right-click and Save As guy

Artwork by @XCOPYART
Sold to @CozomoMedici for 1600.0 ETH ($7,022,000.00)https://t.co/Lxbn5pev9K$RARE #CryptoArt #NFT pic.twitter.com/ZQf2qxYHdo

— SuperRare Bot (@SuperRareBot) December 9, 2021

Snoop Dogg (Cozomo de Medici) bought an NFT for over $7 million back in 2021.

And this coincides with how many people are actually aware of NFTs as a concept. Two thirds of people had never heard of NFTs in 2021. In 2022, it was only 6%.

Despite awareness skyrocketing, people didn’t necessarily understand them. But they’re getting there. The number of people who were ‘somewhat’ familiar rose from 18% to 61%.

This suggests that – as people move along in their understanding – they’re more likely to buy an NFT. In fact, Mordor Intelligence believes that NFT purchases will grow 32% each year.

Most success has come from play to earn

Gaming has a rather different relationship with NFTs. It seems that it’s here – in our industry – that we’re seeing progress.

The major roadblock has been value. Why get an NFT in the first place? When you buy an item in a game, it’s a bit pointless if all it’s doing is paying the developer. What’s the difference between that and a usual in-app purchase?

But when players can start to trade and earn money off these NFTs, the story changes. Mordor found that the biggest successes were Axie Infinity, Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Gods Unchained, and The Sandbox. All these games give the player value for their NFT.

As the player goes through the game, they earn the NFTs – which they can then sell. A lucrative and exciting prospect. In fact, Mordor Intelligence found that one individual managed to make three times more than they would’ve at their usual job – playing a Pokemon-like game.

AI could normalize NFTs in gaming

AI has made a lot of progress in recent years, especially in the last 12 months. There are now AI tools like ChatGPT, PicFinder, Google Bard, and Chatsonic that can help build games and write code.

It’s possible that developers might start using tools like ChatGPT to come up with ideas for NFTs and save time developing them. This could be a useful way to keep players interested in their games – increasing engagement and retention.

With that in mind, we could see a huge boost in the number of NFT games as developers get inspired by AI.

We’re still in the early days

We’re at the beginning of the curve for NFTs. It’s mostly early adopters, rather than mainstream popularity. The technology isn’t particularly easy to understand, there aren’t many developers working on games that actually use NFTs, and the metaverse angle won’t kick off until the metaverse itself is ubiquitous.

But for gaming, it still has potential. We’ve not heard the last of NFTs. Right now, there’s some reputation baggage that it’ll carry for some time. But, in a couple of years, when the technology is more polished and easy to use – we might see a sudden resurgence. And we’re definitely going to see more game developers using NFTs in the future.

Roblox has been blowing up over the last couple of years. Having initially launched back in 2006, the social gaming platform now boasts over 30 million games (what they call experiences), 52 million daily active users, and over 12 million creators worldwide.

Recently, we’re starting to see more and more hit games launching on the Roblox stores – with one particular publisher shining bright in the ocean of Roblox devs: GameFam. Despite only founding the company in 2019, they’ve worked with a range of Roblox developers and helped publish over 30 successful titles on Roblox.

So what’s their secret? How do they help these developers stand out? We’ve reviewed three of GameFam’s top published games: Twilight Daycare by Night Studio, All Star Tower Defense by Top Down Games, and Car Dealership Tycoon by Foxzie. Each one of these boasts over one billion visits and one million favorites.

Here’s what we found.

1. Offer rewards in exchange for likes

The more likes an experience has, the more likely Roblox will feature it on its Top Rated filter. For all three games, they make sure to offer rewards to their players if they like and share. Messages like:

• “Leave a like. Next reward at 1 million votes”
• “Community Reward – MYSTERY CHEST UNLOCKS @ 510,000 LIKES!”
• “Like the Game for More Codes!”

This tactic works in two ways. The obvious reason is that by incentivizing likes, you’re getting your players to do the work for you. But it also means that players will get their mates to like your experience to get their reward faster.

2. Feature updates in the title

With so little room to grab attention and inform their players about new content, all three games make sure they feature updates and new content in their title and description. That way, players immediately know there are new goodies ready for them to dig into.

This is particularly important for Roblox. Players come back to their game library every day, but they don’t have a news feed of updates like you might on other platforms (unless they’re following you on Discord or Twitter). With the update in the title, they know the important changes at a glance.

3. Make YouTube a priority

There are thousands of Roblox gameplay videos on YouTube and other social platforms, with new ones rolling out each day. And each experience, we’ve seen top YouTubers playing the game and sharing their codes.

YouTube is especially important for Roblox. In a video by Knowledge by Marcus, they explained that there’s not enough content for the number of people searching for Roblox on YouTube. This is where players go to find codes, new experiences and updates. It’s easy to get spotted on YouTube.

So there’s a huge opportunity here to partner up with an influencer who’ll create regular videos about your game. It can be the difference between thousands of players or millions.

4. Offer free private servers

Roblox’s audience is young. Very young. And considering it’s a massively multiplayer and social game, it’s understandable why some parents may be hesitant to let their kids play (especially in an experience like Twilight Daycare). Private servers solve that issue. And we’ve noticed that each experience offers this for free.

While it’s possible to charge for private servers, this is a mistake. This creates a barrier for some players and you risk turning players away. With so many experiences available to them, they’re more likely to just head to another game.

5. Release monthly codes

GameFam has made sure that each game offers monthly codes for free stuff (gems, items, coins – you name it). Not only does this keep your players coming back, but it’s also an introduction to in-app transactions.

Again, a lot of the playerbase is young, so they don’t have their own money to spend. Having regular codes lets them get more coins, but also shows them the store and how to get more money. So when their birthday comes up, they know what to ask for.

Roblox developers don’t just make revenue from in-app purchases. Roblox also calculates payout based on how much time a premium subscriber spends in your experience. The longer they’re in your game, the more revenue you make. So sharing free stuff brings in a profit.

5. Show native ads inside your experience

Unlike with mobile games, none of these ads disrupt the gameplay. But instead, we’re seeing ads on billboards and signs in the games – like real ones you would see in the street.

This gives the developers not only a new way to find players, but also another revenue stream to make a profit from. Without annoying anyone.

It’s best to think of Roblox as a world that you’re populating. Brand deals are a key way that developers can monetize their game.

6. Partner up with brands

Speaking of brand partnerships, you can take it a step further, Although we haven’t seen this with every game published by GameFam, we thought it was worth a mention. Partnering up with a brand can give your game a much-needed boost, as well as bring in new players.

Twilight Daycare is the prime example here. They teamed up with L.O.L Suprise!, a children’s toy manufacturer. Players could interact with characters and dolls from L.O.L. Surprise, as well as win costumes, enter competitions and find new locations in the game. Not only that, but Twilight Daycare has its own TV series currently in production.

7. Lock some content for spenders only

Sure, in theory, you could play each experience without having to spend a penny. But to encourage users to part with their (well, their parents’) hard-earned cash, some items and collectables are locked away, only available to spenders. But GameFam has limited this. Most items and features are available to those who just want to grind.

In Twilight Daycare, we can see that the Manager role is locked to players with a game pass (something you need to pay for). This role unlocks new actions and even new areas on the map.

8. Keep the gameplay forgiving and rewarding

Similar to hyper-casual games, the gameplay is extremely forgiving and always rewarding. There’s hardly ever a bad experience. Take Car Dealership Tycoon for example. You make money just by driving your car around. So even if you lose in a race, you still make thousands of in-game currency just by going on a stroll (as well as a cut from the race).

To give you an idea of how rewarded the gameplay is, watch this video. The specific example we’re talking about is at around 4:20.

GameFam makes sure it’s always a positive experience. And considering the age of the audience, this is incredibly important.

9. Offer daily challenges and rewards

We see this a lot in mobile games. But this is also a key feature for Roblox. Every day (sometimes every hour), games share challenges and rewards, encouraging the players to come back and claim their prizes.

It’s another way to get players (especially those premium players) back in your experience.

10. Talk to them in their own language

We don’t mean toddler talk. When comparing the three different experiences, each one uses very clear and easy-to-read language. But more importantly, they ram their content with emojis.

This is because Roblox is a younger generation’s platform. And GameFam understands this. Emojis and casual and direct language are key to grabbing their attention and fitting in.

Analytics can push your experience even further

Data can tell you a story about your game that you never knew. Sure you can learn lots about your experience through forums and discord servers, but they’ll only tell you about a small percentage of your players. You could be missing some critical bugs, errors and insights without the right setup.

Roblox now has analytics in its platform. While it’s helpful, it can only tell you so much. Our analytics platform is free and can help you dive deeper into your insights. So if you’re ready to learn more about your own titles, download our Roblox SDK today.

And if you fancy reading up on some more Roblox tips and tricks, then have a read through our interview with Trihex Studios, the creators of hit experience Redcliff City, to learn their secrets.

Squid Game games turns Mobile

Netflix released the new show, Squid Game, on September 17th 2021. Over 132 million people watched the show in the first 23 days of its release, with 4.4 million new people subscribing to the platform (presumably to see the series). It’s easily a new record for Netflix, overtaking Bridgertons number 1 spot. Netflix have even announced that they’re going to make their own “Squid Game” game, as an attempt to increase its popularity in regions like North America.

Netflix aren’t the only ones reaping the benefits of this Korean Battle Royale style show. We’re being flooded with memes, halloween costumes, and merch around the hit, all across the globe. But more importantly, mobile games. We’ve seen hundreds of hyper-casual games enter the app stores, all inspired by the Squid Game theme.

With the topic still trending and being at the forefront of everyone’s minds, we wanted to dive into the data side of things. Using insights from GameIntel, we’ve kept a close eye on the top-charting games in the App Store, specifically out of the 200+ titles, who made it to the top.

We’ve pulled this data from GameIntel

All of the data featured in this blog is from GameIntel. It’s our market intelligence tool, built for developers of all sizes to research industry trends and track the charts in the mobile gaming market. You can see the top hits for all major nations, check out global hits and top-performing publishers, and even discover performance and usage estimates for top games. And much more.

We’re specifically looking at the Top Charts and Global Hits. We’re interested to find out which Squid Game-inspired titles made it into the top charts, in which countries, and for how long.

Why does “Squid Game” make such a good mobile game?

If you haven’t had a chance to watch the show, there are six rounds (games) that the contestants need to make it through. All of which are based on Korean children’s games. There’s tug of war, candy carving, and different dice games (plus the now famous Red Light, Green Light). And due to the nature of hyper-casual games (being quick to develop due to their simple gameplay and mechanics), each round can easily be turned into a hyper-casual game.

Netflix has essentially handed over a platter of hyper-casual games with it’s very own trend to developers. Millions of players are wanting to try out these ‘trials’ for themselves, and they’re turning to the gaming industry to make it come true.

Insights from GameIntel

Earliest game launched: 闯关游戏模拟器-抠糖饼

The earliest game we can see in the top charts for the App Store is 闯关游戏模拟器-抠糖饼 by 成蛟 何 (which loosely translates to “Breakthrough Game Simulator-Sugar Biscuit”). It launched in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan on the 29th of September, only 12 days after Squid Game was released, and soon after reached #2 in the charts.

It copies all of the challenges from Squid Game. Interestingly though, the developers have chosen to include the keywords “Sugar” and “Biscuit” and “Simulator” into the title. This may be due to the popularity of the second round in Squid Game, suggesting that this is what players are searching for in the App Store.

Despite it being launched on the 29th September, it didn’t reach the top 20 charts in China until the 2nd of October. Which is incredibly impressive, to go from initial launch to charts in just a few days. The game stayed in the top charts for the first couple of weeks, and then fell down to #67 from the 18th of October onwards (just a month after the show was aired). Most likely due to other games making their way into the charts.

UPDATE: We’ve just learned that this was a copycat app. It’s now removed from the App Store due to copyrighting infringement. So although it was the first game to reach the top 20 games (from what we can see), it actually isn’t the true first game to make it as a hit. That goes to K-Games Challenge, the next title we talk about.

First game to make it global: K-Games Challenge

Next game to hit the global charts was K-Games Challenge, by Supercent. In similar fashion, it looks at all of the rounds featured in Squid Game. It was launched on the 2nd of October, and it reached the charts in Portugal and Brazil on the 4th October.

It was the first “Squid Game” title to make it global, just 2 and half weeks after the initial release of Squid Game. On October 5, it hit the charts for the United States, France, Canada, Russia, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland and more. And it reached number 1 in almost every country on October 6th. It is arguably the first game to truly take advantage and set this trend.

Currently shining with a 4.5 rating with 17,300 reviews on the App Store in the United States. Similar to the previous title we chatted about, it stayed in the top charts until the 18th of October. It’s now ranking at #190 in games, and #60 in Simulation.

Top ranking game to hit number 1 consistently: Candy Challenge 3D

Then we have Candy Challenge 3D, created by Idil Morgul. Released on the 2nd of October, this title didn’t make the charts until October 7th (20 days after it aired). Unlike the first two titles we’ve talked about, this game is more focused on the second challenge in the show: cutting a shape out of a honeycomb without breaking it. It’s adopted the keyword ‘Candy’ in its name, and most of the images and description is around this specific challenge.

It does bolster other challenges, but these are secondary to the core concept. It’s worth noting, it’s stayed in the charts ever since, and has hit number 1 repetitively in multiple markets. Using our machine learning, we’ve also awarded this game a score of 32,000, beating K-Games Challenge.

This could be down to the game’s positioning, using the second candy game from Squid Game. But it’s been the highest ranked game to hit the charts, and been consistently in the top 10 for the longest time. It has the highest rating, too, being 4.58 and having over 37,000 ratings in total.

At least 3 games in the global top 10 charts are “Squid Game” titles

From the 9th of October, there were at least 3 games inspired by “Squid Game” in the top 10 game charts, in almost every country. Which held true for a good two weeks, until the 25th October. During its peak, we were seeing around 4 or 5 games inspired by Squid Game in the top 20 games for every country.

Since then, we’ve mainly only seen two games make it into the top charts regularly; Candy Challenge 3D by Idil Morgul, and Survival Game – 3D Challenge by Kien Nguyen. Which just goes to show how very fleeting trends can be in the mobile gaming industry, and how important it is to jump on them from the get go.

“Challenge” is the top keyword for chart-hitting Squid Game titles

Out of the top games with the “Squid Game” style that we’ve seen in the top 20 charts since launch, 70% of them feature the keyword “challenge”. Due to IP reasons (or so we think), these games can’t use “Squid Game” in the title (or at least shouldn’t). But they’ve all incorporated part of the show into the descriptions and titles.

• Candy Challenge 3D
• K-Games Challenge
• All challenges – survival game
• Survival Challenge 3D
• Survival Game – 3D Challenge
• Survival Games: Life Challenge
• Dalgona Challenge 3D!
• 闯关游戏模拟器-抠糖饼 – “Breakthrough Game Simulator-Sugar Biscuit”
• Bridge Race Master
• Cookie Carver

Some games are just copying the artstyle

Even if the game isn’t about Squid Game, we’ve seen titles incorporate the iconic mask into their thumbnails and other elements, in an attempt to jump on the trend quickly. Bazooka Boy, by Supersonic Studios, was originally released in August 2020. Its icon used to be of a yellow avatar holding a bazooka. In their latest update on October 15th, they’ve changed their icon to incorporate a ‘legally distinct’ Squid Game mask and assault rifle. A reference to the guards in the show.

Their ranking has been steady. But since the switch, they’ve re-entered the top charts, hitting #14 in India on October 6th. But this is still a unique way to increase your games traffic and popularity, without making major updates to your game.

Or they’re using Squid Game in their ads

This insight came to us by chance, but it’s no surprise. Some developers are jumping on this trend, and using the show’s theme and featured games in their advertising strategy. Take Shelter War: Last City as an example. We stumbled across one of their ads, which clearly features the ‘Red Light Green Light’ mini game. But when we dived into the title and did a bit of digging, we couldn’t find any evidence of this in the gameplay or their release notes.

It could be that this was a limited-time event. Or perhaps locked in the far, later levels of the game (we hope that this is the case). But it’s clear that some devs are piggybacking this shows success in lots of different ways, especially to optimize their user acquisition campaigns.

Squid Game is still taking the market by storm

It’s only been a few weeks since its initial release, but we’re seeing more and more games enter the charts, all based on the Squid Game theme. These are only a few of the findings we’ve discovered in GameIntel.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on what happens next. So make sure to watch this space (or sign up to our newsletter – just below) for any updates. You can also sign up to GameIntel and do your own digging. We have a free version you can explore, check it out!

That’s not all that GameIntel can do for you. Hear some other stories, created with data:

• Umami Games case study: how gaming studios can start self-publishing and scale post-IDFA
• 2020 in Metrics: Understanding Casual and Hypercasual Gaming Markets
• Mobile playtime increases by 62%, with IAP up by around 30% in Q1
• How Wargaming uses GameIntel to focus on successful game ideas

We’ve been getting our research on, and looking into the metrics behind successful hyper-casual games. You can read our full findings here. But just in case you’re too busy for that, we’ve put together this post to give you the need-to-knows.

What’s the research about?

Using data from our network of games, we’ve broken down the top KPIs (key performance indicators – basically measurements of performance) that developers of hyper-casual games should be aiming for, by sub-genre. You can use these to benchmark your own games against some of the best games, and learn just whereabouts you sit within the industry.

But before we do, here’s an idea of how much data we’re handling in GameIntel.

Our network stats for Benchmarks+

• All-time integrated games: 140k+
• Games tagged with sub-genres: 150K+
• Cross-title monthly players: 2b+
• Average monthly sessions: 20b+

Network stats for Game Explorer

• Data from top ranked games featured: 321k+
• Game-specific contextual tags: 500+

In short, we have a mixture of aggregated data from our portfolio games that we collect from GameAnalytics, and data we scrape from the App Stores. For the latter, we’ve layered and combined this with our own aggregated data and tagged over 200k games with contextual points. There’s a lot more info around this here.

What are the hyper-casual sub-genres we’re looking at?

• Timing: These games are all about precision like timing jumps or hitting a ball. So it’s titles like Fun Race 3D, Crossy Road, Splashy!, and Color Switch.
• Traversal: This genre of games relies on players’ reflexes and getting them to swipe left or right, for example, dodge objects or run through a jungle. It includes games like Color Road!, Pixel Rush, and High Heels!.
• Physics: These usually involve an object (like a ball) either rising or falling through obstacles. Examples include Helix Jump, Stack Ball 3D, and Stack Fall.
• Shooting: Logic is your player’s best friend for these games. They often involve moving objects around the screen or aiming at a moving item. Think Stealth Master, Pocket Sniper!, and Knock’em All.

The results in numbers

Here’s a snapshot of the figures from the top 5% of best-performing games. You can find the exact numbers in the report.

Health metrics

• Day 1 retention looks at how many players come back after one day of playing a game. The winner in this category was timing at 44%. And the rest were around the 40% mark.
• Day 7 retention looks at how many come back after seven days. Here shooting had the edge at 17%. The rest were just below 15%.
• Playtime is the total time a user spends playing a game each day (combining all sessions). The shooting came out on top here as well at 45 minutes.

Monetization metrics

Timing was the winner when it came to monetization with an ARPPU (average revenue per paying user) of $42, ARPDAU (average revenue per daily active user) of $0.15, and conversion rate (the percentage of users who made a purchase that day) of 0.94%. The other sub-genres results varied, but you can get the full rundown in the report.

Winning countries

The best day one retention came from France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, who tied on 49%.

Best day 7 retention had Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan at the top with 19%. And the best playtime was in Japan at 63 minutes. We also looked at some other countries inside, specifically the USA and China (although they didn’t quite make it to the top for the casual genre…).

Superstar 2020 games

We’ve gone into a lot more detail in the report. But for now, the top games in each genre in 2020 were:

• timing – Slap Kings from Lion Studios with a performance score of 43,420
• traversal – High Heels! by Zynga Inc. which scored 48,383 (you can read more about High Heels! in the full report)
• physics – Demolish! from Voodoo with 36,449
• shooting – Stealth Master by SayGames LLC with 39,732.

FYI – performance score is basically a score we give to each game based on many things, like their ranking, ratings, how long they were in the top charts, and how many countries they rank in to.

How to make a successful hyper-casual game

We’ve crunched those numbers and used them to develop three bits of advice to help you build a super-popular hyper-casual game.

1. Keep it short, simple, and satisfying

Short, so someone can play your game while standing in a queue. Simple, so anyone can start playing without any instructions. And satisfying, so you give them a reason to come back.

2. Make sure the gameplay is forgiving

Don’t make your game too tricky. Think about offering multiple lives or rewards – some games even make it impossible for players to lose. Remember that your players are looking for a quick, easy, and fun game to fill their time. Make it too harsh, and they might move on to something else.

3. Know when to cut your losses

Any hyper-casual game with a day 1 retention rate lower than 40% probably isn’t doing well. Depending on where you are in your development process, you can either run quick sprints to roll out more iterations, improve your stats, or go back to the drawing board. You’ll want to start with high-impact, low-effort tweaks for each sprint – otherwise, you might spend weeks working on a game that people just don’t want to play.

Want to know more?

If you want even more data, you can read the full report or try GameIntel – ranking data, market insights, and accurate performance estimations powered by GameAnalytics (it’s free to sign up). And if you fancy learning more about the industry, have a read through our Tower Defense report.