Casual Casino: Behind the Locked Doors

Casual Casino: Behind the Locked Doors 🗝️ In 2024, the genre saw a 60% revenue surge and a 24% drop in downloads. While the revenue growth is impressive, its structure tells a more important story:🎲 Monopoly GO! dominates—Scopely’s hit alone generates over 50% of the genre’s revenue.💰 Playtika owns 4 out of the top 10 after spending $2.3B+ on two recent acquisitions.With 80% of revenue coming from just three games and only one new release hitting our $50k/month success benchmark, it’s clear—breaking into this genre is tough, even for the big guys 🤯Still, Casual Casino is buzzing with innovation in LiveOps, monetization, and event design—offering valuable lessons for the entire industry! ✍️

Andrei Zubov February 3

Journal

Match-3 with Complex Meta

Match-3 with Complex Meta: You Shall Not Pass? 🧙‍♂️ At first glance, the Match-3 market seems to be thriving, with revenue up 13% YoY in 2024! But here’s the catch: Royal Match alone accounts for 51% of Tier-1 West revenue! 👑Without Dream Games’ flagship, the genre’s revenue actually declined by 8% YoY—making Match-3 with Complex Meta one of the most monopolized and challenging markets to break into. Of the 60 new titles launched in 2024, 5 crossed our $50K/month success benchmark, including Truck Star and Hollywood Crush ⭐️An 8.3% success rate might seem high, but don’t let the numbers fool you. Many smaller developers are just avoiding the genre, leaving only the most prepared and resourceful teams to take on the challenge.

Andrei Zubov February 2

Journal

Toca Boca Hits $1B in User Spending!

Toca Boca Hits $1B in User Spending! 🚀 The publisher’s success skyrocketed with Toca Boca World—an open-ended kids’ simulator that has captured a massive audience 👯Popular among girls mostly, the game offers complete freedom: no levels, no achievements, no penalties—just endless customization, exploration, and decoration 🧘‍♀️Generating 82% of Toca Boca’s revenue, Toca Boca World peaked at $17M per month in 2021. Today, seasonal spikes during school vacations continue to drive revenue, reaching $9M in December 2024 🌊Check out the publisher’s public AppMagic page for more insights: https://lnkd.in/dnhhG5zpMonetizing kids’ games is no easy feat, but Toca Boca has mastered it. Today, the publisher holds the #1 spot among kids’ game publishers worldwide! 🥇

Andrei Zubov February 2

Journal

Playtika Owns 4 of the Top 10 Casual Casino Games

Playtika Owns 4 of the Top 10 Casual Casino Games 🎰🎲 87% of Casual Casino’s worldwide IAP revenue comes from just two games—Monopoly GO! and Coin Master—making it one of the most consolidated genres in the industry!The Tier-1 West market looks slightly less extreme but it doesn’t change the picture. You can check the full breakdown in AppMagic's latest report: https://lnkd.in/dUTfz33a Can anyone even compete with this level of dominance? Well, Playtika certainly found its way:— In Sep’24, it acquired Animals & Coins developer InnPlay Labs for $300M. 💰— In Nov’24, it made a $2B acquisition of Dice Dreams studio SuperPlay. 💸With Board Kings and Pirate Kings already in its portfolio, Playtika now holds 4 of the Top 10 games in the genre!With such a portfolio, top-tier talent, and deep complementary expertise in slots, Playtika is becoming a serious threat […]

Andrei Zubov February 1

Journal

Royal Match Hits $5B User Spending!

Royal Match Hits $5B User Spending 🔥 Royal Match remains the leader in Match 3 with a complex meta genre, capturing an overwhelming 50% of the market 📈The game is confidently increasing its user spending number and achieving $126M in monthly revenue to close out the year 🚀In 2024, the game shifted focus from scaling downloads to enhancing LiveOps with new social features, mechanics, and innovative event integrations 💰

Andrei Zubov February 1

Journal

Gaming vs. Tech: Where Are Investors Heading in 2025?

Gaming vs. Tech: Where Are Investors Heading in 2025? This is my favorite slide from InvestGame's Gaming Deals Report 2024! It highlights how VCs are gradually shifting their focus from game publishers and developers to infrastructure and tech solutions around gaming. 📊We can see this trend in the Top-30 gaming-focused VC funds too, with more capital now going to Platform & Tech startups than to content creators.For me, this is one of the most fascinating changes to watch in 2025: — Will investments and M&As in Platform & Tech accelerate? 📈— Could AI become the key factor here? 🤖— And will we see a web3 comeback? 🌐While I can’t predict for sure, I know where to find the data to back up any forecast. 👇Get your copy of InvestGame’s report in the comments below!P.S. Infinite Reality raising $3B at the […]

Andrei Zubov January 24

Journal

Why play Netflix’s Squid Game when Roblox already exists?

Why play Netflix’s Squid Game when Roblox already exists? 🔺⭐🔴☂️ “NO NETFLIX MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED” — these are the first words in the App Store description of Netflix’s Squid Game: Unleashed.Yes, with caps lock!By making its new multiplayer battle royale game free-to-play, Netflix seems to have learned a thing or two from its three years in the gaming market. 🤓But here’s the twist: players have already been enjoying Squid Game for years —on Roblox! That is why so many people downloaded Roblox when the Season 2 of the TV Show was launched. 📈Squid Game: Unleashed generated 15M downloads in just one month, according to AppMagic. This is an amazing result! But what happens once the hype dies down? Players will likely move on to other games in the App Store. 📱Now, consider what happens when Roblox players get tired of Squid Game. […]

Andrei Zubov January 16

Journal

Arcane: Bringing a New Audience to League of Legends: Wild Rift 💎

Arcane: Bringing a New Audience to League of Legends: Wild Rift 💎 59K downloads in a single day—the highest number Riot Games’ legendary mobile MOBA has seen in 2.5 years (since May 2022).This is the power of Arcane, my favorite animated series that introduced League of Legends to me and countless others. Here’s what Wild Rift developers did to take maximum from the show:— Two new characters from Arcane: Heimerdinger and Ambessa 👸🏾— An Arcane Battle Pass featuring two exclusive skins from the series 🎟️ — Special puzzle quest with Arcane characters and landscapes 🧩— Six Arcane-themed skins available in the store 🎨— ASO changes featuring Arcane characters📱What really impressed me, though, was how Riot planned to retain players after the series concluded and the initial hype began to fade:1️⃣ Exclusive skins were released after the final act, encouraging players […]

Andrei Zubov December 5

Journal

Supercell Takes Full Ownership of Space Ape: Next?

Supercell Takes Full Ownership of Space Ape: Why Now and What's Next? 🎯 Space Ape Games' recent hits, Beatstar and Chrome Valley Customs, have influenced developers around the world and put the studio at the top of my favorite companies out there. 🌟According to AppMagic, Space Ape Games has generated over $280M in IAP revenue alone! 🚀But why is acquiring the remaining 25% shares now? After all, Space Ape has been Supercell's subsidiary since 2017. 🤔Several factors could explain this move:1) Straight from the press release: fully acquiring Space Ape is the best way for Supercell to expand its presence into London. 🇬🇧2) If long-term incentives were in place, Space Ape’s founders, with their strong track record, may have hit their KPIs and been ready for an exit. 💼3) With Squad Busters being Supercell’s first global launch since 2018 but […]

Andrei Zubov November 12

Journal

Is it true that former Activision Blizzard employees raise VC money more effectively?

Is it true that former Activision Blizzard employees raise VC money more effectively? 🤔 Short answer: Yes, they do.Long answer: can be found in the new research by InvestGame, published on Deconstructor of Fun.For this, we analyzed all the startups founded by Activision Blizzard alumni who publicly secured funding over 2020-2024. Here are the key takeaways:— Average deal size: Higher.— Follow-up rounds: More frequent.— Products in the release: Marvel Snap and... Concord… — Exits: Already happening!For all the details and numbers, check out the new InvestGame x GDEV Inc. ($GDEV) feature via the link here! 👇P.S. Yes, it’s just like we did with ex-Rioters!

Andrei Zubov November 5

Journal

DeamPlus Games Earned $12M+ IAP Revenue

DeamPlus Games Earned $12M+ IAP Revenue Amids “Hoa Hoa Hoa” Season 🍂 Game of Vampires: Twilight Sun, an empire-building RPG, is the ultimate vampire fantasy brought to life. 🌘Gothic castles, luxurious dark interiors, a spooky atmosphere — and a ton of pop-culture references! From Twilight and The Vampire Diaries to Blade and The Addams Family — this game is packed with nostalgic nods that resonate with players through its ASO, ad creatives, and character design. 🧛‍♂️🏰The right timing and a touch of luck drive this success even further: with the game’s global launch, the unexpected revival of the Twilight franchise came into play! Millennials are fueling it with nostalgia, while Gen Z is having fun with those cringy moments the old movies have. ✨🧛‍♀️For a deep dive into this phenomenon and the insights game developers can draw from it, check […]

Andrei Zubov November 1

Journal

Plants vs. Zombies 3 is shutting down

Plants vs. Zombies 3 is shutting down (for now), while PvZ 1 gets +80% downloads! 🌻🧟 In January 2024, Electronic Arts soft-launched the latest Plants vs. Zombies 3 in regions like the Philippines, Indonesia, and the UK. This was the second soft launch, with the first attempt back in 2020. 🗓️Both times, the game didn’t reach a global launch, as PopCap Games took it offline to adjust based on player feedback and key metrics. And guess what’s happening while PvZ 3 is being reworked? The original Plants vs. Zombies is thriving—we haven’t seen similar weekly downloads in years. 🚀In the last few weeks, the franchise attracted a wave of new players, with average weekly downloads jumping from ~1.1M in September to ~1.9M by the end of October, according to AppMagic.I think this is partly driven by the excitement around PvZ […]

Andrei Zubov October 29

Andrei Zubov

Login to enjoy full advantages

Go Premium!

Enjoy the full advantage of the premium access.

Stop following

Cancel subscription