Carlos Pereira

TOP-LIST NEWCOMERS ”ZENLESS ZONE ZERO”, “MINESWEEPER NETFLIX”, AND OTHERS. Last week was filled with new games on the top charts. 🏅I'll talk about some of them below.✅ “Zenless Zone Zero” by HoYoverseThe developer of the big hits “Genshin Impact” and “Honkai: Star Rail” released its new action RPG for iOS, Android, PC, and PS5 last week: “Zenless Zone Zero”.As with previous HoYoverse games, ZZZ begins with incredible numbers. 🤯In five days the game reached almost US$20MM in IAP revenue on the Apple store alone.Among the game reviews, I recommend Harshal Karvande's excellent article on the Naavik blog. 👉 🧠✅ “Schoolboy Runaway - stealth” by Linked Squad“Schoolboy” is a life simulator in which the player is a young man unhappy with his parents.As it says in the store description, “immerse yourself in the role of a schoolchild whom the parents punished […]

TOP SOFT LAUNCH ”WATERPARK BOYS” BY SUPERCENT One of the biggest game publishers at the moment, Supercent, is on the rise with another Idle Arcade.💦 “𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐁𝐨𝐲𝐬” 🛟Keeping the gameplay and features of the South Korean publisher's previous hits (such as ”Pizza Ready!” 103MM and “Burger Please!” 90MM), "WaterPark" has some interesting differentials.It doesn't have the repetitive tasks typical of an entrepreneurship game.Because the Water Park theme opens up the creation of different and unexpected products/services.From swimming pool 🏊‍♀️ to skiing. ⛷️This simple but meaningful change brings freshness to the subgenre.Another difference was the inclusion of a reward for visiting the publisher's social networks. 📲It's no coincidence that his social networks have a good number of followers.📌 Youtube - 1MM📌 TikTok - 421k📌 Instagram - 314kAnother difference I liked was the inclusion of skins.Enabled by reward videos, the design of […]

TRACKING RELEASES & TRANSFERS# 1 HALF OF JUNE, 2024 Hi there! 🤙Today I bring you another edition of our…💫 Tracking Releases & Transfers 💫In the first half of June, we had some exciting innovative games. 💡I highlight 4️⃣ titles of them.✅ “All in Hole: Sinkhole Sort” by HomaThe French publisher 🇫🇷 has published a new version of its “Attack Hole”, the big hit of the first half of last year, with almost 100 million downloads and developed by RedLine Games. 🏅With the difference of having a fruit theme 🫐 instead of a military one. 🪖But the main difference is the game art, which is more polished and similar to “Royal Match” by Dream Games. 👑In my opinion, this is an attempt to turn the Hole Game sub-genre into a Hybridcasual. 👀Developed by Pilgrim’s Games, the Android version of "All in […]

RISING IN THE CHARTS ”TICKTOCK CHALLENGE” & ”NUT N BOLT SORT” BY ABI GAME STUDIO Vietnamese giant ABI Game Studio 🇻🇳, with more than 3.4 billion downloads in its portfolio, has launched two new Hypercasual games that are booming. 🚀Released on June 5, “TickTock Challenge” is an app with several mini-games inspired by TikTok challenges.A simple, effective idea. 👏To date, ABI’s “TickTock” has amassed 2.7MM downloads, making it into the list of the top 100 free games. 🔝Released on March 8, “Nut n Bolt Sort: Color Puzzle” is a savvy mix of the Nut Screw Puzzle 🔩 trend and the pair-matching mechanics like Mahjong games. 🀄Another excellent game concept. 😎 “Nut n Bol Sort” has reached over 1MM downloads so far. 📈

TOP NEW CREATIVE“STAR WARS: HUNTERS” BY ZYNGA The competition for IPs remains fierce in the mobile games market.The latest initiative comes from Zynga, with the Star Wars franchise. 🌌🎖️The game is a hero shooter focusing on player versus player (PvP) combat, featuring 3D stylized art and a core gaming experience. ⚔️The game includes various Star Wars characters, allowing players to engage in strategic team-based multiplayer battles.It features multiple game modes and leverages the Star Wars license to create an immersive environment that appeals to fans of the movies and the shooter genre. 🤩Two weeks ago the game began its growth stage and has reached 2.5MM downloads and US$740k in IAP revenue so far. 📈It's no surprise that to achieve this result, the Star Wars IP is central to the UA strategy. 🎯Drawing on a stylized cartoon, the flagship creative video […]

NEW GAME TRENDING SUPERMARKET SIMULATOR (ROUND 2) In April, I published a post about the new trend of supermarket simulators 🛒 in the games industry.There I mentioned that this trend emerged on Steam (by Valve corporation) under the title "Supermarket Simulator", developed by Nokta Games.The trend quickly spread to the mobile market and spawned some hits, such as "Supermarket Manager Simulator" by Polish studio Digital Melody Games. 🇵🇱At that time, the games that took advantage of this trend reached around 35MM downloads and US$512k in IAP revenue.What has happened since then? 🤔Well… some gaming studios have read my post 🤣 and launched their versions of supermarket simulators.And studios that had already developed supermarket simulators, either in a different version to Nokta's game, also took advantage of the trend. 📈(This is the case with "Hypermarket 3D", a Hypercasual simlutator published by […]

SELF-PUBLISHING JOURNEYHYPERCELL The mobile games market is tough, but there are still plenty of opportunities. 💎Just take a look at the game development ecosystem in emerging countries.They are booming! ❤️‍🔥Turkey 🇹🇷, Vietnam 🇻🇳 , South Korea 🇰🇷 , Singapore 🇸🇬, India 🇮🇳, Brazil 🇧🇷, Indonesia 🇮🇩, and Pakistan 🇵🇰 , among others.The governments of these countries have understood that the games industry can be strategic for economic growth. 📈The Turkish government has cut taxes for gaming companies. Brazil has created a new legal framework.Self-publishing is a reality for some game studios in these countries.For this reason, today I'm launching a new section with research on self-publishing studios. 🚀Success cases that can be an inspiration to other studios. 🤩And for my debut, I bring you the case of Hypercell Games. 🏅Based in Latvia 🇱🇻, these guys co-developed SayGames' biggest hit, "Sand […]

TOP SOFT LAUNCHES NEW LEGO GAMES With the challenges of new privacy policies, using IP has been a key UA strategy in mobile games in recent years.IPs endemic to the gaming industry have been performing well, such as “Candy Crush”🍬 and “PUBG”🪂.But there are non-endemic IPs that are well received by the gaming audience, such as soccer (”EA Sports”), board games (”Monopoly GO”), and cartoons (”Pokémon GO”).Now imagine a mobile game with an endemic IP of almost 1.2 billion downloads combined with one of the most iconic brands in kids' culture. 🤯This one is…✨ "LEGO® Hill Climb Adventures" ✨Developed by Fingersoft in partnership with the LEGO Group, "LEGO® Hill Climb" is a 3D version of "Hill Climb Racing".With a well-polished game art. 🎨Moments of competition, like "Hill Climb Racing 2". 🏁But keeping the famous brake-acceleration balance mechanics. 🚗The game also […]

EVERYTHING IS A GAMING COMPANY YOUTUBE ROLLS OUT IN-APP GAMES Netflix, New York Times, Shopee, Spotify, Instagram, LinkedIn.What do all these companies have in common? 🤔Maybe your answer wasn't that, but these companies have the development of games as a business expansion strategy in common. 🎮📊And recently we had a new player.After an eight-month trial with selected users, YouTube has expanded its new "Playables" in-app games feature to more US, UK, Canadian, and Australian users.The platform now offers over 75 games. 😲In my opinion, the streaming giant's initiative may be more assertive than other companies' attempts.Firstly, the titles available are very popular IPs.Check it out (AppMagic figures since 2015). 👇🐦 Angry Birds by Rovio Entertainment Corporation (1.5bi downloads and US$1.27bi IAP revenue).🎭 Tomb of the Mask by Playgendary (507MM downloads and US$21MM IAP revenue).❓ Trivia Crack by etermax (430MM downloads […]

DECONSTRUCTION ”SCREW JAM” BY ROLLIC First-party data.This is the secret of Cost Center 🔜 GamesCom Asiato offering one of the most powerful BI tools on the market. 💪Track the resources used in your game. Optimize its monetization. Balance the level performance. 📈Follow the example of Amanotes and Lihuhu and quickly improve your game's metrics with Cost Center. 💰Call my friend Yi Ting Ho. She'll show you a demo. 😉By the way, today I bring you a deconstruction of one of the most successful games of the year.🌟 “Screw Jam” published by Rollic 🌟Developed by Quok Games, "Screw" has achieved almost US$15MM in IAP revenue and more than 6MM downloads (data by AppMagic).Certainly one of Hybridcasual's success cases. 👏That's why I did a level-by-level study of the game, up to level 50. 😎