State of 4X Games

While the 4X war rages on ⚔️ between Last War and Whiteout Survival, both doing well over $110 Mil. a month 🤑 the 4X genre is becoming the mirror of the whole mobile game industry based on its latest evolution to survive in the current market. Why so?

▪️ Because 4X is so Cost Per Install intensive, it created a new way of lowering CPIs by literally adding a different game into its onboarding. Those games being very accessible, increase the total addressable market of the genre itself. This went into overdrive in High Seas Hero , which actually added 2 different games 😱 before you get into 4X endgame.

▪️ Because 4X is so Cost Per Install intensive, its creatives are being copied by the whole mobile game industry. What is new in 4X will be in a week by Royal Match and in another week by Playrix in the casual puzzle genre. This pipeline got so intensive that there are dozens to hundred-man teams in 4X UA departments, putting all effort into just lowering the CPI. Also whole market got basically cornered by Chinese companies (except Scorewarrior, kudos to being able to keep up in top 10 😁) Long gone are the days of Machine Zone being at the top of the Charts.

▪️ Because 4X meta engine is so good at driving player spend, we are at a point where streamlined versions of that system will be added into different genres. We already saw simplifications of the whole engine with games like Top Girl. More similar games are coming soon 😅.

Thanks again for the insightful crossover episode with Justin & 👊 Joseph on the GameMakers podcast. Join us as we talk about the history of the biggest 4X game on the market, current 4X trends and predictions of the genre with Matej 🦩 😎.

Data based on Sensor Tower
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