Since 2019, hyper-casual games have shown a strong superiority of continuously dominating the ranking list due to their advantages such as easy to use and low learning barriers. In 2022, hyper-casual games once again won the championship in both Android and iOS downloads in the United States. But across the entire industry, due to issues such as traffic reaches its peak and Apple's new regulations on IDFA, the eCPM of hyper-casual game advertising has begun to show a downward trend, which brings more challenges to the release of hyper-casual games.
“Absorption + Retention” has become a new requirement for hyper-casual games, innovative development promoting mixed monetization
Once upon a time, when hyper-casual games exploded, a large number of highly competitive deep participants emerged in the market. Voodoo, a French publisher, quickly accumulated a group of fans by relying on hyper-casual games; Kwalee, a British manufacturer known for 'Go Fish!'; Crazy Labs, which focuses on three major sectors: hyper-casual games, life games, and copyrighted games, has made "AMAZE!", "My Horse Stories", and "JoJoJo Siwa Live to Dance" well-known.
From the overall performance of hyper-casual games in 2022, games such as "Tall Man Run" and "Coffee Stack" at the top have better traffic absorption and KPI data, and the download volume accounts for more than half of the total number of hyper-casual games. The gameplay mechanism comes from TikTok's "Color Match" and "Fill The Fridge", downloads ranking second. In terms of genre, simulation and parkour are still the most popular hyper-casual game types on the list. Although the click placement and arcade placement games that have always been favored have achieved new breakthroughs in game duration and retention values, the initial market dividends have been consumed. And the CPI of these types of games has significantly increased, which also puts more stringent requirements on game publishers' KPIs and innovative ideas.
The ability to absorb traffic, lower CPI, and user retention have led to the expansion of hyper-casual games towards mixed casual games. From the long-term dominance of hyper-casual games, it is not difficult to see that games with more difficulty and challenges are more popular among users. Long levels and increase the difficulty of operation have begun to appear in the game. In terms of mode, two player battles and multi-player io mechanisms have also become mainstream. Decryption games, battle games, and cultivation games have all begun to show higher user retention in hyper-casual games.
The once popular games and their distributors have also begun to make more choices along with the development trend of hyper-casual games. In this March, Kwalee publicly stated that due to the increasing difficulty of monetization in the traditional hyper-casual game market, Kwalee will focus its research & development on mixed casual games in the future. Later, Voodoo, which started off as a hyper-casual game company, also announced that it would stay away from the hyper-casual game track and strictly control the production of game releases to four per year.
Unique distribution methodology, allowing Heynext's hyper-casual games to fully break through
However, the abandonment of some deep participants does not mean the demise of hyper-casual games. As a category, hyper-casual games still have great appeal for players. However, with the growth of the hyper-casual game category, players have more requirements for hyper-casual games. For game publishers, attracting users with innovative capabilities and ingenious game settings is a test of both research & development and funding.
Unlike other participants who turned their guns and competed for the mixed casual game category, Heynext, which focuses on the development of premium games, still maintains a passion for the hyper-casual game category. As an online game developer and operator that integrates creative planning, art design, technology research & development, product development, global game promotion, and operation maintenance, Heynext has a highly mature methodology from research and design to distribution of hyper-casual games. With the support of this methodology, Heynext has released games with a cumulative download volume of over 1 billion.
Firstly, Heynext believes that the cost of trial and error in one's own product is not only a waste of cost, but also let slip a fleeting opportunity for market promotion. Choosing game designs that have undergone market validation has become the foundation for Heynext to quickly seize the market. That is to say, Heynext will review the success of many products in the market, draw on the design highlights and overall ideas of popular games, and then conduct comprehensive innovation. This is not a simple application, but the most dynamic "fast mode" in game distribution.
Secondly, the rapid release of games has also become Heynext's advantage in seizing the opportunity. Heynext, with over a thousand employees, has a large number of game development personnel and has always maintained an execution system with multiple research & development lines. At the same time, Heynext adheres to the foundation of "big IP" creation, and creative ideas can quickly be inspired from the underlying logic of "big IP", which also enables the launch of new games with efficient and high-quality research & development speed. The rapid release capability allowed Heynex to successfully develop over a hundred online games in just a few months, covering game types such as role-playing, simulation management, war strategy, leisure sports, etc.
Lastly, Heynext also strengthened cooperation with internet traffic platforms, allowing creativity and data to complement each other, achieving high traffic exposure of art and creativity. It can be said that Heynext can more effectively promote the game and also gain more exposure in its already fast iteration.
Heynext, which has a mature methodology, also brings together the categories of hyper-casual games and mixed casual games, not limited to a single field, but also gives it the confidence to drive business growth with two wheels. Unlike game publishers that concentrate on a single category, Heynext, with a richer product line, stands firm in its position. While other competitors fade out, Heynext, with a mature methodology, is highly likely to devour more markets.
Company: Heynext Software INC
Contact Person: leo li
Email: leoli2023@heynextsoftware.com
Website: http://www.heynextsoftware.com/
Telephone: +852 92997723
City: Apia, Samoa.