TapNation helps nurture over 80 studios to develop hit games.

Data is crucial when working on any genre. But particularly when you’re making a hypercasual game. TapNation helps studios all over the world to develop and improve their games. But to do that, they need accurate data. Fast. That’s where DataSuite comes in: it’s a collection of our services to help you bring all your data together and easily plug it into your other systems.

We spoke with TapNation’s VP of engineering, Kamel Haddad, to see how that works in practice. And what they use DataSuite for.

Tell us a little about TapNation and yourself

Sure thing. We are TapNation. We’re a publisher based in Paris and have taken around 80 different studios worldwide under our wing. Over the last few years, we’ve had around 19 hit titles, counting over 500 million downloads.

Because we work with so many studios, we’ve had to set up multiple internal systems and dashboards to speed up and standardize each game’s metrics. We have to automate a lot; it would take way too long to manually go through every game and see whether it is on the right track.

What problem are you trying to solve?

Ultimately, we need to provide the most accurate data to our studios. There are two ways we use our data. First, through a reporting dashboard, which lets our studios follow their games’ performance and cross-reference it with their acquisition and monetization metrics. And secondly, we need to feed data into our AI algorithms to adapt the games to the users’ behavior. We found that DataSuite was the best way for us to do that.

What issues were you facing?

We need as much granular data as we can collect. And we need it as close to real-time as possible if we’re going to offer our daily users unique gameplay.

We’re investing a lot of effort in the coming months to go deeper into personalizing our gameplay so that our users end up playing our games in totally different ways. We’re hoping to make them enjoy the game the way they want and feel ‘unique’ among the broad audience that a hypercasual title can cover.

How did you tweak DataSuite to your needs?

Ah, this is very important for us. On top of tracking the usual gameplay and ad events, we often need to design events to track custom values belonging to each game.

You see, we have a highly modular C# SDK that handles A/B tests, cross-promotion events, in-app purchases, push notifications, and so on. DataSuite is really flexible and scalable over time, which means we can keep incorporating new events into our dashboards.

How has DataSuite impacted your KPIs?

Really well. Thanks to your data, our A/B tests, and our expert product team, our games see a 50% increase in their LTV over six months after release, on average. A flagship example of this is Giant Rush.

Giant Rush is a game where the player has to run through an obstacle course, smashing through walls and fighting bosses. It’s now reached over 140 million downloads. And we managed to increase the LTV by a whopping 200% over six months of A/B tests.

Throughout those tests, we ended up adding mechanics and features like:

• Walls to break in the game
• Slow-motion when you see your opponent smashes through a wall
• A moving gauge to multiply the earnings at the end of the level, as a rewarded placement
• New kicking and punching animations that players can unlock in the shop.

Those are only a few examples of what we ended up adding. There were many more changes we made throughout the process. And DataSuite was key in making sure we could accurately track the effects of those changes.

How does each department use DataSuite?

We have two major teams that use DataSuite:

• First, our Data Scientists and Engineers. They’re using it to build robust, data-driven machine learning algorithms. These algorithms cover many different topics, like multi-cohort A/B tests, ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) forecasting, automated cross-promotion, in-game ad promotion, and so on.
• Then our publishing team. They use it to follow up on a game’s performance daily, while working closely with our studios to improve the gameplay metrics, like retention, playtime, level complexity, etc… We give them a totally dedicated and detailed dashboard to follow their games, where we combine gameplay insights with business value.

Have you tried similar solutions to DataSuite?

A little. We’ve mostly stuck with you guys since the beginning of our company, as the data you’ve given us is highly accurate, available, and flexible when it comes to tracking additional metrics on the fly. So we’ve felt no need to switch things up.

What made you choose DataSuite in the first place?

We had very good feedback from people in the mobile gaming industry regarding how reliable GameAnalytics’ data tracking and export services are. So we decided to give it a try. It worked well, so we kept it as part of our stack.

Go deeper with our TapNation User Case

All DataSuite features (Metrics API, Player Warehouse, and Raw Export) are now available under one simple plan. We believe it might work for you too: from solo & indie to larger publishers. Feel free to get in touch.

Discover all TapNation.

Cover image source: Archero by Habby

Hybrid-casual is a fairly new concept to enter the gaming world. You may have heard the whispers around the industry and a few hybrid-casual games already entering the app stores. But it’s starting to make its mark in the market. Players are starting to spend more time in games (with time spent in apps up 80% from 2019 to 2021). And in response, Developers and studios alike are turning their attention to this new type of game development and reaping the benefits (if done correctly).

So what exactly is hybrid-casual? How does this differ from hyper-casual? And what do you need to do to get started?

That’s what we aim to cover. Let’s dig in.

So, what are hybrid-casual games?

It’s when you mix together the simple core gameplay of hyper-casual, with the features and monetization models of mid-core. The hyper-casual market is oversaturated and extremely competitive. So the idea originally came about from developers and publishers experimenting with more features and mechanics in a bid to engage their players and increase retention.

To put it simply, hybrid-casual breaks down into three parts:

• Keeping a simple core mechanic: So still sticking to the short, simple, and satisfying rule of hyper-casual titles. You’ll have one core mechanic for your game, which is still intuitive and easy to learn.
• Layering in mid-core game features: So adding in progression events, leaderboards, collectibles, and more, to add more depth to your game.
• Adding in-app purchases: Offering IAPs, or even subscription options, alongside your ad strategy.

Why the shift from hyper-casual?

For years, we’ve been reading that hyper-casual is the king of the mobile gaming industry. That this genre is one of the fastest-growing genres out there. This is true, but it’s starting to hit its peak.

So why the shift? Before we explain that, here’s some background on the state of hyper-casual gaming.

Hyper-casual has little to no other features

Hyper-casual games all focus on one core mechanic. They’re stripped back of any other features and just focus on simple and intuitive gameplay. It takes seconds for the player to get the gist of these types of games, and usually are as straightforward as swiping or pressing a button.

Image source: Aquapark by Voodoo 

But they tend to suffer from low engagement and retention

Hyper-casual games are addictive but repetitive. It’s due to simple core gameplay, and lack of any additional features or motivations. Players will ultimately lose interest over time, as they don’t have a reason to come back.

Another culprit of this is due to the oversaturation of the market. This genre is the entry point for mobile game developers. They’re simple and quick to make. You have a lot of people now teaching themselves to code and build games, starting with hyper-casual. And you see more studios turning to hyper-casual because there are more accessible deals from publishers.

So there’s an ocean of these types of games out there. In turn, affecting CPI rates, retention, playtime, and LTV (lifetime value).

The ad monetization model alone isn’t working

Hyper-casual relies on ads. Interstitial and rewarded are popular types here. And it works. Players want a fun, free-to-play game that will fill up their time. And, up until now, it’s been a successful model. But with the growing competitive market, it’s not cutting it anymore.

And this affects the amount you can make from these games

To truly be successful when making hyper-casual games, you need low CPI, and high D0 through to D14 retention. Because hyper-casual games rely on ads, if your players don’t stick around and play enough of your game, your ARPU (average revenue per user) will suffer. And worse case, you make a loss.

Hybrid-casual helps increase retention and engagement

If you want to increase your retention, you need to give a reason for your players to come back. The best way to do this is by offering progression and different meta layers and features. So that they can have a sense of achievement from your game and a new motivation to play.

Image source: Bowmasters by Playgendary Limited

It gives breathing room for your CPI

Once you have IAPs in your games, your can afford to have a slightly higher CPI. It gives you the opportunity and time to increase your retention and session length, depending on the type of hybrid game.

How to develop a hybrid-casual game

It’s not as simple as just slapping on a couple of extra features. And although this genre is new and still evolving, there are a few steps you can take to get this right.

Step 1: Work on your game design

What we’ve been chatting about in this blog. Pair together the simple, fun mechanics from a hyper-casual title with the features and progression from mid-core. But don’t just shove in random features. It’s about building a nice engaging game with progressions that you can slowly introduce players to.

Step 2: Experiment with your creatives

Optimize your ads to not only engage hyper-casual players, but also new player types. You may need to experiment with showing those new features to see what works best for your ad creatives. And what people will react to best. You’ll need to go through plenty of rounds of testing, but you’re opening your game up to a world of new players.

Step 3: Nail your production process

Although this may be longer now, you can still transfer a lot of these skills and practices over from hyper-casual (so optimizing creatives, ideation stage, prototyping, etc). It’s worth noting, that you can expect your development cycle for these types of games to be slightly longer (so, say, for an experienced studio, four to six weeks, rather than the typical one to two weeks development time). But keep that hyper-casual testing mentality. There’s value in rapid testing.

Step 4: Perfect your monetization model

The big thing we’re gonna talk about here is balance. Going hybrid-casual means layering in IAPs. But there needs to be a level of commitment before someone will part with their cash. You’ll need medium to long-term goals to get your players invested.

Players are unlikely to dip into the pockets right away. And they will do it for nothing. Here’s what we know players are willing to spend on:

• Equipping new cosmetics: Skins for characters or weapons. People love customizing their looks and expressing their identities.
• Sending a gift: This implies you have a social element to your game, which is something you could easily do.
• Getting a competitive edge: Whether they want a second chance at a level, or a much-needed boost to beat a boss.
• Unlocking new content: This could be new equipment, characters, maps, or even bonus levels.
• Skipping timers: If there’s a locked level or item tied to a time element, some players may want to wait and unlock then and there.

The earlier you consider your monetization strategy in the game design stage then the easier it’ll be. It’ll be baked into the gameplay, the progression, and upgrades. You can’t just take a hyper-casual game and layer in IAPs. It’s not built for that.

Step 5: Assemble your team

There’s not a one-size-fits-all here. It depends on what type of hybrid-casual game you want to make. But you’ll likely need some more resources and help. A good 3D artist a great place to start, as you’ll want to polish off the artwork and style. Hyper-casual games look the way they are for a reason. It’s to do with CPI. The more polished a game looks, the higher CPI it may have. Which doesn’t work for hyper-casual, but is okay for hybrid.

You can also consider tools and platforms which offer these types of features out of the box. Companies like LookLocker or PlayFab, for example, have premade game systems to save developers time here.

Take a note out of Archero’s book

Archero is easily considered to be the first true hybrid-casual game. The controls are simple and intuitive. All the player needs to do is move around and shoot (both done in one fluid action). And the core loop is straightforward. You fight, get rewards, and then improve your character and equipment.

But what Habby has done is layered in features to add depth to the game. Players can get access to collectibles, new abilities, and upgrades to their weapons. These all scream roleplaying game. And that would be the case, yet these features have also been stripped back and simplified, to appeal to the casual gamer.

Archero monetizes with in-app purchases, subscriptions, and rewarded ads. And it works, because players are motivated by the gameplay. These types of monetization models simply wouldn’t work with a purely hyper-casual game, because the player has no incentive to do so.

A data warehouse can help perfect hybrid-casual games

We mentioned it above. But one of the most important elements behind hybrid-casual is striking that balance of showing ads, encouraging subscriptions, or pushing IAPs.

Data warehouses can make it easy and faster to make important decisions. It can help you decide which items to push, and which ones to scrap. Which players you should show more IAPs to, and which ones you should show more ads to. And much more.

We actually offer data warehouse of our own, which we’ve coined the name Player Warehouse (creative, we know). You can learn more about that here.

Image source: Philipp Katzenberger on Unsplash

If you read tech news, you’ve probably stumbled on the term Web3. And you might be wondering what it means and how it could affect gaming. So let’s explore Web3 and the surrounding opinions.

What is Web3?

It’s all about ownership. The web has been going through gradual changes, ever since it launched. Web1 was where people uploaded websites with static pages and information. You simply read Web1. The next step was Web2, where users create their own content.

Web3 is a prediction that users will begin to own digital content and have control over how they use it. But it’s also about decentralizing that ownership: making sure it’s not tied to any particular platform. (You don’t just own a movie on one platform, you own the right to watch it anywhere, for example.)

“I was lucky enough to be a part of the generation of Web2, building a company like Reddit, that proved and just showed a model for the world of read and write,” Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit explained in a talk with Bloomberg. “Now what we’re seeing, this whole Web3 jargon, is really just about a third component, which is the ownership part. And we’re just starting to see that, whether it’s with gaming or NFTs or this infrastructure that now exists that let you benefit from a sense of ownership.”

Theoretically, it doesn’t matter how users gain ownership over their digital content. But most experts agree that the blockchain (and specifically NFTs) are the first signs that it’s coming.

So what does blockchain and NFT mean?

If we’re going to see any level of control or ownership, it needs to be secure. That’s where blockchains (and the NFTs build on that technology) could come in.

• Blockchains can be seen as public databases. Every blockchain has a ‘ledger’ and they record every transaction. This ledger is shared on everyone’s machines, so it can’t be faked. There are other technical reasons that make blockchain secure, but we won’t get into them here. (This is how cryptocurrencies work.)
• NFTs are the ‘deeds’ to a digital thing. It stands for ‘non-fungible token.’ Which just means a token that’s completely unique. And it’s technically proof that you own a thing. NFTs run on the blockchain, so you always know who owns which NFT.

How might this work in gaming?

It’s impossible to tell exactly how gaming will change. But, theoretically, the blockchain could give players ownership over many different assets. Players could own the game itself, items within the game, or currencies in the game.

It’s the decentralization that matters here, though. It’s not just about owning a cosmetic skin in a single game, it’s about being able to trade that skin like a real commodity. Or even use that skin in another game. (Though, that would need a level of cooperation between developers that’s highly unlikely.)

But Twitter’s founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey, doesn’t believe that Web3 gives as much control as you might think. “You don’t own ‘web3,’” Dorsey tweeted. “The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.”

It won’t all be sunshine and rainbows

There’s a big difference between what could happen and what will happen. Sure, the idea is to have one central place with all your digital assets, from music to individual game items. And that you’d be able to use them in any game. From a player’s perspective, that’s very exciting.

But practically, it’ll likely be more fragmented than that. Companies will still need to cooperate to make it work. For example, in theory, a game developer could allow a player access to any ‘meta skin.’ Or perhaps allow you to use in-game currencies from another game. But how many developers will actually support that?

If it’s really going to happen, the industry will need to release a lot of standards to make it easy for developers to incorporate their player’s digital assets into their games. It’s theoretically possible to add a setting to your game where players could play the soundtrack from another game, for example. But would you actually want to? Would you want them using currency they earnt from a competitor?

We’ve seen this before, and it failed

Back in 2012, there was a cloud-based service called Ultraviolet. The idea was to be a single locker that housed your digital right to watch a movie. Quite a few studios agreed to honor the system so that users could buy a movie once and be able to claim the right to watch it on any device.

But the service died out in 2019. Who knows whether it was a problem in their marketing, resistance from some of the leading movie giants, or just bad luck. Perhaps it was just too early. But, either way, it meant that users lost those rights. And that they never truly own anything.

There are interesting trends in gaming, though

While there have been failures in the past, it seems that the gaming industry is beginning to dabble and dip their toes in web3-Esque concepts:

• Midnight Society. The famous influencer, Dr. Disrespect, has created a new game studio. One aspect is that people who buy a ‘Founders Pass’ will get what appears to be a custom avatar that “can be traded and collected on open marketplaces.”

• Gods Unchained. This title comes from the former game director of Magic: The Gathering Arena. In it, you can earn cards as you play and then sell them on the marketplace for cryptocurrency.
• Steam. Not quite there, but it already has the Community Market. You can sell items from different games there. However, this isn’t quite web3 yet: you can’t withdraw those funds. But it could be a start.
• Lost Lore Studio. Full disclosure, these guys have been using our technology to track in-game events for a little while now. But they’re definitely worth mentioning. Their game, Bearverse, shows what could happen as it lets players earn NFTs and trade them for cryptocurrency.

The game still needs to be good

While these examples seem to show the beginnings of Web3-like games and show us what the future could look like, there are words of warning worth bearing in mind.

“Too many times, our ecosystem has tried to build out NFT-enable games, but forgotten the first step, which is to build a great game,” Sam Bankman Fried, CEO of FTX, tweeted. “And just as importantly, web3 should make a game better, not neutral or worse. If integrating crypto hurts a game, we don’t want to do it.”

We can still help you track events

If you’re interested in trying out Web3 concepts for your own game, you can still use our analytics to keep track of how it’s going. We exist to help you make better games and monetize them efficiently. Blockchain shows some promise in monetizing your game, so if you need to track the progress, we’ll be here to help.

Virtual reality has been a hot topic for a few years now. And although there are a few kinks to iron out, VR is starting to take its seat in the gaming industry – it now boasts around 171 million VR users worldwide. We actually support VR games. Our SDKs work out of the box for Oculus Quest games. You just need to download our SDKs as usual, but with one extra step. (But more on that below.)

It still comes second place to most other types of gaming in the industry. (Mobile gaming is easily one of the top dogs, having generated $93.2 billion in 2021 alone.) But VR is a space to keep your eye on (or even dip your toes into).

But how do you even get started developing VR games? What tools and skills will you need? And how can you take your existing mobile titles and apply them to VR? Let’s take a look.

The good, the bad, and the VR

First of all, what are the pros and cons of developing VR games?

Pro: New space means less competition

Despite a large amount of money VR is making, it’s a small sliver of what the whole industry is making. It’s ripe to be tapped and you’ll be entering a new space with less competition.

With such promising predictions and growth, it makes sense to get a head start now.

Con: VR is trickier

It’s no secret that VR is more complicated. Engines are still building software and support for this new technology. And there’s so much more to develop, build, and test when working in a 3D environment.

But as Dr Kelso in Scrubs said: “Nothing in this world worth having comes easy.”

Pro: VR can bring life to an existing game

Adapting your best mobile game to VR can bring in a new source of revenue and audiences to your franchise. It can be less risky than starting with an entirely new and unproven project. And it can help keep your current players engaged and loyal.

Image source: Fruit Ninja VR 2

Con: There’s a higher risk with VR

Crafting a great VR game will need a lot more time, resources, and budget. So if your project doesn’t hit off, then that’s a lot of investment lost down the drain.

A good way to get around this is to create it as a mobile game first. Test the gameplay, try out different mechanics, and see how it performs to a select group. If it kicks off, then you know it’s worth investing. And it could also help build your following, so you already have loyal customers when your launch your VR version

Pro: VR opens up opportunities to work with brands

The metaverse is happening. We may not see it properly happen for a few years. But brands and businesses are already turning their attention and brainstorming ideas on how to enter the space.

Image source: Roblox blog

Take Gucci and Roblox. In May 2021, Gucci debuted a two-week art installation called the Gucci Garden, hoping to target young customers inside Roblox. The same could easily happen when the metaverse kicks off. And they’ll need developers and studios to work with.

Taking your mobile game to VR

It’s safe to say that most games don’t convert directly into VR. Studios have to recreate their games with new visuals and models in a brand new environment for VR.

Sure, it’s not impossible to use what you already have. But the reality is you’ll need to build your game from scratch to transform it from mobile to VR.

So here are a few steps to get you off the ground:

• First things first, you’ll need to make it 3D. A lot of mobile games start out with a 2D style. So unless you originally designed your game in 3D, you’ll need to map this out.
• Research the right engine. There are a ton of engines and platforms out there for mobile games, but only a few support VR / AR. So research which engine will be best to hold up your vision.
• Adapt your mechanics. Angry Birds is a prime example of this. On mobile, it’s a ‘tap, hold, and aim’ movement. Whereas in VR, they replicated the motions of using a slingshot. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fun.
• Keep it short, simple, and fun. Virtual reality demands so much more from the player in terms of senses and spatial awareness. It can be pretty alarming and overwhelming for new users. So it’s crucial to keep gameplay simple and easy to understand.
• Sort out your analytics. We’re kind of experts in this. But take it from us, mapping your event tracking and analytics in a VR game versus your mobile game is trickier. Our platform supports VR and you just need to install our SDKs to get started: Unity, Unreal, or Android.
• Think about what you want to track. Moving to VR means that you’ll need to think about how you should track spacial metrics. How do players look around? How are they moving around the space? Do your players prefer to stand still or duck and weave?

You might need to team up with a VR studio

It depends on how big of a project you want to take on. VR games are a lot more demanding than traditional mobile titles. So partnering up with experts could get your title to where it needs to be. To give you an idea of what we mean, when the team at Resolution Games built Bait! VR, they had around eight people working on the project.

Download our SDKs to get started

Our GameAnalytics SDKs support VR games (we have a few up and running already). It’s the same process as installing our normal SDKs, with one extra step. Read our documentation for each to get started: Unity, Unreal, or Android. We also took the time to guide you through integration for Meta Quest 2.

Read more about 5 mobile games that nailed shifting to VR.

Editors note: This article was written and published by Tenjin. You can find their original version here. 

By building internal BI, using Tenjin for attribution, and GameAnalytics DataSuite for product analytics, Umami Games was able to scale their team on the production side by over 100%, and switch to self-publishing. Making the shift towards automating their data processes allowed them to save time and resources, and consequently enabled them to focus on their end goal – building great games.

Download Case Study

About Umami Games

Umami Games is a hyper-casual game studio that was founded in 2019 in Denmark. It has since managed to produce approximately 80 games and has been quick to achieve success. In 2021, one of their mobile games “ABC runner” made it to the top three of Apple’s charts for the most downloaded mobile games in the US, and remained there for four weeks.

They were able to scale their business and focus on building great games by automating their data processes amidst the iOS 14.5 privacy changes in mid-2020.

The Challenge

Prior to the iOS 14.5 privacy changes, a lot of gaming studios such as Umami Games relied on manual reporting and data processing for making key business decisions. Once the privacy changes were implemented, however, it became more and more difficult for studios to scale with their existing manual processes. According to Umami Games co-founder and CEO, Riley Anderson, iOS 14.5 gave that final push of encouragement to switch to a more automated data infrastructure.

A glimpse of their processes before iOS 14.5

Before the privacy changes were implemented, Umami Games tested their games on iOS instead of Android, and used GameAnalytics as a free service for product analytics. They worked closely with an external publisher that decided which marketing analytics or attribution tool they should use. At this point, all data extractions were done manually using tools like Google Spreadsheets and MS Excel. They also manually created funnels and compared different versions of their games in Trello. With these manual processes, they only had the capacity to take care of one game at a time.

The Solution & Results

A Shift to an automated data infrastructure post-IDFA

Umami Games had been considering shifting to a more automated data infrastructure for a while, but iOS 14.5 gave them the last push. By using an automated data pipeline, Tenjin for attribution, and GameAnalytics DataSuite for product analytics, Umami Games could scale their team on the production side and switch to self-publishing.

Incorporating an automated tool that stores historical data has been instrumental for them in identifying outliers – something they couldn’t have achieved with manual processes. An example Riley Anderson gives for this is that when she comes into the office on Monday morning, the system tells her that the game she made last week is a positive outlier with playtime that is 50% higher than all the other games she tested in the last two years.

Once Umami Games automated their processes, it became sufficient for them only to hire a data scientist or a data analyst to create add-ons and visualizations for their existing tool. This freed up time and resources for them to focus on scaling and building great games.

Download the report to get a summary of how their processes changed post-IDFA.

Cover image source: Minh Pham on Unsplash

Virtual reality is no new concept. Have you ever heard of Sword of Damocles? It was invented by Ivan Sutherland and Bob Sproull, it was arguably the first VR / AR head-mounted display connected to a computer. That was in 1968. Today mobile games are at the start of shifting to VR

But it wasn’t until 1987 when the name ‘virtual reality was used for the first time by Jaron Lanier. He coined the term to help better describe his research. His company was the first ever to sell VR goggles, called the EyePhone, which cost upwards of $250,000 (including the computer to run it).

Image source: Flashbak

Of course, technology has come a long way since 1968.  In 2021, the global VR market size was just under $5 billion, and research shows that we’re now predicting the market to increase to more than $12 billion by 2024. There are over 200 titles available on the Oculus Quest 2, and of course, you can rule them all on this platform using our 100% compatible GameAnalytics Android SDK. The PSVR counts over 500 titles as well. Many of our existing, well-supported SDKs work with VR games, and we’re already enabling some of the hottest VR developers to get usage and gameplay insights. But more on that later.

So there’s potential to enter this space early. But what about mobile titles that have turned to VR? What’s been working? Well, here are the best mobile games that made the switch to VR.

1. Fruit Ninja VR by Halfbrick Studios

Originally launched back in 2010 on Apple devices, Fruit Ninja was one of the first excellent smartphone app to enter the market. It quickly helped set the scene for what mobile gaming could achieve. And honestly, it was a no-brainer propelling this title inVR.

VR opened new opportunities for Halfbrick

Halfbrick first decided to test out their game on the HTC Vive back in 2016. Like the mobile version, you need to hack and slash fruit in the air to get as many points as possible. The most significant difference is that you’re equipped with two samurai swords in the VR version, rather than just swiping with your finger. And to keep it fresh, they layered in a new mode, where robots shoot fruit at you, rather than it flying up from the ground.

It’s been such a success that the studio has gone and developed Fruit Ninja 2 – where players can experience a range of new challenges. And instead of hacking and slashing, they use a bow and arrow to hit all those pieces of fruit.

2. Angry Birds VR by Resolution Games and Rovio

Another veteran is having a go at VR: Angry Birds by our friends at Rovio. It first came to VR in early 2019 on PlayStation, and Rovio partnered up with VR specialists Resolution Games to tackle this title.

Simple mechanics and traditional gameplay

One of the best things about Angry Birds is that it’s beautifully simple. It was one of the first casual games to hit the market in 2009. Players could immediately pick it up and within seconds, know exactly what the game is about.

The same applies to their VR experience, too. The main changes they introduced were turning it 3D but also adapting controls. Players have to pull the slingshot back to hit the target physically. Meanwhile, players can also travel around the area and hit the structures from different angles. This was a brilliant addition to the game to make it truly feel 3D, without distracting away from the core gameplay happening in x,y,z.

3. Space Team by Cooperative Innovations

Space Team is one of the most chaotic co-operative mobile games out there. Each player downloads the game on their phone, and they get a specific set of cards and instructions. Players need to work together to overcome whatever anomaly they’re up against.

Big changes that just made sense

Despite the game initially launching in 2012, Cooperative Innovations saw an opportunity to move the title to VR. They launched the new version on Playstation 4 in May 2020, just in time for lockdown.

This game needed a ton of work to shift to VR. Originally a card game, they had to create a whole new environment for gamers to play in, as well as avatars, controls, and more. But they did it well. And made the right choice.

4. Temple Run by Turtle Rock Studios

The classic title, Temple Run, it was one of the first mobile games to truly make its way to VR. It was released on the Samsung Gear VR headset in December 2014. And considering how old this title is (well, for the gaming world), we’re pretty impressed with how Turtle Rock Studios transformed this popular mobile title into VR. They stayed true to the core gameplay, making it almost identical, the only difference being that it’s now first person.

One annoying thing about the game is that you need a touchpad to play. This makes sense, as the tech for VR was nowhere near as good as it is now.

Runaway VR is what Temple Run VR should have been

The kudos (or at least some of it) should actually go to Panoramik Inc. They created Runaway VR back in 2017 for HTC Vive, a replica of Temple Run. But with much better controls and smoother artwork.

In this version, players have to actually physically jump and move from side to side to avoid obstacles and collect coins (rather than use a touchpad or controller). This really adds to the gameplay and experience. And we imagine if Turtle Rock Studios were to recreate Temple Run VR now, we’d probably see them do the same thing here. (In fact, they’ve been creating some pretty cool VR games over the years.)

5. Five nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted by Steel Wool Studios

FNAF is a classic PC horror game. Although not originally built for mobile, we still reckon this is worth a shout-out in this article, as the developers behind this series did a stellar job at reworking this title across multiple platforms.

The series originally came out in 2014 for PC and mobile and eventually made its way over to VR back in May 2019. It was easily one of the most anticipated horrors VR games to come out, and rightfully so.

Take full advantage of the VR space

While keeping true to the core gameplay and story, Steel Wool Studios did a brilliant job layering in new mechanics and using the entire space around the player. Physically reaching to press a button adds to the player’s level of anxiety, as they have to turn their head to watch the panels and doors. VR adds to the experience for this type of game, so really, it only needed a few tweaks to perfect the experience.

If you’re thinking of switching, we’ve got your back

Not everyone will want to switch over to VR completely. Which is fine. It’s still a new and emerging space. But for those who do, it’s an excellent opportunity to be the first on the ground.

If you make the switch, the one big thing we learn from all these games is that things are different in VR. Players act differently than they would on mobile or even on PC, and they explore the space differently, and the usual tricks to force them to spot certain items don’t always work.

This means you’ll need to track different metrics. Thankfully, one of our 35 Integrations and SDK already works out of the box with Oculus Quest. You just need to download them as usual (with one extra step to get them to work with VR). Read our documentation here: Unity, Unreal, or Android.

Editors note: This article was written and published by Tenjin. You can find their original version here. 

Let’s explore how the hyper-casual market has changed compared to 2021 Q3 and go through the top 10 ad networks and countries for 2022. This time, we partnered with our friends from GameAnalytics to bring you day one and day seven retention benchmarks in this report edition. The complete information is available at the bottom of the post. 

Hyper-casual ad spend by platform.

In 2021 Q3, hyper-casual ad spend by the platform was a bit higher on Android (55%) than iOS (45%), marking a decrease of nearly eight percentage points in ad spend on iOS compared to 2020. In 2022 Q1, advertising spends on iOS  and Android now shows a 50% / 50% split, suggesting that advertisers are becoming more and more comfortable with mobile marketing in the iOS privacy-first ecosystem.

Top 10 ad networks to advertise hyper-casual Games in 2022

8 (Applovin, Mintegral, ironSouce, Unity Ads, Facebook, TikTok, Google Ads, Snapchat) out of 10 of the top ad networks by ad spend are familiar to iOS and Android. With Vungle and Apple Search Ads remaining specific to iOS and TapJoy and AdColony remaining particular to Android. Below we summarize the ranking comparison between Q3 2021 and Q1 2022.

Note: The naming convention for Facebook has been updated to Meta Ads on the above table and the infographic below.

Top 10 countries to advertise hyper-casual Games in 2022

Although the US and Japan are featured at #1 and #2 on both platforms, we can observe critical differences in hyper-casual ad spend by the forum on a country level. For instance, Android advertisers are paying more in Germany (#3) when compared to iOS (#6).

Additionally, Brazil (#5), Indonesia (#9), and India (#10) are included in the top 10 rankings for Android but not for iOS so far in 2022.

What’s changed on a country level since 2021? Compared to our Q3 benchmark report, India and Indonesia seem to have replaced Russia and Australia in the top 10 rankings for Android, while Sweden replaced Russia on iOS.

Hyper-casual retention benchmark by platform

The retention benchmark report at the end divides hyper-casual apps that use GameAnalytics, on Android and iOS, into the following categories of retention performance: median (top 50%), top 25%, and top 2%.

What exactly do these categories represent? The games retaining their users most successfully, or better than 98% of all the other hyper-casual apps, are described in the top 2%. The games keeping their users better than 75% of all others are represented in the top 25%. In other words, we can describe the top 2% of games as “great games,” the top 25% as “good games,” and the top 50% (median) as “average games.”

The statistics for “Day 1” and “Day 7” retention for each category show a significant gap in retention rate between a great game, a good game, and an average game on both iOS and Android.

In terms of comparison by platform, the retention rate is better for hyper-casual games on iOS than on Android across all categories.

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We believe that automated tools, such as Growth FullStack, have empowered marketers to take control of their data and allowed them to make more confident decisions in the post-IDFA era.

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As we saw in part one of our multiplayer series, the mobile multiplayer opportunity is bigger than ever. And there are a lot of reasons you should make multiplayer part of your next mobile release.

But how do you get started with actually implementing multiplayer into your mobile game? There’s a lot to consider. And a bounty that makes it easier than ever to get right. You’ll need to read more than a two-part blog post to master it all, but we’ve done our best to round up as many pointers and links to get you started on the right path.

So let’s dig into part two.

There are rules to mobile

Over the years, mobile gaming has diversified (and then some). Game genres like casual, mid-core, hyper-casual, pay-to-earn and premium now offer very different gaming flavours to a broad audience that offers up a dizzying array of user demographics.

But despite all the differences, a number of universal rules apply for mobile. Mobile gamers often play in short sessions, on the move, or while distracted by other screens. Your multiplayer mode needs to respect that. Now, these rules are really loose guides. What counts as ‘short gameplay sessions’ will vary from genre to genre. And depending on the kinds of social features you’re layering in, you might need to tip-toe away from absolute simplicity. But to give you a place to start:

• Keep it straightforward: Plenty of brilliant MOBAs and competitive FPSs have thrived on smaller devices. But think about how you can cut back excess features and get to the core of what a multiplayer experience is about. You won’t need a suite of distinct modes and options either. That player squeezing in a session while waiting for a bus just wants to dive into the action – not browse a range of multiplayer modes.
• Keep controls simple: Smaller screen = less room for controls. Think about what players can actually do with just two thumbs, and what areas of the screen they can reach. Resist cluttering a phone screen with too many virtual buttons. In Fortnite Mobile, you can see how the same UI element can be tapped or held to register different inputs. Players can also reposition buttons to suit their own preferences. There’s a lot more you can learn about getting mobile control systems right – but most importantly, design simplicity of control into the heart of your game from the start.

Image source: Fortnite mobile

• Keep it satisfying: You want all your players to have fun. Someone is always gonna lose, but it shouldn’t be an entirely negative experience. Give them XP for participating, so they can unlock something later.
• Keep it short: Mobile players tend to squeeze play sessions in short snatches of time, so you want mobile matches or clashes to take up minutes at most (this really does depend on the type of game you’re going for, though). Focus on giving them a core multiplayer loop that emphasises brevity. That will also help retain and monetize your players over time, while building a community around your game.

Step 1: Sort out your Matchmaker

If you’re taking your game multiplayer, you’ll need to set up a matchmaker. These mathematical systems, tools and programs pit your players against each other based on a range of aspects. But the biggest one? Skill. You don’t want a newbie matched up to a seasoned pro. That’s not fun for anyone.

Matchmaking can make or break your retention

Quality matchmaking can even help retention. Your matchmaker should pair up groups of players of a similar skillset – so that those players get the right level of challenge and reward. Too hard? Then it’s not fair. And too easy? It’s not fun. Getting the balance just right gives them incentive to come back.

Make sure to pick a rating system

Short of building your own matchmaker, you’ll need to pick a rating system like the infamous Elo system (which best serves two-player competition) – and the best option for your audience and game type.

Depending on what you go with, matchmaking systems can get complicated. And they need some time maintaining them. But that isn’t a reason to worry or step away from your multiplayer dream.

You can use off-the-shelf options like Microsoft’s TrueSkill 2 or the public domain, Elo-based Glicko-2 – often as a starting point to build your own matchmaking. Better still, you could start with a BaaS (backend as a service) that includes matchmaking support. That will leave you with more time to focus on building and maintaining a great game.

Step 2: Pick out your perfect backend

Tools which offer backend features are everything to an online game – they let you maintain your game, host events, offer leaderboards and social features, manage in-game economies, streamline development workflows, pool data, offer achievements, and more. And some do matchmaking, of course.

Picking a ‘backend-as-a-service option saves you building your own. Instead, you get an out-of-the-box backend option that can plug into and support your game. Our friends at LootLocker, who provide just such a technology, have shared a thorough guide to picking the right backend right here on our blog.

Step 3: Test, and test again

Testing is fundamentally essential to almost every part of your game.

In terms of multiplayer, you’ll be ready to test once that multiplayer mode exists as a minimum viable product (MVP). That means a playable experience that captures the core gameplay loop and complete multiplayer player journey. That’s because you want to be able to test everything from when a player enters a lobby right through to gaining rewards after a victory or loss.

Figure out what you need to test

What do you actually need to test? It depends on what you’re trying to do. You might have players joining sessions from all kinds of devices and OS variants – and you want to be sure they all have a shared, consistent multiplayer experience. You also want to be sure your server can handle everything from the quietest patches to – hopefully – that moment when tremendous numbers want to enjoy your creation simultaneously.

A real challenge here is that you need players to test multiplayer functionality. But you want to get multiplayer right before unleashing your game on the masses. The solution? A carefully planned soft launch process is vital. A soft launch of your ‘almost ready’ future hit before you’ve geared up the marketing machinery gives you a player base to test all kinds of experiences, without exposing an unpolished entity to the full market.

Our own guide to testing hyper-casual titles shares a lot of testing lessons that can be transferred to testing mobile multiplayer.

Step 4: Prepare to scale

You’d think having too many players is a good problem to have. But if your servers aren’t ready for the load, it can actually lead to a bad player experience, and in turn, low retention. Famously, Among Us’ explosion in popularity during the pandemic saw the game struggle with its new popularity. They experienced downtime and long queues. For the devs, more servers (plus some long shifts reworking the game) were the answer.

Fortunately, there’s plenty you can do.

Again, backend tools are your friends on the technical side here. A great many BaaS platforms have scaling support built-in. So as your game grows, so too does the likes of server support.

And while we’re talking severs – put some thought into where they are located. If your game is turn-based in the vein of Words With Friends, you might not need to fret about low latency and lag. Offering simultaneous high-action multiplayer? You really want to host sessions on servers near the players in question. Options by bigger outfits such as the aforementioned Google App Engine are linked to a truly vast network of servers, so may be just what you need.

Start small, and build on it

Having lots of players is great. The idea of having thousands of them join your game simultaneously is a real test of what you’ve built. And the more there are, the more you’ll want things to run smoothly.

The guide here has just been about setting you on the right path. Do more research, follow those links, and make sure to plan time to learn enough to get it right. But be sure even the smallest teams can do it. Among Us prevailed when it had a team of one at the reins.

With the right blend of backend, testing process, matchmaking and thoughtful refined design, a mobile multiplayer triumph that assures the future of your studio is absolutely something you can do.

Want more insights on multiplayer and more from the GameAnalytics team and expert contributors? Sign up to our newsletter below to keep up to date with guides that will help you build better games.

Editors note: This article was written and published by Homa Games. You can find their original version here. 

So what exactly happens once you submit your prototype at Homa, and how does it all work? In this article, Homa’s team take you through the process and explain all the essential info you need to know about scaling your next hit.

Here’s what they said.

The main challenge behind game publishing

Publishing a game might seem straightforward; however, the list of actions to make it the next hit is quite long. In a short period, you need to make sure there are no bugs, the ad monetization is working properly, the testing metrics are good, and the data is analyzed correctly. Don’t you worry; the Homa Games team is there to help you figure it all out!

The Homa Squad supports each step of the publishing process.

• Publishing managers help you to ideate, improve, and test your game.
• Creatives aid to increase User Acquisition by launching creative Ad campaigns based on the latest trends.
• UAMs monetize your game and boost retention by combining our trusted ad partners’ technology.

The most challenging part for developers happens during the pre-launch phase when the prototyping is done. You might think that you are super close to publishing & reaching the top, but KPIs don’t allow you to move forward. Many games get killed during that phase. Well, this is where the Homa’s LaunchOps step in. The next part of the article will discuss their role in publishing.‍

Reach the top charts with Homa LaunchOps’ support

The Homa’s LaunchOps team is there to take on the two main missions.

The first mission is to provide ad-hoc support to studios by helping them on one of the following topics:

Homa Games Ad Hoc support missions

• Technical support: adding new features such as a shop, a bonus level, or a new end of the level mechanic
• Art support: creating new characters, new environments, or even improving lights, contrasts, or some animations
• Homa Belly SDK support: implementing analytics events, monetization, or A/B tests

The second mission is to take over a game right after the Live phase to add classic meta-feature and optimizations to improve LTV and the game’s profitability. To avoid breaking the game’s KPIs and LTV, we test all changes through a well-defined process using A/B tests and daily monitoring stats and LTV impact. This “iteration” process can last up to 2 or 3 months.

In parallel, the team creates internal packages that can easily integrate into a game (shop, chest room, daily mission, battle pass, leaderboard).

It allows to boost development time and not reinvent the wheel for each game.

Homa Games’ LaunchOps team has already worked with many chart-topping titles, which has helped find a customized approach for each studio and develop the best in-house tech for every developer.

Homa Games hits

Investment Run Case study

Let’s dive into the success story of Investment Run to understand the LaunchOps team’s role better while publishing your title.

Investment Run is a hit-runner mobile game that reached 4.4 million downloads on Android & the top 3 charts in the US, Brazil, and India. On Apple Store, the game attained 2.6 million and top 3 in the US, UK, and Canada.

Two professionals from the Mamau studio developed the idea and reached out to Homa Games to help grow the title.

Investment Run Game Mechanic

“The process was exciting. When the game started showing promise, we needed to move quickly. Thankfully Homa Games’ internal team was super reactive and helpful, and we are delighted with how everything panned out.” – the Danish studio says about the publishing process with Homa.

Homa LaunchOps team not only focused on the three pillars discussed above but also took over the game after being launched for months to improve metrics after going live.

Technical Support

Within 1,5 weeks, the team added three more worlds & levels to the game, implemented meta, and created additional gifts & events. The Launch Ops also continuously worked on the FPS & bug fixes that helped improve the overall in-game metrics and performance. FPS has been increased to 40 on Android on 50 on iOS, and the loading time has been reduced by 70%. We have also fixed some crashes and lags in the game.

“The onboarding was smooth; both teams were flexible, which avoided unnecessary efforts. Another great point was the technical transparency—Homa Games’ team shared all tools and info.”—Mamau team about the success reasons.

Investment Run gifts

Art support

The Homa Games team helped to achieve more development & art capabilities. The Creative team worked autonomously thanks to their knowledge of the industry standards. As a result, more than 250 creatives were tested, out of which three winning concepts were identified.

Investment Run featured graphic

Homa Belly SDK: A/B testing for better LTV

Homa Games helped to set up the N-testing & A/B tests. The biggest wins were decreasing the character’s speed, changing the colors of doors, and removing the sensitivity of controls. These changes brought an uplift of 9-11% in LTV in Android, US.

“We are very impressed with the work done on the A/B testing inside Homa Lab. Homa Lab’s features on A/B testing helped with complex decisions when scaling a Hypercasual game like Investment Run.”—developers thought about the Homa Lab.

Support after the Live phase

Currently, the LaunchOps team is working on an important A/B testing strategy to improve the LTV throughout ad pressure, optimization of the level design, a new end of a level mechanic, and meta-features for mid-term and long-term retention.

Rounding off

To sum up, game development is a fast-paced process that requires instant actions and reactive partners. Ideating & prototyping is one thing; however, you need good KPIs to get your game published & reach the top charts. Moreover, you want your game to live longer, so you need to look after the title and metrics even after the Live phase. Luckily, Homa Games LaunchOps can take care of everything.

So be sure to play Investment Run, available on IOS and Android, and stay tuned for the following articles to come in our blog.

Adding multiplayer elements to your mobile game is a straight-up win-win situation. It creates a sense of community, brings a competitive edge, and gives your players a reason to come back. Taking all that on might feel intimidating. But today, building quality mobile multiplayer is easier than you might think.

But how exactly do you make your mobile game multiplayer? What steps do you need to take? And what do you need to consider? We will cover in this two-part article that will help set you on the path to mobile multiplayer glory.

This first part will look at the broad concepts and overarching considerations. And next time, we’ll dive into the tech and techniques for part two.

Yes, your game is suitable for multiplayer

We appreciate there are different types of games. But multiplayer isn’t purely about competition and online shooters. There are so many opportunities around co-operative multiplayer, asynchronous play, community-driven experiences, social play, and even asymmetrical systems inspired by board games. And there is absolutely room for new takes on multiplayer.

Image source: Homescapes mobile game

The point here is that there are no firm rules on what elements of a game can be made multiplayer. That is multiplayer’s ultimate appeal – offering shared experiences or ways to let players compare or combine their game experiences. If you feel intimidated by layering this in, then start simple.

Ask yourself how you can bring any social element to your game. Before tackling anything more advanced, even a simple item trading system might get you started.

Different genres may need different multiplayer features

But what if my game really is a single-player thing. Shouldn’t I stick with that?

We hear you. A handful of genres are, to this day, very much single-player focused. Or at least they appear to be

Let’s say you’re making an entirely conventional mobile 2D shooter (or ‘shmup’, if you prefer). For decades, shmups have been about solo players pushing individual skills to incredible levels. Yet those same games’ two-player modes often feel like a lesser, messier variant of the main game. Sticking in a second-player ship doesn’t always compliment the form.

But today, shmups almost always have online leaderboards so those players can compare scores. That’s a very rudimentary form of multiplayer – but also a starting point for building something more. Why not a team-based shmup, or shmup where a team assumes the role of the enemies or a system where you can hijack weaponry from a leaderboard player in the position below you?

It really depends on how a multiplayer element will add to your game. So have a think, do your research, and maybe even test with different groups of players.

There are four motivations when it comes to multiplayer

Game design almost boils down to meeting the psychological desires of players – that’s as true on mobile, PC, console, or any platform. Understanding what your players want and need from a game lets you build a more successful title.

Fortunately, you don’t need to be a psychologist to understand what motivators you can work with at the design stage to attract players to your game (and keep them playing). And a very specific set of factors inspire multiplayer play. Here are some of the common ‘social catalysts’ to consider leveraging when you build your multiplayer mode:

1. Beating other players

To a greater or lesser extent, we all give thought to how we are perceived in the world. This is true in multiplayer games as much as out here in reality. Competitive gaming and leaderboards offer a chance for players to assert their success and relevance. Giving limited cosmetic items – maybe a certain hat – to successful players also lets them ‘peacock’ their success in future multiplayer appearances, inspiring other users to commit more. And give all your players plenty of stats and badges (or similar) for leveling up. We all like to receive and share indicators for our success and status.

Image source: Pandhuya Niking on Unsplash (thanks!)

2. Mastering a skill

Taking pleasure in doing something well is built into the core of our psychology. It’s an instinct that motivates our species’ forward journey. Mastery is also highly attractive to players in a multiplayer context – because comparing yourself against other people is the mark of mastery. This is connected to social comparison – but here, think about the learning curve and journey your player follows, and be sure that both winners and losers all reap some reward for their effort and progress.

3. Trying something new

We’re all attracted to new ideas and concepts. That same instinct motivates real-world desires to learn, travel, and try new things. So consider how you can make your multiplayer game as distinct as possible – without getting to the point where it is all novelty and too little substance.

4. Connecting with friends

We’re a social species, so community features keep us coming back to games. More than that, they can inspire deep engagement and encourage customers to become evangelists through the likes of streamed content. So be sure to consider community features when designing your multiplayer system. Guilds, friend lists, and team modes are your friends here.

The Bartle Player Types

Related to the above, way back in the 1990s, Dr. Richard Bartle studied players in early online communities. He concluded there are four player types (though we can all embrace parts of each category): Socialisers, explorers, achievers, and killers.

Today, Bartle Player Type theory is often used to guide the gamification on non-gaming projects. But reading up on Bartle’s work could really help you master mobile multiplayer.

Start planning for multiplayer from the get-go

The golden rule for just about every game design and development element is “factor it in from the start”. So if you can design multiplayer into your game from the off, perfect. That means the multiplayer experience is deeply connected to the core game and should be integrated with everything from your character design to your in-game economy.

But if you’re midway into production or you’ve made a dozen updates following the full release of a single-player game? You’re still well-positioned to seize the multiplayer opportunity. There is ample opportunity to introduce a multiplayer mode that also serves as a major, marketable update in the era of maintained games. There’s a good chance it will mean building out an entirely new model, rather than forcing multiplayer onto a solo campaign. But you could dip your toe in the multiplayer waters with a good old online leaderboard.

Multiplayer is the Future

You might want to get dipping that toe into those waters because multiplayer is increasingly becoming a standard in mobile gaming – something players expect and look for. In turn, that is seeing multiplayer becoming a key factor in the success of many of the most popular mobile titles. And smartphone technology is now at a point where remarkable things are possible.

Mobile processing power is now stronger

5G means faster internet connections for smartphone devices. The rise of crypto-gaming and play-to-earn is injecting new interest and investment into social mobile gaming experiences. And the backend technology that enables mobile multiplayer has become more powerful, affordable, and easy to use for teams of all sizes.

Esports is rising in popularity

Elsewhere, esports has certainly proved the appetite for competitive gaming. And now mobile is a major part of that world. The vast and diverse mobile audience is much more multiplayer savvy than ever before and eagerly receptive to a range of connected experiences.

All of which means it’s easier than ever to build quality, successful mobile multiplayer experiences. Add that to the fact that multiplayer can improve your mobile game’s reach, engagement, retention, and overall success, and the question you might have to ask yourself is: ‘why wouldn’t I add multiplayer to my game?’

That’s it for part one. Be sure to head back to check out part two of this series, where we’ll consider technology, practicalities, and mobile-specific design approaches.

Editor’s note: This article was written by the clever minds at HyperBid. Photo by Marc Schulte on Unsplash.

Hello there. I’m Ahmet, the business director here at HyperBid. Aside from the obvious ups and downs last year, we also had some big changes in how the monetization industry works. From new models improving revenue for developers to changes on how we can collect data.

So I thought it’d be useful to summarise the four big changes we’ll see in 2022.

1. The waterfall model will take a step back

There are two models you can use when selling the advertising space in your game. Either you use waterfall, which methodically runs through a set list defined by you, until you get an ad bid above your defined floor price. Or you can use in-app header bidding, where you programmatically scan through every bid for the best offer.

Despite waterfalls being the traditional method, header-bidding continues it’s growth into the mainstream. New developers are discovering that header-bidding gives them a much better shot at earning ad revenue from their games, while existing studios are gradually moving over to bidding from waterfalls. In fact, header-bidding is already the dominant model – with 70% adoption by the end of 2020 from 9% market share the previous year (as per App Annie).

In 2022, we’re going to see header bidding get only more dominant. Publishers should make sure they fully utilise header-bidding this year, even work with a combination of bidding and waterfalls, rather than focusing solely on traditional waterfalls.

This is good news for both sides

Developers and ad networks alike should rejoice in this trend. Both sides benefit from in-app header bidding. It means the best bid wins, despite which network it comes from. Higher revenue for developers, fairer auctions for the networks.

2. Privacy concerns will put a focus on first-party data

Last year, Apple made it much more difficult for advertisers to learn about their users. The Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), which is key in tracking users across different apps to give them more targeted adverts.

Now advertisers have much less data about users. They can’t build up a profile and show targeted adverts.

The future is the data in your game

What can advertisers and developers do to make sure that they’re still showing relevant ads? Use data about the user from within the game.

The absence of IDFA makes the data that you can collect much more valuable and useful. You know which players are most active. Which players are most likely to sit through an ad. Which players are most likely to engage with rewarded ads. You know that based on their history on your game, regardless of how they behave elsewhere. That’s your first-party data.

Because of these changes, we’re going to see a lot more embedded analytics applied in monetization. Game developers are going to need to make sure they link their analytics and mediation platforms together to make sure that they’re feeding accurate, first-party data in.

3. Transparency will be more important to developers

There were a huge number of mergers and acquisitions in the last couple of months in the mediation space. Ad networks and mediation’s platforms often combine into a single entity. Many mediation players also own game studios. As per our survey of the developer landscape, the need for transparency and neutrality behind these highly-aggregated platforms is only increasing.

Studios and publishers want insight into the true workings behind their mediation platform. We’re anticipating the return of more independent mediation platforms, forcing the whole industry to move to a more transparent approach.

4. Indies will ride the monetization wave

The in-game advertising market will apparently reach nearly $11 billion by 2024, according to App Annie. But that growth isn’t only going to come from the existing dominant players. Smaller developers and independent studios now have the tools to break through the noise and get their games out there.

The standard complaint we often hear from newer developers is that they get lost in the noise. Bigger mediation platforms are currently focusing on their biggest client publishers. But in the past year, we’re noticing an increasing number of smaller developers are beginning to monetize their games very effectively, and many even self-publishing

It comes down to ease of monetization. As tools become easier to incorporate, we’re going to continue seeing the surge of indie developers. Mediation platforms need to pay attention to everyone, no matter their size.

We’re going to embrace these changes

Part of our philosophy at HyperBid is making sure our platform is neutral and transparent. We’re here to make sure that developers of all sizes get the attention and help that they deserve, making the most of monetisation trends. If you’d like to find out more, try out our platform for yourself.

The GameAnalytics crew dug out the crystal balls, consulted the oracles and tossed tea leaves all over the office. None of that helped and it was a pain to clean up, so we decided to ask our experts instead.

So after a lot of thought, consideration, and a couple of debates, here’s what our team predicts will happen in 2022 for the mobile gaming industry.

1. Augmented reality games and technology will grow

We’re going to see a surge of Augmented Reality (AR) games and technology in the next year. Over the last few years, AR has been simmering beneath the surface, getting ready to boil over into the mainstream.

It’s clear that big things are on the horizon. The biggest player in AR, Niantic, was recently valued at $9 billion and raised $300 million in investment, which it says it will use to build out a “real-world metaverse.” And there’s a huge market for AR games. Take Pokémon Go. Since 2016, it’s earned between $3.5 to $4.5 billion. They’ve also recently released Lightship, a new developer kit to build AR games (which is crucial for making this type of gaming more accessible for more developers). This is sure to give the industry a massive boost.

“Every year, I’m excited to see how new technologies drive creative gameplay experiences,” Allison Bilas, EVP, Operations and Growth of GameAnalytics, says. “I’m particularly watching the AR space, after Niantic’s investment. With more revenue pumped into Niantic, it’ll help them double down on its Lightship platform technology, hopefully inspiring other game developers to create amazing AR experiences next year.”

It’s not just Niantic making waves and proving that AR is coming. Jurassic World Alive, Ludia’s AR game, has earned around $100 million in revenue, and had 25 million downloads in just 3 years since launch.

This is an area of gaming that is going to keep growing. And we expect to see a lot of news in 2022.

2. The metaverse hype will slow down

The metaverse isn’t a new concept, despite taking the spotlight over the last couple of months (particularly because Facebook’s umbrella company changed its name to Meta). It’s become a hot topic, but it’s still a long way off before we’re in a world like Ready Player One.

But that isn’t to say that the metaverse isn’t developing. All eyes are now focused on the topic, with people talking left right and centre what possibilities the metaverse may bring.

“In 2022, we’ll see leaps and bounds in the tech powering the idea of the metaverse, with players like Unity and Nvidia making advancements and people adopting technologies like the blockchain,” says Allison. “But that tech doesn’t have an accessible consumer-facing experience yet, so the hype around the metaverse will become less fevered.”

Before we can even humor what the metaverse can do, we (as an industry) need to build the technology that will make it work. We’re definitely close. But over the next couple of years, we’re likely to see a myriad of unsexy miniature breakthroughs. So the hype is going to die down, at least for a while, until there’s an actual metaverse release (and content to accompany it).

3. NFTs will stay but need a killer app

Despite the mixed feelings about NFTs, they’re going to be a large part of 2022. At the moment, they’re unregulated and there are clearly fraudulent services, which suddenly collapse as the founders leave with all the money. But the idea itself is one that will appeal to gamers… if done the right way.

“NFTs are here to stay. Everyone will want the coolest ‘art’ in their games,” says Roxana, our Director of DataSuite. “We’ll see new marketplaces to buy personalized skins across all your games, which will tie into your avatar for the whole metaverse.”

People already collect rare Magic the Gathering Cards or shiny Pokémon. Having a method to prove ownership and trade digital assets securely will be important.

“Unique ownership of digital items will be big business,” explains Nikolaj, our VP of Product. “It will become a regular mainstream news item as the topic has all the aspects that make a good story.”

But right now, it’s too difficult for the average gamer to get involved. It’s messy and confusing because it needs a lot of technical experience to use.

“It won’t yet become mainstream to actually buy NFTs as the process isn’t user friendly,” Nikolaj adds. “To truly take off, it would need a killer app from a trusted store, and this might be difficult. Steam has already banned all NFT games. It remains to be seen how big players will approach the concept. Ubisoft introduced Quartz to a poor reception. Other developers likely have similar projects and are contemplating an optimal way to introduce without alienating their player base.”

4. Privacy concerns will mean more restrictions

While Apple officially launched SKAdNetwork (SKAN) in 2018, it wasn’t used much. It wasn’t until 2020 that Apple announced its App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which was then rolled out in 2021. Now, SKAN v2.0 changes how ad networks and advertisers track information about their players. Instead of tracking an individual, you get an aggregated result – an average of all your players – for things like impressions and clicks.

This is much better for a player’s privacy. And it looks like Google will be following suit, as they’ve introduced a new policy which they’ll start to enforce in 2022.

“Even with the Apple changes, it’s still possible for certain attribution services to get the information they need to profile players,” Nikolaj says. “I believe Apple will slowly introduce iOS functionality that will make it more and more difficult to profile. If they do that, it will make other services based purely on SKAN more interesting. The question is how fast will this happen?”

Privacy is exceedingly important and developers are going to need to change how they’ve been measuring their success. There will be ways, but they’re going to be more anonymized and restricted than before. So it’s worth future-proofing your game and setting up your analytics with these restrictions in mind.

5. Games will add more social features

Over the last few years, with the pandemic and several lockdowns, the gaming industry has seen a surge. But it isn’t just to fight boredom and kill time, it’s to connect with friends and family.

“Those new players wanted to fight solitude. The social element in gaming became even more important and has contributed to an increase in user retention and engagement,” says Yannick, our Marketing Director (and your author). “This is a win-win situation for gamers and game developers, so I see this trend getting even more traction in 2022.”

In fact, if you look at the top 50 games in the App Store, they all have social features in some form or another. Multiplayer games like COD mobile, Fortnite, and Among Us are clear contenders. But others have user-generated content, like in Brawl Stars. While others are developing leaderboards, in-game chat, and guilds.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that developers need to focus on creating a multiplayer game. But adding in some social elements to make sure that their players can feel connected to their friends and family can go a long way to making sure that they keep coming back.

6. More brands will turn to games and gamification

Gaming has always been one of the highest-earning industries. In 2020, global revenue was around $180 billion. That’s near twice the global film industry ($100 billion). As the metaverse begins to emerge, it’s going to be a no-brainer for the top brands to get involved.

“Marketing and cross-media experiences will obviously be the first use cases, as we’ve already started to see with Netflix extending their TV show experiences with mobile games,” explains Yannick. “More recently, we’ve had The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience, which was a marketing trojan horse to grow hype with a younger generation, who might not have seen the first installments of the saga.”

If brands want to get involved in the metaverse, and they will, they’ll first need to get involved in creating games. This isn’t particularly new ground, either. Back in 2013, the Australian Metro released the Dumb Ways to Die mobile game as part of a safety campaign. It now has over 360 million installs.

There are plenty of other examples, even dating back to 1993 with Cool Spot on the SNES by 7 Up. But it’s always been a bit of a niche and rare event. Now, with the metaverse on the horizon, we’re sure that brands are going to start being more adventurous once again.

We’re already seeing the beginnings of this today, like how Fornite has a Spider-Man skin or how Vans introducing a skatepark on Roblox, complete with outfits.

7. Header-bidding will kill off the Waterfall model

When you sell the advertising space in your game through a mediation platform, you can either use Header-bidding (programmatically pick the highest bid from a group) or Waterfall (go through a list of networks until one hits a price you’re willing to accept). Header-bidding is relatively new and is much fairer to the developer. With Waterfall, you could miss out on a decent price, just because it’s low on your list of ad networks. That doesn’t happen with Header-bidding.

“With the advanced ability to run fair auctions using In-App Header-bidding, Waterfalls have become a thing of the past,” explains Ahmet Genc, Business Director at HyperBid. “It’s essential for publishers and studios, new and old, to phase over to Header-bidding.”

This has already begun. It’s already the dominant model, with AppAnnie reporting that Header-bidding reached 70% adoption by the end of 2020. In 2022, we believe that we’ll see Waterfall decline to irrelevancy.

Did we miss anything?

If you have a prediction of your own, let us know. Tweet us at @GameAnalytics and tell us your thoughts. Until then, we’ll put the tarot cards away and wait and see what happens.

Have a great year.