The Japanese, Chinese and US mobile games markets are vastly different. They are so different, in fact, that games like Puzzle & Dragons and Honor of Kings (Arena of Valor) are able to make billions in their countries of origin, but struggle to replicate all that success internationally.
But there are some similarities, particularly as Western markets pick up popular Asian game mechanics such as gacha and autoplay.
Understanding the nuances between these similarities and differences of markets like the US, China and Japan, even within specific genres, is important if you’re planning to release your game internationally.
Strategising features
In this article we take a look at the most popular features for strategy games. This genre has always been popular and mobile, right back to the launch of Clash of Clans through to Game of War and beyond. The genre has continued to evolve and is often combined with other genres, such as RPGs, to create new hybrid titles that are capable of topping the charts.
By looking at the most popular features, we hope to give you a better understanding of how similarities and differences between cultural tastes in one genre can often be subtle, but learning them is key to realising what makes these markets tick.
The data comes from GameRefinery, which lets developers identify winning features, calculate the revenue potential of feature sets and get inspiration for innovative features from games and markets. It analyses 200+ features across the top 200 grossing games as well as hundreds of titles outside those rankings.
This data doesn’t guarantee success, of course. But it can act as a useful indicator of globally popular features in the strategy genre.
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