A new study by Astute Analytica has found that the tower defence genre is set to generate $2.3 billion in revenue by 2030. This represents a significant increase compared to the total of $937.6 million the genre generated in 2021.
The genre is especially popular on smartphones and tablets which the report states is partly due to the simple gameplay in combination with the strategic death and high replay value.
The report also states that popular titles like Don’t Starve and Plants vs. Zombies give players the opportunity to test their maths and logic skills as they attempt to create a defensive perimeter.
Android captures the castle
The report shows that while iPhone users are more likely to purchase premium in-game items or bigger screens, 69 per cent of revenue generated by tower defence games comes from Android devices. The availability of games on the platform, wide variety of devices at different price points which utilize the Android framework and the typically larger storage capacity of Android devices compared to iOS are all cited as a part of the genre's market share on the platform.
Interestingly, this lines up closely with the global market share of Android (70 per cent) and iOS (28 per cent) devices worldwide.
More than half of the 10 thousand respondents to the study play tower defence games at least once a month, with 78 per cent having done so in the previous month. Worldwide, more than 170 million people play tower defence games, with an average lifetime spend of $8.
The North American and Asia Pacific regions are highlighted as the genre’s biggest markets, with the latter region generating 56.9 per cent of the genre’s global revenue in 2021.
The report also notes that as revenue generated from in-app purchases increases, the revenue from advertising has decreased.
Latin America and Africa are projected to be key markets for the genre in the future, both due to the increasing demand for tower defence games in the regions and the willingness of users in the regions to purchase premium content.
Earlier this year, Anzu partnered with Top Down Games to integrate ads into All Star Tower Defense.
