June proved to be a significant month for the mobile gaming industry, with games running new activations and incorporating real-world events, according to GameRefinery’s latest report.
With June being Pride Month, many games ran Pride events or offered new cosmetics or in-game items to celebrate the queer community. The report highlights League of Legends: Wild Rift, which allowed players to unlock cosmetics by playing one match during the event, and emotes by wearing these items in-game.
Similarly to last year’s world cup, many games celebrated the run-up to Wimbledon with in-game activations, including Fortnite’s Race to Wimbledon event and Roblox’s “Wimbleworld Experience”, which has been visited more than 12 million times. Tennis Clash also launched a new season to coincide with the tournament, featuring a unique match kit which players can use on the in-game Centre Court field.
Diablo Immortal, one of the biggest releases of last year, celebrated its first anniversary with a collaboration with the recently released Diablo 4, running numerous in-game events which led to a 500% spike in revenue on iOS in the USA.
Additionally, NetEase’s Harry Potter: Magic Awakened finally made its way to new markets following a strong reception in China and quickly proved successful, earning $2.3 million in its first week on global markets and climbing to the top 3 in the USA’s download charts.
Marvel Snap unveiled a new game mode, Conquest, which sees players take part in a single-elimination tournament in their attempts to reach the top ranks. The mode is separate into four difficulty tiers, and players must earn tickets in the free proving ground tier or spend gold in order to enter the higher-tiered tournaments, with the highest tier, Infinity Conquest, only available in the last week of each four-week season.
Candy Crush Soda Saga introduced tiers to the latest version of its battle pass, which GameRefinery notes highlights “the growing focus from studios on the diversification of battle passes as a monetisation mechanic”.
Success in Asia
Panda-themed match 3 game Anipop added a new event in China, Medal of Honour Book, which saw players completing tasks to acquire album stars. The event proved massively successful, with players with more stars being more likely to win real-life prizes, including an educational science experience at Panda National Park.
Additionally, the event saw players earn a special in-game currency to be used for both in-game items and real-life prizes such as toys and clothes.
NetEase launched its newest title, Racing Master, and the game quickly proved to be a success in China, reaching the number four spot in both the country’s download and revenue charts.
In Japan, Dragon Ball Legends celebrated its fifth anniversary with a slate of new content, as well as rereleases of older content. This included four anniversary-themed gacha, which players could unlock by acquiring tickets in story mode.
June is considered a particularly auspicious month to get married in Japan, and games such as Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, Puzzle & Dragons, and That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime all released new wedding-themed events to celebrate so-called Bride season.
The report notes that the recently released Undawn proved to be a particular success in Japan, quickly reaching the 100 top grossing charts in the country.
We listed several of the companies mentioned in this article as some of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022. We’ll be releasing our list for 2023 in the coming months.
