July proved to be a major month for Turkish studio Dream Games. The company’s flagship game, Royal Match, generated $112 million in revenue and was downloaded 14.6 million times, outperforming long-time market leader Candy Crush Saga by 200,000 downloads and $8 million, taking pole position in the puzzle genre for the first time.

While Zynga’s Candy Crush still leads the way in terms of daily active users - 18 million, compared to Royal match’s 15 million - Sensor Tower suggests that “the latter’s strong growth trajectory suggests it may surpass Candy Crush in DAU by the end of October.”

Sensor Tower attributes Royal Match’s recent success to an aggressive paid user acquisition campaign, with 61.5% of the game’s downloads coming through paid channels, compared to between 15.4% and 25% for Candy Crush. The game has more than double Candy Crush’s share of voice on several large ad networks including IronSource, Unity, and Mintegral.

Additionally, the consistent roll out of new features, such as the Hidden Temple mini game and Summer Pass, has helped to boost overall engagement.

Success in advertising

Royal Match has taken an interesting approach to advertising, relying heavily on celebrity endorsements - high profile names such as Tom Felton and Simon Cowell have starred in ads for the game, helping to bring the game to attention to new audiences. Notably, the game has also utilised Cameo - a celebrity video service - in its user acquisition, allowing it to gain celebrity endorsements and create high-impact ads at a low cost. For example, one such ad features actress Kate Flannery - best known for her role in The Office - who charges $190 per video on the service. This strategy has contributed to Royal Match’s success, helping it ascend the charts and become a dominant player in the puzzle genre in just a few short years.

We listed Dream Games as one of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2023.