App Promotion Strategy

How lightweight hyper casual games became the heavyweights of mobile gaming

app review services

Hyper informal video games had been the second-fastest-growing app style in H1 of 2021, rising 60% in comparison with the earlier 12 months.

 

Table of Content

However what’s it about hyper informal video games that allows such spectacular development? What’s the magic ingredient that helps these video games scale?

Let’s simply say that phrases like preserve it easy silly and much less is extra carry loads of weight right here.

On this weblog we’ll talk about these key traits and varied recreation mechanics, in addition to international developments, monetization strategies, and finest practices. Briefly, all the things you must learn about hyper informal video games.

Are you prepared? Set? Let’s go!

What are hyper informal video games

Hyper informal video games are easy in mechanics, design, and idea.

There are a selection of key components that make up their secret sauce to success – let’s check out the recipe.

Instantaneous

Hyper informal video games require little or no tutorial, which means they’re immediately playable. The consumer is straight away immersed into the sport and might comply with the move of the sport in seconds.

Minimalistic

The consumer interface of a hyper informal recreation is easy and minimalist. The mechanics are additionally minimalistic and there aren’t quite a lot of bells and whistles – no fancy controllers, parts or sophisticated menus to become familiar with.

Minimalist design means a consumer has to speculate little to no effort in any respect to get going. . Hyper informal video games will be performed whilst you’re on the prepare to work and even whereas watching TV, and are designed to assist the consumer change off.

Partaking

Hyper informal video games should not solely immediately playable, however infinitely replayable. The brief and easy recreation mechanics imply you wish to play them over and over.

Switchable

The flip aspect of the simplicity is that hyper informal video games do are inclined to have a shorter shelf life than different genres. Don’t despair, as a result of their simplicity additionally means customers can transfer on to the subsequent recreation with ease. If as a recreation developer you discover that engagement is dropping then you may cross promote and direct them in the direction of your new recreation.

Straightforward to develop

As a consequence of their easy design and mechanics, hyper informal video games are simple to develop and launch. In contrast to different genres the place a brand new recreation can take months to develop, hyper informal video games will be created and launched in a matter of days. The rationale for that is that hyper informal video games are based mostly on a mechanic and never a plot, making the conceptualization and prototyping phases a lot easier and shorter.

Monetization mannequin

As a consequence of their easy gameplay, hyper informal video games rely closely and even completely on in-app promoting  as a income stream. We’ll talk about extra on this later.

The historical past of hyper informal video games

The primary recognized hyper informal recreation was Flappy Chicken, developed by Dong Nguyen, and launched in 2013. The sport didn’t obtain a lot consideration at first and it wasn’t till the next 12 months that it exploded and began to expertise huge scale. At its peak, Flappy Chicken was making $50,000 a day from in-app advertisements.

This made different app builders sit up and see. With comparatively low boundaries to entry (because of the easy recreation design), it didn’t take lengthy for others to comply with go well with.

But, it wasn’t till 2017 that the time period “Hyper informal” was coined in an article by Johannes Heinze known as “The Ascendance of Hyper-casual”, the place he outlined the principle options of hyper informal video games as we all know them immediately.

The hyper informal style has seen huge development lately, simply commanding 10 of the highest 15 spots within the obtain charts.

Hyper informal recreation mechanics

There are a selection of several types of hyper informal video games, and naturally every one has its personal mechanics. Let’s check out how they work.

Puzzle

Of their easiest type the participant performs an motion or a sequence of actions to unravel the puzzle, for instance by aiming or swiping. In hyper informal video games, the puzzles are simple and the participant ought to be capable of resolve them in a minute or much less.

Agility

Agility video games, comparable to pac-man or Tiles Hop are all about hand-eye coordination. The participant might must dodge obstacles and gather cash or prizes. The issue will increase with every stage requiring the participant to have extra exact agility.

Timing

Timing video games require the participant to race themselves and attain the objective inside the allotted time. Much like agility video games, the participant wants to make use of precision to achieve the goal. They might additionally want to gather bonuses or keep away from obstacles alongside the best way. An instance of a timing recreation is Enjoyable Race 3D.

Swerve

Swerve mechanics have a participant on a monitor the place they’ve to maneuver or keep away from obstacles or oncoming hazards. The gameplay is quick paced preserving the consumer extremely engaged and entertained. Swerve video games embrace Aqua park or Flappy Birds.

Stacking

Stacking mechanics have objects that fall from the highest of the display and require the participant to fit them into the suitable place. The traditional instance is Tetris, however different stacking video games embrace Full Cat.

Monetization strategies

The overwhelming majority of hyper-casual video games are free to obtain and play, so how do builders make their cash?

In-app promoting

We talked about above that hyper-casual video games are easy in mechanics and have a brief participant life cycle, making it tougher for app house owners to monetize by way of IAP. That being stated, hyper-casual video games are in a position to scale rapidly, attaining excessive day by day obtain charges. In hyper-casual, scale is essential as a result of margins are skinny.

IAA is the best and arguably finest technique to capitalize on the rising variety of customers. A lot in order that in line with get social, 97-99% of income in hyper-casual video games comes from IAA.

In-app purchases

Though extremely unusual, There may be nonetheless cash to be made for IAP. There’s a small group of customers who wish to unlock extra ranges, purchase extra lives, or expertise enhanced options that the free model doesn’t supply.

One such instance is Homa Video games, which supply a VIP subscription to their free-to-download, hyper-casual recreation, Sky Curler the place gamers curler skate for enjoyable.

In-app measurement

In an effort to guarantee your app stays worthwhile there are a variety of key metrics to measure to control for achievement:

IPM stands for Installs per Mille, which merely put is the variety of instances your recreation was put in for each one thousand advert impressions.

IPM is without doubt one of the most, if not THE most vital metric for hyper informal app house owners because it helps to grasp in case your consumer acquisition (UA) technique is working and if there’s scope for scale.

Moreover, having a excessive IPM can assist enhance your advert rating which can assist deliver down your value per click on (CPC), permitting extra price range to your campaigns and therefore scaling your UA even additional.

ARPU or Common Income Per Consumer is one other key metric because it helps to grasp the value of a person gamer, or the common amongst a cohort of avid gamers. Having made this calculation you may then establish which sources or campaigns helped deliver the very best worth customers and make investments extra assets into these channels.

CPM which is the Price per Mille is a cost mannequin that many gaming publishers use. It refers to the price of each thousand impressions served and is usually pre-determined earlier than a marketing campaign. eCPM which is the efficient Price per Mille calculates how a lot income de fato a writer earns per thousand impressions.

Since in-app promoting is the first monetization technique for a lot of hyper informal app house owners we will see why CPM and eCPM are so very important.

The COVID-19 impact

In March of 2020 the world went into lockdown following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Folks had been requested to remain house and preserve social distance. Many discovered themselves with spare time on their fingers and turned to gaming to alleviate a number of the boredom and assist take their minds off the troublesome information.

The impression on gaming apps was large, with the whole variety of installs surging 90% in hyper informal video games in comparison with the earlier 12 months.

Gaming app entrepreneurs jumped on this chance and put a robust deal with UA campaigns, with non-organic installs leaping 250%.

Within the following graph we will see that whereas there was an preliminary spike in March of 2020, the true development passed off later within the 12 months and has continued into the primary half of 2021.

We will see that the pandemic acted as a catalyst, introducing scores of latest gamers to cell. Certainly, there’s additionally a ‘new regular’ ‘in Hyper Informal gaming.