According to the latest report released by Sensor Tower, as the dividend of the impact of the new crown epidemic on the mobile market fades, the total downloads of mobile games in the United States are expected to continue to decline to 4.69 billion in 2022, and the spending of mobile game users in the United States will also usher in the post-epidemic era. It decreased for the first time, to $22.3 billion. Despite this, puzzle solving, chess and strategy games still show a strong ability to attract money, and Chinese overseas manufacturers are also sparing no effort to penetrate the market and achieve good results.
U.S. mobile game user spending falls for first time in post-pandemic era
Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, the revenue of the US mobile game market has increased year by year, and will reach a peak of 24.3 billion US dollars in 2021, a surge of 50.6% compared with 2019 before the epidemic. However, data shows that US mobile game user spending will shrink to $22.3 billion in 2022. This is also the first time that the market’s annual revenue has declined in the post-epidemic era.
Apple users are still the main source of revenue for the US mobile game market, contributing 60.3% of revenue in 2022.
In terms of downloads, as the impact of the new crown epidemic on the mobile market fades, the total number of downloads of mobile games in the United States is expected to continue to decline to 4.69 billion in 2022, a year-on-year decrease of 4%.
In terms of download channels, the share of downloads by iOS and Google users is 49.9% and 50.1% respectively. The download volume of both channels has decreased, but the iOS channel is more obvious, with a negative growth rate of 5.9%.
Puzzle, chess and strategy games are the most profitable in the US
Relying on the stable performance of match-3 and word games, the puzzle category will continue to be the most profitable mobile game category in the United States in 2022 with a score of US$4.2 billion. Board games and strategy games followed closely behind. It is worth mentioning that the income of synthetic mobile games that integrate home decoration gameplay has increased significantly. Representative products include “Merge Mansion” and “Merge County”.
Arcade, ultra-casual, and desktop game revenues grew year-on-year. The good performance of idle and music games led to the most obvious growth of the arcade category, reaching 19.3%.
In terms of downloads, ultra-casual mobile games have a market share of 33% in the US, far exceeding other game categories. According to Sensor Tower data, the number of downloads of ultra-casual mobile games in the United States will exceed 1.2 billion in 2022. Popcore Games, Rollic Games and Supersonic Studio became the most outstanding casual mobile game publishers in the US market. The downloads of puzzle games and arcade games ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively.
In terms of download growth, only action mobile games achieved a significant growth of 21.2%, which was mainly due to the rapid popularity of Haibi’s “Bullet Squad”.
‘Roblox’ tops downloads, ‘Candy Crush Saga’ regains top spot in US bestsellers
The classic match-3 mobile game “Candy Crush Saga” relies on frequent level updates to maintain stable user activity and revenue, and surpasses “Roblox” in 2022 to regain the top spot on the US best-selling list. Another match-3 game “Royal Match” saw a significant increase in revenue, and its ranking rose to No. 4.
Chess and card mobile games have always been a part of the US market that cannot be ignored, contributing as much as 19.6% of local revenue. Top products include “Coin Master”, “Bingo Blitz” and “DoubleDown Casino”.
In terms of strategy games, a total of 3 products including “Evony” and “Clash of Clans” broke into the Top 20 best-selling list, among which 4X strategy games performed most brilliantly.
Among the Top 20 mobile game download lists in the United States in 2022, a total of 7 are ultra-leisure categories, which shows the huge market potential of this category. In addition to well-known manufacturers such as Tap2Play and Supersonic Studios, Popcore Games, a German ultra-casual game publisher, has entered the first echelon of the track and successfully pushed two mobile games into the top 20 download lists.
“Roblox” continues to be loved by American users, becoming the most downloaded mobile game in the United States in 2022, which is inseparable from the popularity of the metaverse concept. Puzzle-solving games performed equally well in the United States, with 4 match-3 and word products entering the Top 20 list of downloads.
In terms of new games, Rollic Games’ “Fill the Fridge” and Haibi’s “Bullet Squad” successfully broke into the download list, ranking 10th and 12th respectively.
The medieval royal theme fusion match-3 mobile game “Royal Match” released by Dream Games has successfully entered the upper reaches of the US market after two years of fine polishing, becoming the game with the most significant revenue growth in the region in 2022. The second place in the revenue growth list was won by the 4X strategy mobile game “Evony”. The new games that will be shortlisted for the top 10 revenue growth list in the United States in 2022 are “Diablo: Immortal” and “Dislyte”.
In terms of download growth, as many as 4 ultra-casual mobile games were shortlisted in the top ten growth lists, once again confirming that ultra-casual games are the most attractive game category. The Word game “Wordle!” and the social arcade game “Stumble Guys” respectively took the top two spots in terms of download growth.
Overseas 4X strategy game attracts money like crazy in the US market
In the 2022 US mobile game best-selling list, a total of 11 products have revenues exceeding US$100 million. Among them, “Original God” has become the most profitable overseas mobile game in the United States with a score of over 200 million US dollars.
Chinese manufacturers have performed well in the 4X strategy mobile game track. Among the top 20 best-selling mobile games in the United States, there are as many as 12 games in this category.
Among the Top 100 best-selling mobile games in the United States, there are 24 Chinese mobile games overseas, with a total revenue of 2.56 billion US dollars, accounting for 20.5% of the overall revenue of Top 100 mobile games.
With its strong IP appeal, “Call of Duty Mobile Game” will become the most downloaded mobile game in the United States in 2022. Its share of downloads in the US market accounted for 21.1% of the game’s overseas downloads. The second place on the list was won by the Haibi Roguelike lawn mowing game “Bullet Squad”. Both games have reached 10 million downloads in the US.
Among the top 20 download lists in the United States, the two new IP games “Apex Legends Mobile” and “Diablo: Immortal” performed well, and finally locked in No. 3 and No. 8 respectively.
