Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Through the cold winter is spring.

Whenever you open TapTap to enter a new game, you can't help but have difficulty in choosing. Sliding the whole hot list from top to bottom, it seems that those who have the desire to click are still those "old acquaintances".

This makes the author nostalgic for the 2016 King and Onmyoji, the New year of the original God, the Awakening of all Kingdoms, and a hundred flowers blooming in 2020. At that time, the mobile game market always brought surprises and rich choices to players.

Entering November, 2022 is drawing to a close. This year, there are only a handful of impressive new mobile game products. If we take the best-selling list Top10 as the reference standard, NetEase's "Diablo: immortal" and the Haibi network "shell casings special team" are the pinnacle of combat effectiveness in the new tour.

On the one hand, the release of the game version number resumed in April, but the big factories and star companies did not gain much; on the other hand, the game version number was cut off in May and October, and the release of the game version number has yet to be normalized. Due to the influence of multiple factors, the overall performance of the domestic novice game market in 2022 is slightly weak. Or because of this, many companies gradually increase the layout of products out to sea, long-term operation side.

Recently, NetEase, Eagle Horn Network, Miha Tour, Haibi Network and other blockbuster products ushered in important nodes, with the blessing of official operating activities, making the game iOS channel ranking soaring.

Strong Hengqiang, new games weak the author statistics nearly a month (1003-1102) game best-seller list found that a total of 22 mobile games on the Top10 list.

Among them, Tencent "Arena of Valor", "Game for Peace", Miha you "original God", NetEase "Fantasy Journey to the West" and "three Kingdoms Strategic Edition" 5 mobile games achieved 31 days on the list.

As shown in the picture, there is a significant gap in the number of products on the list among manufacturers. Tencent has a big lead, with a total of 9 mobile games entering Top10 and 5 by NetEase. In addition, Miha Tour, Eagle Corner Network, Interconnection Entertainment, Gigabit, Tuyou, Haibi Network and so on are all one.

Among them, Eagle Horn Network "tomorrow's Ark", Haibi Network "bullet casings Task Force", Heroes Entertainment "unparalleled 2", NetEase "Light encounter" and "lead the Coast of Earth" are all products that have entered the Top10 list for the first time in nearly a month.

It is worth mentioning that among the above products, only "extremely unparalleled 2" is a new mobile game that has been launched recently. This more or less benefits from the freshness of the initial launch of new products, centralized buying strategy and so on.

"unparalleled 2" was officially launched on October 20, with a peak of buying volume from October 18 to October 22, with a maximum of 2058 groups of materials released in a single day, according to hot cloud data. The main traffic platform is massive engine (78.15%), and the main media are Jinri Toutiao (40.14%) and Douyin (33.17%).

Compared with the best-selling list of App Store games, "unparalleled 2" successfully entered the Top7 on October 23 and entered the Top10 for three consecutive days, but the subsequent ranking gradually slipped. As of November 2, the best-selling list of the book is Top19.

In contrast, Miha you "original God", Eagle Horn network "Ark of tomorrow", NetEase "Light encounter", "lead the shores of the land" and other rankings are more likely to benefit from the "refreshing and efficiency" of the long-term operation of the products. According to the ranking of the best-selling App Store games alone, the above products rose the least compared to the previous week in 8 places and up to 90 places.

In a word, good products will not be lost with the passage of time. Under the premise of maintaining the high quality of the products, everything can be handed over to the follow-up operation.

Enrich content and enhance vitality at present, the common game operations on the market can be divided into two types: version updates of supplementary content and node theme activity marketing.

As a rising supernova in the gaming industry in recent years, Miha Youyou has been valued as high as 300 billion, and its "original God" is a benchmark. Especially in the "original God" online 2 years later, not only in the commercial level to maintain a high standard of the industry, but also in the content side is exuberant vitality.

November 2, "the original God" version 3.2 "Vanity agitation, robbery fire high" update online, the game iOS best-seller ranking climbed from last week's Top9 to Top1. To put it simply, the "five new" contents of new characters [Nasida, Leila], new systems [copies], new equipment [dreams] and new plots and new enemies have somewhat increased the activity of the game.

Those who follow the original God should know that every time it rises in the rankings of each region, it is basically accompanied by a version update. This is also the content sustainable play that Mihayou is good at.

As shown in the following picture, the original God has reached the top of the best-seller list about 12 times in the past year. In addition to its own excellent quality, periodic content version updates are the key to maintaining its exuberant vitality.

For example, in the 3.0 version of August 24, the original God completed a seven-element jigsaw puzzle of wind, water, ice, thunder, rock, fire and grass, opening the fourth country, the kingdom of grass, while the game storyline returned to the main continent. From 1.0 to 3.2, the original God constantly broke through its own upper limit in the aspects of plot, element play and open world exploration, which made its huge world outlook gradually revealed.

And because of this, the "original God", which has been online for two years, has broken the established law of the gradual loss of traditional games at the user level, and has achieved a doubling of growth against the trend.

Of course, this kind of long-term operation through gradually releasing and enriching content is not exclusive to the new forces. Among the traditional game manufacturers, many have persisted in operating for many years, such as NetEase.

As the head SLG product that created "lead soil like", NetEase's "pioneering thinking" in content play has been adhered to for many years. For example, on the occasion of this seventh anniversary celebration, the work brought a "boundless" version and launched a new "Jin" camp. In terms of character construction, it includes the Sima family who established the Jin Dynasty, as well as the late figures of Wenyang, du Yu and the Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest.

The birth of this new force not only breaks away from the traditional limitation of "three Kingdoms = Wei, Shu and Wu", but also makes the game begin in the three Kingdoms but not only in the three Kingdoms. At the level of play, "strategic mode map", "morale system" and so on, can also enable players to get a higher-dimensional game experience of "unbounded vision" and "unbounded strategy".

Or, thanks to the launch of the new version, "lead the Bund", which has hovered in the best-selling Top20 for the past two months, climbed to the position of Top2 on October 26 and successfully ascended to the top position of mobile games in the SLG category.

Jump out of the single item and look at the category. In fact, we found that, in addition to MOBA, FPS and other popular competitive mobile games, whether it is MMORPG, SLG or tower defense and other games, in the process of long-term operation, rich play and supplementary content is a path that everyone is practicing.

For example, in the "shell casings special attack team" of the Haibi network, the mowing method of the product itself is very simple compared with MMO, SLG and so on. While the core play keeps players "above", the game continues to provide players with new entertainment content through new levels, new weapons, new challenge modes, etc., which is also the key to maintaining considerable user activity and stickiness in this kind of medium-sized games.

Of course, in addition to practicing the "internal skills" of products, matching activities are often the only aid to "refreshing and increasing efficiency".

Grasp the node, marketing help in the author's view, the update of the version of the supplementary content is more to serve the core group of veteran players. Activities with welfare and marketing nature tend to have a more direct effect on ordinary users and new users.

Take NetEase's encounter of Light as an example. If you take it as a monthly unit, the ranking difference of "Light encounter" in the past month will be as high as 177 places. In fact, from the characteristics of the product, we can know that although "Light encounter" is a RPG mobile game, the core is social adventure. The game itself does not have too many complex ways to play, and it can even be said to be a "small and beautiful" product that focuses on exploration and experience.

But it is such a product that has been online in China for two years, and the ranking of the game has risen sharply since the start of the prank day carnival on October 29. According to Qimai data, the best-selling list on October 14 is Top180,10 on Top3 on March 29 and occupies a seat for three consecutive days.

From the perspective of the contents of the activities, "magic pots and small encounters, crab holes and other props returned to the field for time-limited exchange", "probability of obtaining magic effects such as fur cat magic", and "exploring hidden egg cat nests" are all forms of welfare activities.

To some extent, this belongs to the "maintenance" stage of the game operation, that is, "allowing players to meet some of their expectations in the game at a very low cost."

At this stage, in addition to the need to attract "new players" from the outside, but also need to do the player's "preliminary retention". The more obvious behavior indicators include "daily login game can get xx", "store exchange xx, double access to xx" and so on. This will make players have curiosity and desire to explore the game subjectively, thus making it possible for players to stay there continuously.

In the latter stage, that is, let the players have "feelings" and "identity", we call it the "set" stage. Common ways include theme activities, ecological construction and so on. For example, the theme of the "Light encounter" prank day carnival is "Halloween", which connects the player's game experience with real life, thus enhancing the stickiness between the product and the user.

In addition to such node activities, game manufacturers will also launch an annual series of activities according to the characteristics of their products and user preferences. For example, the Eagle Horn network "tomorrow's Ark" [Thank you Celebration] time-limited event, which has been held for three consecutive years since it was first held in 2019, is also known as the "cost-effective krypton formula" by players.

Thanks to the launch of the 2022 "Thank you Celebration" time-limited event, "Ark of tomorrow" ranked Top2 on iOS's best-selling list on November 1. Considering that this series of activities will last for nearly a month, the production is expected to see growth in November.

Frankly speaking, from a utilitarian point of view, many game operators in the early years were ultimately inseparable from the three steps of "raising, trapping, and killing". However, with the improvement of the game environment and the upgrading of the player group in recent years, game manufacturers have gradually weakened the means of "killing" and changed to enhance the building of "IP ecology". For example, the original animation "Ark of tomorrow: prelude to Dawn", which was launched online not long ago, has gained a good response in both the core player group and the general audience group.

In the head company, Tencent embarked on the road of "content +" a long time ago. At present, the "Arena of Valor" cooperative brand covers e-sports, film and television, cultural creation, digital, video, tide play, variety and other fields. These derived ecological industries not only attract new participants, expand the circle and leave a deep impression on Arena of Valor, but also enable the product itself to operate healthily and continuously.

At present, many game manufacturers are in the awkward position of "a clever wife cannot make bricks without rice", and the supply of new games in the mobile game market is insufficient. And Miha you, Eagle Corner Network, NetEase, Tencent and other long-term operation of the game, may be able to temporarily get rid of conservative difficult one of the strategies.

We look forward to the impact of new products on the inherent pattern, but also look forward to the classic products sprouting every spring.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:Coreesports, author: Gui Zhiwei

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