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

In-depth analysis: Scopely strategically uses the cooperation with Stumble Guys to lead competitors in the party Battle Royale Games market.

This article was written by guest guest Liquid and Grit, Liquid and Grit, a leading product insight company in the game field. The content of this article only represents the views of the company.

Since the acquisition of Stumble Guys was announced in September 2022, Scopely has established a firm foothold in the mobile party chicken market by partnering with big-name stars and brands. Scopely used its latest partnership with YouTube superstar MrBeast to deter cross-platform competitors trying to enter the western mobile market and paved the way for Stumble Guys to launch a console version of the game. Scopely first launched a Xbox version of Stumble Guys, and just two days later announced a partnership with MrBeast and made it clear that MrBeast's creative content would be broadcast on Xbox.

Stumble Guys's frequent partnerships reflect the company's broader strategic move to pre-empt areas that competitors are not involved in. In 2020, Stumble Guys quickly followed in the footsteps of the popular Fall Guys, releasing mobile and PC versions, rather than game consoles and PC versions. Now, NetEase's Eggy Party (egg party) (which is only available in China, but the Beta version has been released in several other regions) is about to be released worldwide, and Fall Guys is bound to release a mobile version (although the release of the Fall Guys mobile version depends on the litigation between Epic and Apple), Stumble Guys faces fierce competition. However, neither of these two competitive products has reached a deep cooperation with Big IP, which is far from being able to compete with the scale of cooperation with Stumble Guys.

Scopely's strategy of using partnerships to eliminate competitors is ideal for niche classified games that compete less, especially for players who spend only enough time in a major game. Although Scopely has invested a lot of money in partnerships in the short term, it will eventually pay off if it can attract enough audiences to crowd out competitors' markets. This strategy works especially well for large studios that have acquired new types of independent games, which is how Stumble Guys wins.

Stumble Guys's cooperation strategy extends far beyond skin and advertising.

Stumble Guys has reached five important partnerships over the past eight months, which in turn has led to continued revenue growth. Starting in December 2022, after a period of declining income, DAU and downloads, these partnerships clearly reversed the situation.

Stumble Guys US iOS Revenue

Check the performance trends of competitors and industry giants such as Stumble Guys, and track the impact of cooperation.

Scopely has created a Stumble Guys online operation calendar and launched a number of new game models around IP collaboration. In December 2022, Scopely first partnered with Hot Wheel to add a new racing model.

In April 2023, the game partnered with Nerf to add a new first-person shooter mode. In July 2023, a new distribution model was launched in partnership with Barbie, which allows players to bring equipment to beach parties in Barbies and Kens games.

Stumble Guys seized on the Barbie craze released on July 20, 2023 and launched a new distribution model at the Barbie Dream Dash level.

In contrast, after a partnership with NFL was reached in February 2023, existing Canon Climb maps were almost redesigned at the Super Bowl LVII theme level.

The latest partnership with MrBeast is seen as the most fruitful to date. The partnership was announced on July 13, 2023 and launched a few weeks later. The cooperation content involves a number of in-game levels, roles, interactive functions, expressions, animation, etc., but as of this writing, only one level and some other content have been released. Scopely said MrBeast was involved in the creation of the level, but how much of its actual contribution is not known. In any case, the promotion was very successful.

Stumble Guys has even updated the app icon to highlight Mr Beast's participation in the game.

Check the timeline mode and track the latest app store optimization updates for major games such as Stumble Guys.

The game also specially designed the exclusive game currency Beast Bucks for this cooperation. Beast Bucks can be purchased directly from the in-app store or at a discounted price at the Scopely store. Players can also receive Beast Bucks through events, competitions, quests, reward turntables, special sales, and combat command system rewards.

Stumble Guys one week (July 30-August 5, 2023) comparison of in-app purchase items for iPhone users in the United States

IAP of MrBeast collaborative games accounted for nearly 4 per cent of total Stumble Guys IAP project purchases and nearly 8 per cent of total revenue, according to US iOS user data for the week from July 30 to August 5. For more IAP trends, please download our 2023 Application Revenue status report.

Scopely has also introduced a completely new fragmentation system using its cooperation with MrBeast. To unlock MrBeast skin, players need to collect enough skin fragments. Fragments can be obtained through the Battle Command system and the rotating Beast wheel, which requires Beast Buck coins to rotate. Scopely plans to extend the system to other skins and use fragments as rewards for tasks, competitions and activities.

So far, Stumble Guys has increased revenue through cooperation, but DAU has not.

Stumble Guys's early success benefited from quickly seizing the gap between the host and PC versions of Fall Guys and launching a mobile version. A month after Fall Guys launched the PS4 and PC versions, Kitka Games quickly launched the Android version of Stumble Guys in September 2020. Shortly thereafter, Stumble Guys also released iOS and PC versions. In April 2022, Stumble Guys changed into F2P mode, which opened a period of rapid growth. In September 2022, at the peak of this growth momentum, Scopely announced the acquisition of Stumble Guys.

Weekly active users of Stumble Guys iOS devices in the United States

Check for changes in the number of active users who use data to track major games such as Stumble Guys.

At the beginning of this growth period, with the slow growth of Stumble Guys downloads and revenue, Scopely launched a series of big-name cooperative funds to raise awareness and lay the foundation for the online operation schedule. The first two collaborations were with Hot Wheels on December 15, 2022, and with NFL on February 1, 2023. The partnership with Hot Wheels has launched new levels and racing models, while the partnership with NFL has created new skins, emoticons and new levels for existing maps.

It is difficult for us to make a comprehensive judgment on the impact of these two cooperation, because the time of cooperation is just after the big peak, DAU and income are in the stage of slowdown. However, after the launch of the Hot Wheels partnership, there was a brief surge in revenue. It is also worth noting that after the introduction of these cooperative funds, the sharp decline in DAU and revenue also stabilized.

Stumble Guys's last three partnerships have all brought revenue growth, while DAU and new downloads have not been affected. The partnership with Nerf was launched on April 25, 2023, bringing a new FPS Battle Royale Games model, with revenue growing by 60% month-on-month. In June 2023, Scopely followed this model with two original maps and a new FPS Nerf map.

On July 13, 2023, Scopely released a map of the Barbie theme, added a distribution game model, and announced a partnership with MrBeast. Two weeks later, the first content of MrBeast was online. It's too early to judge the overall performance of these collaborative games, but so far, they have been able to drive revenue growth.

But if DAU still doesn't improve after Stumble Guys enters the Xbox platform, you may need to adopt a whole new strategy. If DAU and downloads are the same, and revenue can grow, it means the company is spending a lot of money on collaborative games just to better cash in from existing players. If Stumble Guys cannot squeeze Fall Guys and Eggy Party (egg parties) out of the western market, they may need to focus on improving user access efficiency. On the other hand, if the strategy of collaboration and entry into the console market succeeds, Scopely is bound to use the same strategy on Monopoly GO!, another niche market game with few competitors.

MrBeast is Stumble Guys's golden partner.

MrBeast has become popular on YouTube with a variety of top challenges and competition videos, which matches the tone of Stumble Guys's sand sculpture but competitive games. The anchor even posted a challenge video on TikTok to promote the cooperative game.

MrBeast posted a video of its co-officer announcement with Stumble Guys on TikTok.

The video garnered 10.2 million views in a week, but it would have been even higher if it had been posted on YouTube, as he had 174 million followers on YouTube and only 86 million on TikTok. To promote the partnership, MrBeast also filmed several video commercials and a static commercial.

There are also many videos of players unlocking the skin on YouTube and TikTok, many of which have been viewed more than 1 million times.

Another reason MrBeast can become Stumble Guys's golden partner is that he is very famous in the game circle, which makes this partnership more reliable. He began his career with Let's Play videos, hosted game events, invested in holding company Backbone, developed his own game Finger on the App, and still publishes game content on sister channel MrBeast Gaming with a fairly high update frequency. In 2021, he partnered with Brawl Stars to give away free in-game coins. The campaign was promoted through his Squid Games video, which was viewed more than 475 million times. Accordingly, Brawl Stars iOS user downloads in the United States increased by 327% on a month-on-week basis. At the end of last year, he partnered with Fortnite to launch a customized MrBeast-themed tournament, with a prize of $1 million for the winning players.

It is also worth noting that Stumble Guys competitor Fall Guys launched MrBeast skin in 2020, and in the same year, MrBeast produced two Fall Guies YouTube videos. The two videos were played 4900 million and 46 million, respectively. In fact, MrBeast's cooperation with Fall Guys, a competitor of Stumble Guys, has convinced Stumble Guys that the results of the cooperation can be achieved. More crucially, it also avoids the possibility of MrBeast working with Fall Guys again in the near future.

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