GameRefinery Market Review: Marvel Snap dominates, BTS x Cookie Run Kingdom, and Garena Free Fire launches in-game fashion brands

GameRefinery by Liftoff’s latest analysis of the US, China, and Japan’s key mobile game markets, has just been released.

Here’s what they found:

• The hottest new entry of the month? Marvel Snap, of course. In the iOS download charts, it’s currently 1st in the US, 2nd in Canada, 3rd in the UK, and 8th in Japan (at the time of writing). A huge marketing push has generated a significant number of downloads but revenue per download figures are low in comparison. Given its player-friendly monetisation model, the big question for Marvel now is how long can they sustain this model once player numbers start dropping?

• High fashion brands have found a lot of success through collaborations with Roblox and other Metaverse platforms, but Garena Free Fire’s latest update capitalises on the demand for virtual merchandise by launching its own in-game fashion brands, viewable through a new collectables album feature called Trend+. Players can view the brand’s story and vote on their favourite looks, with the brand getting the most votes being introduced into the game as wearable clothing in the future.

• Halloween events took the mobile gaming scene by storm this October, as expected. Diablo Immortal’s Halloween event, Hallow’s Wake, was the biggest and also marked the first seasonal event for the game. The October update also made it easier to earn 5-star legendary gems with the addition of a new item, Telluric Pearls.

• Cookie Run Kingdom’s collaboration with Korean boy band, BTS, has been a huge success. Lasting 100 days in total, the game has introduced new gameplay modes and the K-Pop boys themselves as playable characters. Players could also win BTS tour tickets via a raffle system and heavily promoted the features via YouTube

• The Harry Potter franchise continues to go from stre