GameRefinery by Vungle Q1 Snapshot Report

GameRefinery by Vungle released their latest quarterly snapshot report for Q1 2021

The report takes a closer look at the iOS market in the US, China, and Japan as a whole, including genre and publisher market share, player motivations, and shifts in market trends. Some highlights of the report include:

• Roblox Corporation is the only top-five publisher in the US iOS chart to see growth in Q4 2020 (+ 0.67%). Roblox continues to dominate the US iOS charts with a 5.52% market share, taking the number 1 spot past Playrix (- 0.49%) and King (- 0.32%), both down versus Q4 2020.

• The staple RPG genre has seen market share decline significantly in both China (- 2.68%) and Japan (- 2.56%), while Shooter games have risen in China (+ 4.2%) and Sports in Japan (+ 2.7%).

• Cygames has rocketed to the top of the Japanese charts with Uma Musume Pretty Derby, which has placed it in the top five publishers with a 5.65% share of the Japanese market.

• The Collectible Albums gameplay mechanic (a way for the player to see their collection of characters/items/stories/voice lines etc., in a specific place) has been utilised by 70% of the US top 100 grossing games, a 14% rise compared to last year.

• Battle Pass adoption shows no sign of slowing down with traction growing in Japan. Currently, over 25% of Top Grossing 100 games in Japan have Battle Passes, but the trend seems to be going up steadily with an 11% increase to the utilisation during the past year.

• Special gacha mechanics in the top growing Chinese games have doubled year on year with over 30% utilisation.

• Some of the hottest games in soft launch to keep an eye on include Clash Quest, Tom and Jerry: Chase, and Pokémon Unite.

The full report is available here!