📈 #1 Worldwide Downloads: Offline Games make for online gainz!

Offline Games provides over 20+ popular games for free that don't require online access

Hey Gamemakers,

This week, we look at the #1 worldwide downloaded game: Offline Games by independent Italian developer JindoBlu. It’s been the #1 downloaded game since the 2nd week of July when downloads suddenly spiked.

In this newsletter:

1. Top Revenue: Honor of Kings reclaims the #1 worldwide revenue rank from Dungeon & Fighter: Origin!

2. Top Downloads: Offline Games—No Wi-Fi Games has been #1 worldwide since the second week of July.

3. Top Steam Revenue: Counter-Strike 2 holds on to #1, but The First Descendant takes #2 and may contend for the top spot over time.

4. Highlight—Offline Games: We look closer at this #1 worldwide downloaded game.

Top 10 Mobile Charts (Worldwide, US, and China)

Source: AppMagic Estimates

• Honor of Kings reclaims the #1 worldwide revenue rank from Dungeon & Fighter: Origin!

• At #3 worldwide, Last War: Survival is now beating Royal Match and Monopoly Go.

• At #6 worldwide, Monopoly Go has been making a bit of a comeback this past week.

• At #7 US, congrats to Call of Duty Mobile for breaking the US top 10.

• At #6 China, 三国：谋定天下 (aka Three Kingdoms: Strategies for Domination) is a 4X strategy game.

Source: AppMagic Estimates

• At #1 worldwide, Offline Games - No Wifi Games has been #1 worldwide since the 2nd week of July.

• At #6 US, Supermarket Master 3D seems to be a “fast follow” of the #9 worldwide game Manage Supermarket Simulator.

• At #3 China, 时光杂货店-狂飙联动开启 (aka Time General Store - Crazy Rush Collaboration Begins) is a time management simulation game with a time travel theme allowing players to interact with characters and elements from different historical eras and even futuristic settings.

• At #8 China, 驯龙高手：旅程 (aka How to Train Your Dragon: Journey) is a Chinese RPG team battle mobile game based on the Dreamworks' animated movie.

Top 10 Steam Charts

Source: Steam Charts

• At #2, The First Descendant rises despite mixed feedback.

• At #6, Black Myth: Wukong still has no official launch or early access date. However, we still expect a 2024 release.

🔦 Offline Games - If you build it, will they come?

On the surface, the download success of JindoBlu’s very high-quality and polished collection of offline games makes sense.

Offline Games is just what it sounds like: a collection of 20+ popular offline games. This is perfect if you’re traveling without wifi or want to play simple, casual games.

There's a very strong collection of casual games with popular games like Solitaire, minesweeper, and the fast follow of Suika (the previously #1 downloaded Switch game).

Curiously, the game didn’t take off from its launch in August 2023. For 11 months, it generated a healthy amount of downloads but was generally under 200K daily until last month.

Source: AppMagic estimates

On July 7, 2024, the game hit an all-time high for downloads in a day at ~1.7M.

I’m fairly confident the big download spike resulted from a coordinated user acquisition campaign. However, oddly, the game makes so little revenue that it’s difficult to understand how the UA spend makes any sense to push the game.

According to AppMagic estimates, the game has generated almost 33M downloads but only $72K in revenue over its lifetime.

This app shows that even if you build it, players may not necessarily come to install it, at least not on a massive scale, without some help.

While I don’t understand the economics behind its big UA push for increased download scale, I commend the developers on a well-crafted and highly polished game that serves a clear purpose and has strong value for a large number of players.

🌇 Gamescom Event Alert! Product x LiveOps Symposium August 20 at 4PM - 5:30PM

Hey GameMakers,

If you’re going to Gamescom, make sure to sign up for the Product x LiveOps Symposium:

Event Details:

• Date: 8/20 (Tuesday)

• Time: 4PM - 5:30PM

• Location: KolnSky, Cologne

Keynote Session: The Story Behind and Lessons Learned from Splitgate

• Ian Proulx, CEO 1047 Games

Panel: Who’s Winning in Gaming?

• Anton Backman, Partner at Play Ventures

• Shanti Bergel, Managing Partner at Transcend Fund

• Josh Chapman, Managing Partner at Konvoy

• Jens Hilgers, Founding Partner at Bitkraft