Smartfone & Tablet Games - By the Numbers -- Simon Podd, Director of Sales, EMEA, Flurry (The White Nights: Mobile Games Conference http://www.wnconf.com/)
1. White Nights Conference, June 2013
Smartphone & Tablet Apps: Mobile Game Metrics
Simon Podd, Sr. Director of Sales EMEA
2.
3.
4. Flurry Optimizes Apps & Ads in the New App Economy
AUDIENCE
PUBLISHER
ADVERTISER
MARKETPLACE
(RTB EXCHANGE)
NETWORK
MEDIATION
DEMAND SIDE
PLATFORMS
AD NETWORKS
FLURRY APPCIRCLE
(AD NETWORK)
DATA & OPTIMIZATION
(POWERED BY FLURRY ANALYTICS)
DIRECT SOLD ADS
FLURRY APPSPOT
(SUPPLY SIDE PLATFORM)
FLURRY
ANALYTICS
@flurrymobile
6. Active smartphone & tablet devices
1 Billion Smart Devices in 2013
Aug 2009 Aug 2010 Aug 2011 Aug 2012 Aug 2013E
23 M
76 M
331 M
660 M
1.1 B
Source: Flurry Analytics
Looking Forward:
• Dropping prices (Android)
• Tablet expansion
• Connected TVs
• US already saturated?
@flurrymobile
7. -
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Dec 2010 Dec 2011 Dec 2012
Sources: comScore, Alexa, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Flurry Analytics
70
162
66 72
168
94
70
168
127
Mobile ApplicationsWeb Browsing Television
Mobile apps have overtaken the web, threatening TV
U.S. Web vs. Mobile App vs. TV Consumption, Minutes per Day
19. 71
76
195
345
- 200 400
Sessions
per Month
Minutes
per Session
Genre
Group
Total Minutes per Month
Infatuated
Committe
d
Going Steady
Playing
X =
63
37
15
11
5.5
5.3
5.1
6.5
@flurrymobile Source: Flurry Analytics
Top Free iOS Games – Genre Groups’ Usage
20. 119
138
- 50 100 150
Tablet
Phone
20
26
7.0
4.7
@flurrymobile Source: Flurry Analytics
Top Free iOS Games – Usage by Device
Sessions
per Month
Minutes
per Session
Device Total Minutes per MonthX =
22. 1. Understand the relationship users have with your genre
2. Build for genres that you can effectively service
3. Consider device prioritization on a genre-by-genre basis
4. Utilize audience and device targeting in user acquisition
5. Design retention tactics around predictable usage patterns
6. Regardless of genre you can monetize aggressively
@flurrymobile
Takeaways
I work for Flurry, the leading mobile applications analytics and advertising business.Over the next 20 minutes or so I would like to draw upon the vast wealth of data available to Flurry and provide you with some insights and observations by looking closely at how age, gender and retention vary across different game types and devices.Look at:market data to set contextdata on Devices and Demographics. Benchmark free2play metrics for top games by genre and discuss aligning tactics w/ those. By leveraging this information and understanding user behaviour and patterns you can plot your business strategy with more confidence.
data-driven insight, measurement, advertising monetisation and traffic acquisition platform for the new app economy.We track over 275,000 apps for 95,000 companies incl angry birds, fruit ninja, words with friends, shazam, skype, the FT, pinterest, tumbler, song pop, draw something and the list goes on and on
We track a lot of data, more than anyone on mobile apart from facebook.It is this volume of data that allows me to talk to you about different player behaviours and patterns.
Unique position in mobile due to the volume of demographic and usage data we trackWe are using this data to drive the smartest mobile ad network (AppCirlce), mediation and ad serving platform (Appspot) and a real-time bidded exchange
Mobile is big right? Have you heard this recently? Think we know this by now…
You all spend more time in apps than accessing the web on desktop.Over 2 hours a day. Still watch a hell of a lot of television but then this habit I ingrained over 60 years. Apps have only been around for 5 years.Smart devices are the fast growing technology ever! In terms of worldwide adoption. 10x faster than PC adoption, 2x quicker than internet adoption, faster than light bulbs, washing machines, microwaves, televisions – anything.Apps as a channel for advertisers to reach consumers is rivalling TV in terms of scale and reach – but obviously there is a lot of work to be done to gain the brands trust and advertising spend. But that day will happen – we can be sure.like the web and unlike TV, we have real data to understand consumers
We looked at comparing demographics and behaviour by smart phones and tablets
With all these productivity apps…fear not…games still rule!Phones productive 30% of time. Only 15% on tablets. These are GAMING devices! Stop prentending to be serious at the back. Looking all professional on your iPad – we know you are only playing Clash of Clans.22 of top 25 grossing apps are games.
And, if tablet-first approach, demographics differ.older due to purchasing power
The pie charts above compare the gender split between smartphone and tablet users, with women shown in dark pink and men shown in blue. While smartphone usage trends slightly more male, tablet usage is nearly even. Traditionally, males adopt technology devices more than women. With an even gender split for tablets, this bucks the trend, indicating that tablets likely have more long-term mass-market appeal.
Only going to be talking about F2P games given the explosion in these apps.Before dive into some specific research, just want to take a look back and recollect which apps were top of mind and top grossing over the last couple of years.
In 2011…Angry Birds, Tap Zoo and Zombie Farm.These are vey casual games. People are still playing Call of Duty on their console, but on mobile it was all about casual games
2012 traditional gamers paused their consoles and picked up their tablets. Rage of Bahumet, CSR, Minecraft, Clash of Clans saw some astonishing revenues.
But today, we see a very diverse range of games. Any genre can be effective and proftablewell built games with great engagement and retention can also be Top Grossing if they also apply aggressive monetization. Candy Crush saga, beautifully polished, well produced. Get to point where you can no longer play without paying. No pay – no play.Same for Clash of Clans – draw you in with plenty of free crystals, by the time the free currency runs out, you are hooked. If you want to continue playing at the same pace then you need to pay.It’s OK, you can stop being so nice to freeloaders! You built valuable entertainment – once they’ve committed to it, you can charge for itBy understanding known user behaviours and the emotional attachment players have with their favourite games you can plan your monetisation tactics.
In a recent study. Flurry looked at how age, gender and retention varied by game type and device.Understand this, and a game developer can design a more engaging game that appeals to the right audience.Flurry looked at the top 200 most succesful free iOS games according to Flurry analytics with a combined MAU of 465m. For comparison purposes we then grouped these games into different genres.
Here we have a grid of iOS genre-by-genre showing Gender and AgeI – as suspected, older females playing slots. Familiarity of social-turn based gamesII – Guys grow up and only play poker – generally the industry is not capturing this attractive demographic, except for poker.III – Dudes are in their man cave ripping through all the games you’d expect them to.IV – The youngest females aren’t concentrating on games, except everyone seems to play runners. Mid-age females getting a lot of satisfaction of building and matchingThe higher level point here is – KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE – don’t waste advertising dollars with overly broad campaigns. And, if you can crack the nut on drawing the 35+ male audience, riches await!
X-Axis – 30-day rolling retention (Flurry defines as 30-days or after first play) Y-Axis – sessions per weekWe find that mobile gamers tend to prefer playing a few kinds of games and demonstrate highly predictable play patterns. In other words, they form relationships with their games. Savvy publishers understand these dynamics and use them to inform acquisition strategy, gameplay design, and both in-app purchase and ad-based monetization tactics.To make sense of this, we’re grouping the genres by the “RELATIONSHIP” users have with them“In mobile games, Women are loyal, Men are Promiscuous”Committed – long-haul, immersive relationship with game – see each other multiple times a day- Appointment mechanics critical to get those metricsFind right balance of IAP and ads – high impression count – high quality interstitialsRTB b/c of valuable audience Re-engagement adsInfatuated – madly in love, can’t get enough of each other, but might flame out fast if it doesn’t stay freshCan’t wait to develop new content well after launch. Content releases need to be complete, submitted, and ready near initial push of the gameTake advantage of intense play with offers and new content early and often (and at times of key emotional investment)Focus on IAP, Increase frequency of use via competitive play (PvP)- Slots showdownPlaying the field – dating around – likes to get what it can out of a game, and then move onLook to max revenue early in lifecycle of game (finite window)Focus on IAP + Rewarded VideoDifficult to find right kind of user. Targeting pays off in user acquisitionPicky audiences, but those that stay…pay (card-battle)Going Steady – not living together or overly obsessed. Just seeing each other once a day Can generate high impression count over timeMediation and Direct Sold Ads – max fill on banners and interstitialsX-Promo to higher ARPDAU
Breaking down usage by Time Spent per MonthSessions X Time per SessionAs expected – Infatuated and Committed lead heavilyAll about # of Sessions!Turns out Minutes per Session doesn’t vary significantly“The key to engagement on mobile is prompting high session frequency”
First, at a high level let’s look at Tablet vs. Phone for usage characteristics across all games.Then we’ll dive into genresFewer sessions on tablets, but they are quite significantly longer.Players get more immersed, and more committed to an experience, willing to spend…More opportunities to present ads or get users to watch videos for ads
Now Looking at Genres where Tablet vs. Phone shows some interesting variance (if not shown, they are roughly equal, or tablet with slight lead)Use this knowledge to target User Acquisition by DeviceStrategy genre – a bit surprising to not see Tablet significantly ahead given that “Tablet First” for immersive strategy games has been a hot topic lately.BUT – this doesn’t mean that the time spent in tablets isn’t higher quality and more apt to lead to monetizationBut – also b/c of appoitment mechanics across phone and tabletSlots and Solitaire – Older women settling in for long sessionsWhere Phone is better than Tablet quick experience while on the train.Motion controls Card-battle perfect for the phone portrait view