Seasonal Collectible Albums have seemingly got everyone on mobile in a twist, or should we say a tangle? Last month, Rollic’s Twisted Tangle became the first hybrid casual title to ever implement the feature, showing this trending feature knows no bounds. But this isn’t the only reason to take note of Rollic. The studio’s wider portfolio of hybrid casual puzzle games—including Seat Away and Screw Jam—are all lighting up the US grossing charts too, fueled by a mixture of monetization and a busy LiveOps calendar.
But Rollic wasn’t the only studio to make a statement in July, as we saw the long-awaited release of Hoyoverse’s Zenless Zone Zero. While the title has no doubt driven some serious numbers with over 50 million downloads at launch, there’s a general sense that the title is lagging slightly behind in revenue when compared to the monumental success of Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail.
Elsewhere, we also saw one of the most unusual minigames in quite some time, as Goddess of Victory: NIKKE took the plunge with a transformation into Dave the Diver. Marvel Snap also became one of the few CCG titles to implement a guild system, while Stumble Guys encouraged its players to get serious with the launch of its first-ever ranked mode—as well as introducing the ability to wield disruptive special abilities.
For more information about the biggest mobile game updates, developments, and game launches across July, read our latest analyst bulletin below.
July’s casual game updates
Rollic’s Twisted Tangle became the first hybrid casual title in the US top-grossing 200 to implement a seasonal collectible album. The Tangle Collection will be available for around two and a half months, with players collecting cards by participating in events or making purchases.
The album feature should boost engagement by giving Twisted Tangle a fresh, long-term progression vector that ties all its events together, making gameplay more meaningful. To that end, it’s perhaps fitting that its launch was accompanied by various other additions, such as a daily reward system, a new recurring task event, and a season pass system.
As part of its July update patch v0.75, Stumble Guys launched a new competitive mode designed to showcase players’ skills and provide them with incentives to perform well in matches.
In Ranked Season (SS0), players earn Reward Points (RP) based on their performance. Those who earn enough Reward Points will rank up and earn rewards (which include experience points (XP) and games), with higher ranks granting bigger prizes. There is also a Season Leaderboard that rewards players with additional RP depending on their rank, which can be claimed at the end of each season.
Patch 0.75 also introduced upgraded “Abilities” (previously known as “Special Emotes”) that can give players an upper hand in matches, such as a speed boost or special attack they can use to throw competitors off balance. Additionally, these abilities can be enhanced using Ability Keys and Ability Tokens, gained as rewards from battle passes, wheels, and other events.
Social win streaks, made famous by Royal Match, have continued to grow in popularity and spread to the likes of Candy Crush Soda Saga’s Yeti’s Challenge and Seat Away’s Turbulence Challenge.
Speaking of Candy Crush, Candy Crush Saga had an eventful summer, introducing various new events—far more than we usually see in a single month. Among them were competitive “Factory Frenzy,” collection events like “Don’t Feed the Troll” and “Top That,” the level-completion challenge “Volcanic Panic,” and the win streak event “Jelly Streak.” You can find out more about all of these using our Live Events Tracker.
Additional casual gaming highlights and other news
Hybrid casual puzzle games are currently one of the hottest trends in the market. Several games are scaling successfully by following similar principles: offering unique, hyper-casual-inspired puzzle gameplay, adopting a hybrid monetization model (combining IAP and IAA), and expanding a live event framework to enhance and sustain the core gameplay loop. Rollic Games has been spearheading this movement, launching several titles that have climbed high up the IAP grossing charts.
The latest chart-topping entry is Seat Away, a game in which players move around differently-colored seats inside vehicles to allow matching-colored passengers to reach their destination in timed levels. It is heavily inspired by one of Rollic’s earlier titles, Bus Jam, with the same tried-and-true recipe of unique gameplay, a combination of IAA and IAP monetization, and a busy LiveOps calendar filled with popular casual event types.
Many of Rollic’s older titles have also been scaling admirably. We touched on the recent update to Twisted Tangle earlier in the bulletin, but there’s also Screw Jam. Both of these titles regularly tweak their IAP and live events, often incorporating offerings that are similar to other top games on the market.
Domino Dreams has been scaling since its launch in January earlier this year and finally breached the top-grossing 100 in the US iOS Market last month. The developer behind the title, SuperPlay, is best known for its “Casual Casino” hit title, Dice Dreams, which is among the biggest games in that genre (alongside Monopoly GO! and Coin Master). With that in mind, Domino Dreams is something of a radical departure in that it is mahjong solitaire, an up-and-coming genre that we highlighted in Liftoff’s 2024 Casual Gaming Apps report.
July’s midcore game updates
While guilds (also known as clans or teams) are popular in midcore genres like MMOs and 4X strategy, they’re not a feature commonly encountered in CCGs. As such, we were particularly surprised to see the feature added to Marvel Snap in July.
Alongside the feature’s launch, players who joined an Alliance were also invited to complete bounties for their group. Each alliance member could select up to three Bounties (from a pool of eight) at a time to complete for points. After the week is over, members of the Alliance got rewards—including boosters, credits, and mystery card variants—depending on which Personal point milestones they reached and what Alliance point milestones their alliance reached.
Marvel Snap also continued the trend of mobile games using blockbuster movies as inspiration for new content, launching several live events inspired by the launch of Deadpool and Wolverine into theatres. These included a dedicated battle pass (with Gwenpool as an unlockable card), a limited-time PvP mode Deadpool’s Diner (which was the only way to unlock the Cassandra Nova card, the film’s main antagonist), and a competitive leaderboard event called Deadpool League.
The game saw a 300%+ spike in revenue on July 10, the day after the launch of the Deadpool-themed battle pass, which saw it reach 21 in the top 200 grossing on the US iOS market. While this may sound impressive, it largely follows the same trajectory as previous battle pass updates, slightly surprising given the film has been crowned the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time after grossing over $1bn worldwide.
Goddess of Victory: NIKKE introduced a unique collaboration with Dave the Diver that recreated the latter’s gameplay within its own world.
In Aegis the Diver, players dived, fished, and foraged for ingredients to use in a restaurant management simulator— just like you would in Dave the Diver—using fan-favorite Goddess of Nikke characters. The event looked the part too, utilizing the same pixelated art style used in Dave the Diver. Despite being just a “minigame,” there were also lots of reasons for players to stay engaged, with a purchasable battle pass and several missions to complete.
Dave the Diver isn’t actually available on mobile, which meant that, arguably, this live event was the first time it was playable on the platform. In many ways, the event acted almost like a demo for Dave the Diver, with the full game on sale across PlayStation, Switch, and other platforms. All players could also get a special Goddess of Victory skin for their boat in the full game by entering a code.
While this may sound unusual, it’s actually the second time Goddess of Victory has turned itself into a completely different title. In November last year, the game launched a roguelike reverse bullet hell-type minigame reminiscent of Vampire Survivors, leading us to suspect that we’ll see another transformative crossover in the near future.
Additional midcore gaming highlights and other news
Zynga launched a new puzzle RPG based on the Game of Thrones IP. Game of Thrones: Legends is mechanically very similar to Zynga’s evergreen hit Empire & Puzzles, just with added Game of Thrones characters and theming. The title has only seen a modest amount of success, barely scratching the top-grossing #200 in the US, which is surprising given the recognition of Zynga in the market coupled with the airing of a new season for the Game of Thrones spin-off, House of the Dragon.
Hoyoverse launched its new action RPG, Zenless Zone Zero. Given the popularity of Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, it should come as no surprise that the title made a substantial impact at launch—securing more than 50m downloads in its first three days and generating over $25m in revenue in its first week. Nevertheless, the game’s performance on mobile is generally below that of its two sister titles.
All three of Hoyoverse’s titles share similar thematic stylings, so it’s entirely possible that we’ve now reached a point where they’re directly competing with one another, which may explain why it’s not reaching quite the same highs.
However, Zenless Zone Zero is much more action-packed than Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. It features frenetic combat in tight spaces that require fast reflexes and careful coordination from the player. In fact, the game clearly draws inspiration from the fighting game genre, even acting as one of the headline sponsors of EVO 2024, the world’s biggest fighting game tournament. And while the game plays perfectly well on mobile, there is a sense that it shines best played using a controller on a PC or console—and it might be that the vast majority of its audience is actually based elsewhere.
Netease launched an unusual battle royale game in China called Naraka Bladepoint, which utilizes AI to create NPC dialogue. The game was released across PC, console and mobile platforms, with all the different versions interconnected. Naraka Bladepoint has been scaling exceptionally well, holding steady at #4 in the top-grossing ranks and #1 in downloads in China.
