May was the month of some major new game launches in the mobile market, including the highly anticipated mobile version of Apex Legends and global releases for Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds and the turn-based music RPG Dislyte. While there was a lack of seasonal events in the US due to no major holidays taking place, we saw plenty of events in China celebrating the May 1st, and the same in the Japanese mobile market for Golden Week.
4X games show no signs of slowing down across all markets. If you’re looking for interesting examples, look no further than The Ants: Underground Kingdom, Red Alert Online and The Grand Mafia. May also introduced some major updates to Merge Mansion, Pokémon Unite, State of Survival and PUBG Mobile. You can find more information on these updates, as well as major updates and events for specific markets, covered in much more detail below.
US Market Overview
Several major titles including Merge Mansion, Pokémon Unite and State of Survival introduced new features. Merge Mansion added a collectible album system, a great way of boosting player retention, while Pokémon Unite launched its subscription-based UNITE club membership, which comes with numerous perks and benefits. State of Survival introduced a hero appointment mode and a new guild PVE mode, while Game of Sultans – Royal Pets saw several new elements added to the game, including a social hangout space with min-games, collectibles albums and a new subscription plan.
While May was a relatively quiet month for events and collaborations, PUBG MOBILE featured an impressive collaboration event with the popular anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, which made some major changes to the world map. The Ants: Underground Kingdom, which continues to impress with its unique twist on 4X gameplay, held its first seasonal map event, while Minecraft, Disney Emoji Blitz, and Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes held Star Wars-themed celebrations to commemorate May 4th.
New top 200 grossing entrants on the market
Noteworthy for May is how many new games reached the top 200 for the first time in a month’s time span compared to a normal situation in the US market (new games having scaling challenges).
- In May, a mobile version of the super popular PC/console hero-based Battle Royale-Shooter Apex Legends had its global launch, ranking at its highest in the top-grossing 23rd position. Check our game analyst’s very-detailed overview of the game’s first update in the GameRefinery service.
- Netmarble’s MMORPG, Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds is now globally launched, making the game jump straight to the top 50 grossing mobile games in the US.
- Lilith Games’ Dislyte, a turn-based RPG with a mixture of (street) fashion, hip-hop music, and mythical gods as its defining theme, was also globally launched in May. The game is currently ranking among the top 40 grossing games in the US.
- Realistic racing manager game F1 Clash made it to the US top 200 grossing games last month and is currently ranking among the top-grossing 170 games.
- Allstar Renovation is an idle RPG currently ranking among the top-grossing 170 mobile games in the US.
- Age of Origins appeared in the US top-grossing 10 mobile games last month, making it yet another hybrid 4X Strategy game that is currently performing super well. (Read why April was the month of 4X Strategy games from our previous Analyst Bulletin.)
- T3 Arena is a hero shooter game that entered the US top-200 games list last month, ranking at its highest in the top-grossing 143rd position and first on the downloads list.
- Another new top-200 entrant is turn-based RPG CounterSide, ranking at its highest in the top-grossing 117th position.
- The last interesting US top-200 entrant from May is MMORPG MU ORIGIN 3, ranking at its highest in the top-grossing 169th position.
China Market Overview
The Chinese mobile market introduced new features focussed on co-op gameplay. Battle of the Golden Spatula (金铲铲之战), added a new PVP mode and a Ranked Duo mode where players have shared HP, while the 4X Strategy game Red Alert Online (红警OL) and Fu-sheng wei Qing-ge (浮生为卿歌) introduced co-op task systems. You can learn more about the benefits of enhancing relationships between players here.
One of the most successful events in May came from Punishing: Gray Raven’s (战双帕弥什), with the introduction of a new character and a voting event leading to a 7x increase in revenue. Popkart Mobile (跑跑卡丁车官) featured a collaborative event with Sonic The Hedgehog, featuring iconic characters from the series. Many games also celebrated the May 1st, such as the idle RPG Xiao Huan Xiong Bai Jiang Zhuan (小浣熊百将传) which introduced a seasonal battle pass alongside mini-games that previously featured in ads for the game.
New top 200 grossing entrants on the market
- Dou Gui (斗诡) is an ink-painting style ARPG. It’s currently ranking around the top 150 grossing.
- Girls Frontline: Project Neural Ground (少女前线：云图计划) is a waifu game that claims to have roguelike elements. The game was ranking at its highest in the top 120 grossing.
- Chunbai Hexian (纯白和弦) is a card deck auto-battle RPG with anime girls claiming to be “roguelike”. The game was ranking at its highest in the top 100 grossing.
- Yuansu Fangjian (元素方尖) is not a new release, but it’s interesting to see it back in the top 200 grossing since it has roguelike elements. In total, that makes three new top-200 entrant games in the Chinese market in a month that claim to have or actually have roguelike elements. Since last year, the Chinese mobile game market has seen plenty of games with roguelike elements performing well, and the trend just seems to be accelerating. However, this has caused some games to claim to contain roguelike elements to capitalize on the hype, even though they do not actually contain those elements.
Japan Market Overview
Japan featured a much busier events calendar in May due to its Golden Week holiday, with a major update for Dragon Quest Tact’s (ドラゴンクエストタクト) introducing a log-in calendar, gachas and a special Dragon Quest X questline featuring famous characters from the game that could be unlocked as heroes. There were several anniversary events too throughout the month. One of the most successful ones was in The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross’ (七つの大罪 光と闇の交戦 : グラクロ), which pushed the game into a top-3 grossing position.
There were countless collaborations between Japanese mobile games and major IPs too. Monster Strike (モンスターストライク) held a Detective Conan event, LINE PokoPoko collaborated with Disney to introduce Mickey Mouse and many more into the game, and Yo-kai Watch: Wibble Wobble’s (妖怪ウォッチ ぷにぷに) launched a new map and characters through its collaboration event with the popular Shounen Sunday manga. Expect to see even more events in next month’s update as the market celebrates bridal events for June.
New top 200 grossing entrants on the market
- Dead by Daylight Mobile (デッドバイデイライト・モバイル), asymmetric survival game peaked at the top-grossing 100 and now hovers around ranks 110-180.
- Aglet is a location-based NFT game that peaked at the top 25 grossing and now hops around in the top-200.
- 4X Strategy game The Grand Mafia (ザ・グランドマフィア) was released in April and has made somewhat steady rise hitting the top-100 this month.
- Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion: Lost Stories (コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュロストストーリーズ ) is a turn-based RPG that peaked at GR 4 and has stayed consistently in the top-20. The game is based on mecha anime IP from around 2006.
- Apex Legends Mobile is currently ranking in the Japanese top-grossing list among the top 50 games.
- Sandbox game DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS is reminiscent of Minecraft utilizing the Dragon Quest IP. The game has been among the top 100 grossing games since launch.
