Delivered at Casual Connect USA 2016. Thanks to the Whally Index, tracking daily usage of 430 million players on iOS, this session will focus on the best strategies for how to building a Top 20 audience for iOS Casual games over the course of a year. Particular focus will be given to the top achievers of the year – to name a few: Color Switch, Subway Surfer (Kiloo), Hungry Shark world vs Evo (Ubisoft & FGOL), Ketchapp – and newcomers for the year.

1. A year of Casual Games on iOS:
The usage perspective
Frederic Thuard & Loïc Jalmin
CEO & VP Product
Whally

2. The largest # of data points on iOS games daily usage
Whally tracks the daily usage
of 434+ M players
on iOS Game Center
for the top 400 000 iOS games

3. Whally displays & aggregates only public data
Started mid-June 2015
Identify games included in the tops 1000 games per
category, device, business model and country
If Leaderboard(s) then data are aggregated by game
App Store ranks for 12 countries
Process data to calculate active player, new player,
overlap and retention

4. 12 months of iOS Game Center usage
414 327 games analysed during the last 12 months
170 340 (41%) games are Game Center enabled
161 018 (39%) GC games with public leaderboards
43 000 Games 53 million Scores
daily processing

5. How many of the 434 millions iOS Game
Center users are actually playing ?
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
March April May
Number of unique active players (may 2016):
per month: 79 M
per week: 37,5 M
per day: 4,7 M
# month active players on iOS Game Center

6. What is the average number
of scorers per day per game - 2016?
>300 k
>50k
>12k
10 100 300
Whally Index position

7. TOP 3 GAMES
represents 50% of Game Center
daily activity in June 2016
Winner takes all!

8. Which categories top the appStore in terms of
active players?
10
20
30
40
50
ac]on
arcade
board
puzzle
card
casino
fam
ily
sim
u
sportadventurem
usic
role
strategy
Racing
dice
trivia
# of game category occurrence for TOP 100 games in iOS Game Center
June 2016

9. Focus on some game archetypes
January to June 2016, Daily analysis of :
• # of active players and distribution pattern,
• # of new players to identify user acquisition pattern
• Retention
• Overlap

10. All star game
*strong install
base
*strong
retention
*long lifespan
Booming
new comer
*very fast
acquisition
*strong
retention
*long lifespan
Franchised
game
*very fast
acquisition
*weak
retention
*short lifespan
Portfolio
strategy
*“user recycle”
*weak
retention
* short lifespan

11. Archetype #1 : The All Star game
Number of active players
all-time : 115 278 269
monthly: 7 523 633
daily: 990 000
Name: Subway Surfer
Publisher: Kiloo
Released: 12/05/12
categories: arcade, action
0
350 000
700 000
1 050 000
1 400 000
4/1/16 4/8/16 4/15/16 4/22/16 4/29/16 5/6/16 5/13/16 5/20/16 5/27/16 6/3/16 6/10/16 6/18/16 6/25/16
New users
Acbve users
Number of active and new players per day during the last 3 months

12. Archetype #1: The All Star game
DNA:
• Most downloaded game ever on iOS: 1 b downloads +100m. players on iOS
• Around 10% of daily active players are first time players (99 000 installs per
day on average)
• No paid acquisition -> un-targeted organic growth —> D2 retention weak
but strong D30
OverlapRetention - May 16
D2: 25% D8: 15% D30: 8% Blocky 6 Cross road Stack

13. Archetype #2 : The booming new comer
Number of active players
all-time : 20 064 380
monthly: 6 870 000
daily: 1 100 000
Name: Color switch
Publisher: Fortafy games
Released: 06/12/15
categories: arcade, action
0
400 000
800 000
1 200 000
1 600 000
12/7/15 12/16/15 12/27/15 1/6/16 1/15/16 1/24/16 2/2/16 3/31/16 4/9/16 4/18/16 4/27/16 5/6/16 5/15/16 5/24/16 6/2/16 6/11/16 6/21/16 6/30/16
new_players
nb_players
Number of active and new players per day since game launch

14. Archetype #2: The booming new comer
DNA:
• Very fast player acquisition at launch
• Around 7,5% of daily active players are first time players (83 000
installs per day on average)
• Steady targeted acquisition —> very good retention
D2: 42% D8: 24% D30: 10% Blocky 6 Subway
Surfer
Stack
OverlapRetention - May 16

15. Archetype #3 : The franchise game
Number of active players
all-time : 4 148 838
monthly: 3 261 000
daily: 406 000
Name: Hungry shark world
Publisher: Ubisoft
Released: 14/12/15
categories: action
0
175 000
350 000
525 000
700 000
new players
acbve players
Number of active and new players per day since game launch, 2016 05 06

16. Archetype #3 : The franchise game
DNA:
• Successful launch - very fast acquisition process
• Around 6% of daily active players are first time players (50 000
installs per day on average)
• Targeted user acquisition + average copy cat game —> strong D2
retention and weak D30 retention
D2: 40% D8: 17% D30: 4% Hungry
shark evo
Subway
Surfer
Color
switch
OverlapRetention - May 16

17. Archetype #4 : The portfolio strategy
Number of active players
all-time : 20 064 380
monthly: 3 888 245
daily: 400 000
Name: Stack
Publisher: Ketchapp
Released: 17/02/16
categories: arcade, action
0
300 000
600 000
900 000
1 200 000
3/1/16 3/8/16 3/15/16 3/22/16 3/29/16 4/5/16 4/12/16 4/19/16 4/26/16 5/3/16 5/10/16 5/17/16 5/24/16 5/31/16 6/7/16 6/15/16 6/22/16 6/29/16
new_players
nb_players

18. Archetype #4 : The catalogue strategy
DNA:
• Very fast player acquisition at launch powers by cross promotion
• Around 13% of daily active players are first time players (40 000
installs per day on average)
• Steady cross promotion acquisition —> targeted user —> strong D2
D2: 40% D8: 18% D30: 5% Blocky 6 1010!
Color
switch
OverlapRetention - May 16

19. Subway surfer Color switch
Hungry Shark
world
Stack
D2 retention in May 16 25 % 42 % 40 % 40 %
D8 retention in May 16 15 % 24 % 17 % 18 %
D30 retention in May 16 8 % 10 % 4 % 5 %
Unique players per day in May 16 990 000 1 100 000 406 000 405 000
New players per day in May 16 99 000 83 000 50 000 40 000

20. Key learnings
The top is a long way home: Subway Surfers is still the most downloaded
and most played according to iOS Game Center.
… But it does not cost much to make it to the top: Color Switch
Portfolio strategy works on casual gaming to lower UA costs
Focus on retention will help to avoid the hick up effect on UA even for
mobile casual games …

21. A year of Casual Games on iOS:
The usage perspective
Frederic Thuard & Loïc Jalmin
CEO & VP Product
Whally
THANK YOU!