To maintain success for a mobile game – especially one of the free-to-play variety – a few factors come into play, such as how long players are able to stick around on a consistent level, as well as how top grosses fare in terms of that game’s popularity.
Pocket Gamer recently published numbers that indicate how the big five companies (King, Zynga, EA, Gameloft and Glu Mobile) compare. It turns out it’s good to be King, while others are competing in a dead heat.
When it comes to the monthly active userbase of consumers, King is at the top with games like the ever-popular Candy Crush Saga. King has over 450 million active monthly players, which is much higher than the other companies, which are almost all sitting at around 75 to 150 million. Zynga is the exception, which came out much lower than anticipated, while Glu makes a strong showing with big name partner games like Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.
As for changes in monthly active players, it appears that Glu has managed to maintain great consistency with its games, while EA and King hold moderately steady. Meanwhile, Zynga shows a somewhat consistent drop with its titles, while Gameloft’s numbers are missing from the report.
When it comes to a daily active base of gamers for key publishers, King continues to hold a high amount, while Zynga, Gameloft and Glu are in the lower count. In fact, Glu almost sits at the zero percentile, while Zynga and Gameloft are just slightly above.
Then there are the DAUs/MAUs (daily and monthly active users) for key publishers. Here, Zynga shows an alarmingly high count with around 25%, just beneath King’s 28%. Meanwhile, Gameloft and Glu show a smaller percentage, around 10 to 15%.
The report also breaks down daily and monthly earnings numbers, which show quite a few stark differences, with both King and Zynga holding at just under 30%, and the others, Gameloft and Glu, lower down in the 12 to 15% range.
As for the DAU numbers, Glu has a firm lead around $9.60 (following a rise from $7.35 or so), followed by Zynga in a close second (at around $8), while the King and Gameloft numbers come in a little lower, tied at around $3.60. Zynga is showing most on the rise with a dollar per player basis, while Gameloft is showing the lowest progress.
Zynga has the strongest monthly activity with just over two dollars per MAU, while King, Glu and EA Mobile are tied at around the one dollar point. Gameloft is at the lowest point, with less than 50 cents.
Pocket Gamer summarizes the report with the following breakdown:
- King: market leader in DAUs and MAUs, but not particularly strong at monetization on a per player level
- Zynga: struggling with player numbers but good at monetization
- Glu: the smallest of the five in terms of audience, but good at monetization
- EA Mobile: we lack DAU data, but it sits in the middle ground when it comes to MAUs and monetization
- Gameloft: the weakest of the five companies in terms of combined audience and per player levels of monetization
The full report, complete with more charts, can be found here.
