Hyper-Casual Games benefited from Covid-19 as pandemic conditions led people to spend more time on their smartphones. In the new report, Mobile Action cites Apple’s search advertising rates for Hyper-Casual Games H2/2021 — H1/2022.
Executive summary
- Hyper-Casual games continue to rely on Apple Search Ads for user acquisition, the spending was up by 4% in the first half of 2022;
- Wordle led the category with almost 42M downloads;
- Tap-through rates (TTR) dropped by 18% to 5.62% in Q2 22;
- Cost-per-tap (CPT) and cost per acquisition (CPA) were higher 21% and 18% respectively in H2 2022;
- The US, UK, Japan, Canada, and Australia remained the most competitive countries for Apple Search Ads for Hyper-Casual gaming apps;
- US and Japan were the countries with the highest CPA;
- CPA increased by 23% in the US, while it was down by 6.5% in Japan;
- Campaigns with Custom Product Pages resulted in 14% lower CPA.
Change of Spending and Downloads
Recent data shows that the Hyper-Casual Games market is getting more competitive. In terms of overall performance, Hyper-Casual Games spent more money on ad campaigns than the previous half, but received fewer downloads.
In consequence of the increasing competition, the average CPA for Hyper-Casual Games Category increased 23% from the previous half. This indicates that we will see similar trends in other key metrics, as CPA results from these metrics.
Sode note: The mobile gaming market gets $1.5 billion and 1.1 billion downloads per week.
Top Games
The Hyper-Casual Games category is dynamic, so top lists change constantly. Only two games, Roblox and Retro Bowl, maintained their place in the Top 10.
In the second half of 2021:
- Roblox led the category with 21+ M downloads;
- Retro Bowl was a close second with 17+ M, and Fidget Trading was third with almost 13M;
- The gap between the Top Game, Roblox, and the 10th game, Slap and Run, was 16.2M.
In the first half of 2022:
- Wordle led the category with almost 42M downloads;
- Subway Surfers came second with 32M+ downloads;
- Roblox was one of two games that retained their places by coming third in the Top 10 list;
- Slap and Run outperformed the previous half, increasing its downloads by over 1 million and placing 9th.
CPA, Install and Spending Analysis for Top Storefronts
Company selected the ten countries that run the most Apple Search Ads Campaigns. The graph below shows that CPA significantly increased in all storefronts, except Japan’s, compared to the previous six months.
- The US, GB, Japan, Canada, and Australia had the highest CPA average and remained the most competitive countries in Apple Search Ads hyper-casual gaming activities;
- New Zealand showed the best category growth. While ad spend and install numbers increased, the CPA declined;
- CPA in the US and Japan remained the highest. CPA increased by 23.08% in the US, while CPA bidding decreased by 6.54% in Japan;
- The highest CPA increase was in Germany with 44%, taking CPA to $0.89.
The United States remains the most competitive storefront for
Hyper-Casual Games:
- Total spend was slightly (3%) higher than in the previous half, but installs were down 15%;
- The average CPA for the US rose from $1.15 to $1.42.
Japan is the only top storefront whose CPA improved:
- Total Spending for Japan decreased by 37%, and total installs decreased by 33%;
- As a result, the average CPA for Japan fell from $1.40 to $1.30.
Hyper-Casual Game installs fell by 8.05% in Australia:
- Total Spending was down by 2.3% compared to H2 2022;
- The average CPA for Hyper-Casual Games increased from $0.92 to $0.98 in Australia.
At one dollar, Canada has the third highest CPA average for Hyper-Casual Games:
- Total spending for Canada increased by 3.7% in the first half of 2022;
- Total Installs were down by 5.4% compared to the previous half.
Top 10 Keywords by Impression
Brand keywords drive most of the impressions. Due to this, targeting brand keywords in Apple Search Ads strategies seems like a winning move.
Moreover, we see half the apps have increased the impression share for their brand keywords, clear sign that game developers are protecting their brand keywords.
While top generic keywords have remained almost the same, users seem to focus more on the music genre when searching for games. The number of music-related generic keywords in the top 10 increased from 3 to 5.
Read the full Mobile Action report here.
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