Three Trends of Chinese Mobile Games in This Autumn
WeChat-based ranking games, foreign games and hacker apps are the three top trends in Chinese mobile game sector this October, according to China App Index released by Wandoujia, one of China’s leading Android app stores. This index comes after the company released the first edition this July.
1. WeChat Messenger Sends Waves through the Game Rankings
WeChat, China’s paramount messaging app, takes a step into mobile gaming industry with simple, but highly competitive gameplay. Tencent released six in-house games for WeChat platform since August, namely Rhythm Master, WeRunner (Tian Tian Ku Pao), Link Link, WePop (We Love Pang), Fight the Landlord, and Aircraft Fight. All of them enable players to login the game via WeChat or QQ profiles and share their scores to friends at the end of each round.
Screenshot of Rhythm Master and WeRunner
The monthly downloads of Rhythm Master, a scrolling rhyme game, reached 919K. While WeRunner, a running game features adorable graphics, unlockable pets and vehicle mounts, witnessed 522K downloads. According to Tencent’s own news service, WeRunner’s daily revenue peaked at more than $1 million and earned a total of $16 million in its first month.
2. Foreign Games Climb to the Top
Screenshot of PvZ
Plants VS Zombies 2 takes the top position with over 2 million downloads. PvZ is one of four international titles that will be released on the WeChat game platform, which will no doubt fuel its popularity. Angry Birds Star Wars II following a few steps behind PvZ. The success validates Popcap and Rovio’s expansion into China with Shanghai studios.
3. Hacker Apps: Steroids for Mobile Gamers
With the popularity of WeChat ranking games, hacker apps are favored by Chinese gamers, who want to alter game items and stats, slowdown gameplay and beat their friends. WePop Assistant, a hacker app based on Tencent’s casual game WePop, recorded 16,000 of monthly downloads. SB Game Hacker, which enables players to change various game data, recorded 206K monthly downloads at a growth rate of 79%.
Six of the ten fastest growing games are from foreign developers.
image credit: Wandoujia