— an Analysis of Ips in U.S. Mobile Gaming © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc
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Intellectual Property in the Mobile Games Market 2021 — An Analysis of IPs in U.S. Mobile Gaming © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved Table of Contents 03 - Introduction 04 - IP Games in the United States 08 - IP Types 11 - Top Games by IP Type 16 - IP Revenue by Genre 20 - Conclusion © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved Introduction This report analyzes the relevance of Intellectual Property in the U.S. mobile games market, delving into the performance of non-IP games vs. licensed titles, the most successful IP-based games, and IP performance across genres. Using Sensor Tower’s Game Taxonomy IP classifications, this report contains information on licenses, IP types, operators, and corporate parents. Inclusion Criteria Sensor Tower’s definition of Intellectual Property covers multi- platform IPs that are licensed to mobile game studios, originating from films, books, television, toys, celebrities, sports, board games, video games, comics, and manga and have dedicated mobile games. Video game IPs that only have direct mobile ports or are internal to the brand owners themselves have been excluded. 3 IP Games: United States — An Overview of IP-Based Mobile Games in the U.S. © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved Three IP Games Rank Among the Top 10 by Revenue Top 20 grossing mobile games in 2020 on the U.S. App Store and Google Play No-IP IP Games Roblox . Candy Crush Saga . During 2020, three out of the top 10 revenue Coin Master . generating mobile games in the United States Pokémon GO . used a license: Pokémon GO, PUBG Mobile, and Gardenscapes . Call of Duty: Mobile. Homescapes . An additional two licensed titles appeared in the Clash of Clans . top 20, Marvel Strike Force and Dragon Ball Z: Slotomania . Dokkan Battle. PUBG Mobile . Call of Duty: Mobile . Pokémon GO remained the most successful Bingo Blitz . licensed mobile game, generating Toon Blast . approximately $480 million in U.S. player Candy Crush Soda Saga . spending in 2020. MARVEL Strike Force . Fishdom . Two out of the top three mobile games Garena Free Fire . utilizing an IP belonged to the Shooter genre. Jackpot Party . DoubleDown . Rise of Kingdoms . DBZ Dokkan Battle . $0 $100M $200M $300M $400M $500M $600M $700M $800M IP Games 5 © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved IP vs. Non-IP Games: Revenue & Download Growth The top 10 revenue generating games saw Top 10 grossing IP and non-IP games by annual U.S. player spending and download growth similar year-over-year growth of 33.8 percent for both IP and non-IP titles in 2020. Revenue Downloads Installs for the top 10 grossing IP games No-IP IP Games No-IP IP Games increased by 31.1 percent year-over-year in 40% 60% 2020, compared to the 3.9 percent decline in 35% downloads for the top 10 non-IP titles. IP 50% 33.8% 33.8% 50.9% growth was led by Call of Duty: Mobile. 30% 40% 27.6% While 2019 saw the launch of two major IP- 25% based mobile games with Call of Duty: Mobile 23.7% 22.5% 30% 31.1% and Mario Kart Tour, which both broke 100 20% million downloads within their first month, 15% 20% launching in Q3/Q4 meant that they did not rank in the top 10 by revenue that year. 10% 10% IP-based games continued to be launched in 5% 2021, with Crash Bandicoot: On the Run 0% -10.2% -10.7% -6.1% -3.9% generating 23.6 million downloads in its first 0% -5% week. Other licensed titles on the horizon -10% -5% include Diablo Immortal and Apex Legends. -10% -20% Note Regarding Downloads Growth Chart On both charts the selection criteria is the top 10 games with and 2018 2019 2020 2018 2019 2020 without an IP based on revenue. This approach was taken to avoid the population of Hypercasual titles. IP Games 6 © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved IP Vs. Non-IP Games: Revenue & Download Share Overall market share of IP games in the U.S. in 2020 Revenue No IP Downloads In 2020, 23 percent of overall U.S. mobile IP game player spending was generated by IP- based titles. The market share of IP-based games for downloads was smaller, making up 17 percent of all installs. 17% 23% The overall market share of IP has remained stable for both revenue and downloads over the last two years. The share of downloads and revenue for mobile games is outsized from the number of IP-based mobile games on the market. While only 9 percent of games used an IP, these games accounted for nearly a quarter of revenue. 77% 83% IP Games 7 IP Types: United States — A Look at the Most Popular IP Types in the U.S. © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved One-Third of IP Game Revenue is from Video Game IPs U.S. market share and revenue growth by IP type in 2020 Revenue Revenue Growth Video game IPs accounted for a third of the Videogame Manga U.S. revenue generated by licensed mobile Television 60% games in 2020, more than double the share Comics Other from any other IP type. 50% While Manga ranks as the No. 2 IP type by player spending, it is the fastest-growing for revenue Other Videogame growth, increasing by 54 percent year-over-year 31% 40% 34% in 2020. 30% Although IP may stem from mediums such as 54% Comics, which accounted for 10 percent of 44% revenue in 2020, licenses such as Marvel are also 20% 36% popular across platforms such as TV and Film. Comics 29% 10% Manga 24% 10% Television 13% 12% 0% Manga Comics Videogame Other Television IP Types 9 © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved Share of U.S. Revenue by IP Type and Game U.S. market share by IP type and game in 2020 Video Game IPs from non-mobile platforms, such as Pokémon GO, PUBG Mobile, and Call of Duty: Mobile, have successfully translated their core experiences to mobile, in turn generating Game of Dragon Ball The Seven Fate/ Star Trek: Fleet Thrones Slots significant revenue. Command 1% Z Dokkan Deadly Sins Grand Battle 3% Order 4% Property Brothers Home 4% 2% Design 1% Manga is dominated by Japanese IPs like Dragon Ball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and The Seven Deadly Sins, Game of Thrones: GSN Casino Conquest 1% Dragon Yu-Gi-Oh! which are popular with U.S. audiences. Ball Duel Links 4% Walking Wheel of 1% Dead: Road Fortune Legends to Survival 0.4% 1% 0.5%0.5%0.5%0.5% 2% 0.5% The Marvel IP accounts for the vast majority of PUBG Mobile Call of Duty: player spending in Comics-based mobile games 7% Mobile WWE 6% MLB Tap Champions MARVEL Strike MARVEL World Series of 2021 Sports 1% Force Contest of Poker Baseball 5% Champions 3% 2% Television licenses accounted for 12 percent of 4% My Madden NFL Madden MLB 9 player spending, double that of Film. Caesars Mobile NFL 21 Innings KONAMI 1% 1% Casino 1% 1% 2% WWE SuperCard IPs that perceived as the largest do not 1% FIFA Soccer 1% always generate the greatest revenue. Fire Mario SimCity MARVEL Future Fight 1% Emblem Kart Tour BuildIt Heroes 1% 1% Disney Disney Kim 1% Yahtzee Bingo Bash Sorcerer’s Arena Emoji 1% Karda The Wizard Willy with 1% Blitz shian Black Animal Wonka 1% Note Regarding Chart Star Wars: of Oz Magic Slots Buddies 1% Desert Crossing 1% 0.5% Galaxy of Heroes Match 3 2% Please refer to the interactive chart in our blog post for more The Sims Mobile Mono- Phase 1% FreePlay 1% 4% poly 10: detail. Games with less than $12 million in U.S. net revenue in FF Brave Wizard of Slots World 1% The Sims Oz: Casino 1% Tour Exvius 1% 2020 were excluded. Mobile 1% Slots 0.5% 2% Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery 1% IP Types 10 Top IP Games: United States — Top Grossing Games By IP Type © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved Pokémon GO Leads Video Game IPs on Mobile Top Grossing Games with IPs from Video Games in the U.S. 2018 2019 2020 Video game IPs accounted for 34 percent of the U.S. revenue generated by licensed mobile games in 2020. Pokémon GO Pokémon GO Pokémon GO 1 1 - 1 Niantic - Niantic Niantic Pokémon GO led the Video Game IP type for third year on a row in 2020. Final Fantasy XV PUBG Mobile PUBG Mobile 2 2 +4 2 - Epic Action Tencent Tencent After a successful global launch in 2019, Activision title Call of Duty: Mobile moved up Fire Emblem Call of Duty: two positions to rank No. 3 in 2020. Final Fantasy XV 3 Mobile 3 Heroes 3 Epic Action -1 +2 Nintendo Activision Blizzard Minecraf Minecraf Minecraf - 4 - 4 Microsof 4 Microsof Microsof Call of Duty: Final Fantasy XV PUBG Mobile NEW 5 -2 5 Tencent 5 Mobile Epic Action Activision Blizzard Note Regarding Chart The +/- next to the game names reflect the change in rankings from one year to the next. “NEW” means that a game is new to the top five rankings in the given year. Top IP Games by Type: Video Games 12 © 2021 Sensor Tower Inc. - All Rights Reserved Dragon Ball Z is Consistently the Top Manga Game IP Top Grossing Games with IPs from Manga in the U.S. 2018 2019 2020 Manga IPs accounted for 13 percent of the U.S. revenue generated by licensed mobile games in 2020.