The State Of The Worldwide MMOs Market, July 2016
It's that time again, when SuperData discusses the state of the MMO market from around the world. As always there are plenty of July 2016 tidbits for industry lovers.
Overwatch dropped to fifth place as one of the most popular games on console, which may explain why Blizzard is hosting a free weekend for Xbox One and Playstation 4 players from September 9th-12th. While PC is unlikely to see a free weekend anytime soon, as its playerbase solidifies as the most popular PC game in the month of July, 2016.
League of Legends continues to be the most popular free-to-play MMO globally. Go firgure. Oddly enough, it did lose its reign as champion in some countries.
When Overwatch launched it displaced LoL for a bit in South Korean cafes, but the mutiny didn't last long. League is back on its throne, but Overwatch is a close second for now. Perhaps when Overwatch's competitive season 2 begins we'll see a battle for most popular game in South Korea.
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Pokemon GO was the most successful mobile launch in history, and most popular mobile title of July. I don't think we need a report for confirmation. Go was an international success at launch, making headlines across all major news networks, and dozens of people strolled their streets in search of Pokemon despite numerous bugs and frequent server outages.
It's unclear if Pokemon will remain king of mobile for long. Bloomberg recently published a report showing that Pokemon Go's worldwide active users are in steady decline. Keep in mind no game remains as successful as it was on launch; only 20% of an initial playerbase continues to play a game 30 days after release. We'll have to wait another month or two before judging Pokemon Go.
Valve seems to have solved the problem of funding eSports tournaments. The Dota 2 International had a pot of $20.8 million, almost entirely funded by players themselves. Valve sells Battle Passes, which give users access to exclusive content. SuperData writes, "At present, Valve is the only company to successfully monetize eSports events with in-game purchases." I can't imagine other companies aren't looking at Valve as an example. I expect we'll see more exclusive purchase to fund eSports tournaments for other games.
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Supercell's Clash Royale has a been quite the success, and a worthy follow-up to Clash of Clans. But it's a Cain and Abel situation. Clash Royale is stealing Clash of Clan's playerbase: CoC's revenue initially dropped 23%. Not surprising. I posit both games share similar demographics, or at least a large majority of players fall in the center of the Venn diagram featuring the brothers. But, Clash Royale also experienced a dip in numbers, falling 16% from May to June and 12% from June to July. Maybe players are tired of the Clash series and looking to newer titles?
In other playerbase-stealing news, if the rumors that Blizzard will be announcing a Starcraft HD remake at Blizzcon 2016 are true then the re-release may hurt Starcraft 2. Even now, Starcraft 2 never managed to live up to the competitive scene of its predecessor, struggling to establish itself in the eSport community. A relaunched Starcraft 1 may mean Blizzard wants to invigorate the first title's playerbase and push it for the competitive scene.
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From Mega Man II to Ape Escape, I've been playing games for as long as I can remember. I've spent months killing porings in Ragnarok Online and more recently lived a second life in Eve Online. I usually play as gUMBY, gUMBLEoni, or gUMBLes in-game.
