Image source @Visual China
Text｜OM Research Institute
From "one night of popularity" to "following the trend", "The Sheep" only took one day.
htmlOn September 15, "A Sheep" created Douyin with more than 1.6 billion, Weibo topics with more than 2.2 billion topics. The Baidu search index is close to 800,000 in a single day, and the game was once so popular that the server crashed three times within 2 days.thought it would quickly fall into the curse of "quick decay" of the H5 internet celebrity mini game, but as the difficulty of the "perverted second level" game decreased last week, many netizens who "refuse to be cut off" clicked on the game again. Some people said: "I brushed it 68 times and finally passed the level." The core gameplay of
"Sheep a Sheep" is to click on the square with a pattern. The square will move to the slot below the game interface. Collect three identical patterns, and the corresponding blocks in the slot can be eliminated, and there are only seven slots. Once full, the game will fail. After failure, you can resurrect by watching the ad.
Some netizens revealed that the gameplay is not new. "3 Tiles" has been available overseas in 2020. The biggest difference between "The Sheep" is only the different patterns. Faced with the public opinion of "plagiarism", the producer responded: "Unfortunately, plagiarism is a very common problem in game development." The statement of
is actually not without reason. Looking around the world, "The Sheep is a Sheep" actually has many similar products. "Cube Master 3D" which was launched last year is one of them. The game achieved a quarterly increase of up to 2239% in the first quarter of this year.
and, we found that Tile elimination gameplay has become the second only to traditional match-3 in the elimination track, and its growth in emerging markets mainly comes from India, , Brazil, .
uses Tile elimination as the object. We found more than 20 similar products active in the two places and found that they used concentrated buying volume to drive user growth in January and July this year, with a DAU of up to 2.38 million (India).
Due to the large differences in data of each product, the following will reveal the way of eliminating the track by comparing the differences between the Top similar products in India and Brazil and "The Sheep".
01 Market inventory: India-Pakistan mobile game
Compared with "Sheep" deliberately creating marketing topics to "break the circle", India's Tile Elimination Game still stays at the traditional game design level, mostly displaying 3D three-dimensional cartoon elements, using "countdown cards" and "high-difficulty levels" to satisfy users' desire to challenge.
Tile Master 3D ® - Match 3D
As the Tile Elimination Game of India's Top 1, the overall design is very European and American. Elimination items appear in 3D three-dimensional forms such as rugby , football, snowman, candy, cookies, Christmas tree, Easter eggs, etc. Although
also stacks elements together, unlike "The Sheep", the superposition of "Tile Master 3D" is more casual. Due to three-dimensional reasons, players can see each layer of elements more clearly.
Therefore, "Step in Hand" has become the player's game goal. The game will set a "passing countdown" above each game. In addition, a "Combo" limited-time statistics are added below the countdown. The shorter the clearance time, the more Combos you count continuously, the higher the reward for passing the level.
For example, in level 218, the player must pass the level within 5 minutes, and three identical elements can be eliminated. The 7 slots below fail when full. When the player clears the screen, the item will fall again, and the player needs to eliminate it again. This design is both easy and addictive.
and the game can be played offline, matching the current situation of the underdeveloped Internet in India.
Compared with pure IAA monetization, "Tile Master 3D" adopts a mixed monetization model. In addition to seeing advertisements to get rewards, players can choose to "pay to advertise" or "paid to purchase in-game gold coins". This monetization method can increase the game's revenue.
In the past year, the game has been concentrated in October, January and July. Observing the fluctuations in the data, we found that India accounts for about 50% of the globalization strategy of Tile Master 3D.
data: In the past year, Android, India, the same as
In addition to India, the game has also gained many users in Brazil, Mexico, and Egypt, indicating that this kind of gameplay can cover a certain vertical audience in various overseas emerging markets and is highly universal.
Cube Master 3D - Match Puzzle
If "Tile Master 3D" takes the easy decompression route, then "Cube Master 3D" takes the "brain-burning" route. Of course, the game did not deliberately design a "stick gimmick" like the second level of "The Sheep", but instead created a "visual blind spot" through the "three-dimensional Rubik's Cube". Players had to turn the Rubik's Cube to find a matching object.
The art elements in the game mostly appear in simple ways such as small animals, fruits, numbers, and toys. However, they must be printed on the six sides of the cube, which simplifies the design difficulty in this way. Although both are 3D effects, they are still much simpler than "Tile Master 3D".
is just like this game design that will lead to a longer single game time, and players have to spend more energy to find objects to eliminate them. It may not cause any storm in China, but overseas, like some traditional digital puzzle and puzzle games, there is a loyal audience, mainly women aged 30 to 60, with more leisure time, and they enjoy the pleasure of finally passing the level.
can be seen. "Cube Master 3D" has obtained relatively high user magnitude in the local vertical categories in India, Brazil, the United States, Mexico, Argentina , and Colombia. Taking Brazil as an example, the most popular game in the elimination of vertical categories is "Candy Crush Saga", which is also an Android version with nearly 5.7 million downloads in the past year. In comparison, "Cube Master 3D" has a lighter design and simpler gameplay, but it has also reached 3.66 million downloads.
Following this gameplay, we can find that there are many similar Rubik's Cube elimination games, including many products from major casual manufacturers such as Casual Azur, Voodoo, and Words Mobile. It can be seen that the theme of "Rubik's Cube" is applied to different gameplays and has been verified by the market.
Tile Master® - Classic Match
In terms of release time, this game should be the predecessor of "Tile Master 3D ®", released about one year earlier, and the common feature is "hand-striving speed".
game elements rise at a constant speed from bottom to top, and the element dies when it hits the top. Players can eliminate it by finding three identical elements. The game principle is similar to " Tetris ", and the element design is similar to the "Cube Master 3D" mentioned above, but the presentation method is more flat. The fun of the gameplay of
itself makes the game still have over 100,000 DAU in India so far. It is worth mentioning that the game mainly acquires customers in Brazil this year. Brazil has exceeded 200,000 DAU on the Android side in the past month.
In this year's version of the game, the game also added slot design and skin system to enrich the game content and allow gamers to better transition to the new product "Tile Master 3D".
Tiledom - Matching Puzzle
"Tiledom" was released as early as 2019. Compared with the above game, this one is a bit longer, but it is still active. The
GamePlay page and gameplay are highly consistent with "The Sheep", using a stacked card design and card slot elimination gameplay, but there is an extra gold coin system. In addition, you can get free in-game rewards when viewing advertisements. These two details are reserved for users.
In contrast, "The Sheep" removes these long-term designs and directly uses the "ultra-high difficulty level + traffic fission" method to stimulate users to watch advertisements, and achieves marketing to the extreme.
After all, from the perspective of game design alone, there will not be so many young players in this way of playing. From the user portraits of "Tiledom" in the United States, it can also be seen that women aged 51 to 60 are the main players, and they are older than the previous ones.
Tile Craft - Triple Crush, Tile Connect Master: Match fun
is a unique game. The former still maintains the activity of the monthly update version, but in addition to India and Brazil, Vietnam is also a very important market.
Tile Pair 3D - Tile Connect 3D
This game may be the least similar to "Sheep" game. Players only need to find two identical items within the specified time to eliminate them. After the elimination, the "3D disc" will be counted on top and stacked together like "chips".
As the introduction of this game, "Easy and unzip after dinner" is its entertainment goal. The patterns on the disc are also very lifelike, including Q-version poached eggs, watermelons, cakes, rice, fast food, flowers, etc. The pop-up advertisements are mostly related to takeaway catering, and the users are very subdivided.
cross-products are mostly focused on fruit and flower themes, with a target audience of 30 to 60+ housewives, and have certain users in India, Russia and Mexico.
Mahjong Solitaire - Master
This is a relatively niche Tile elimination game. Its main market is in the United States and has recently quickly gained customers in India and Brazil. The reason why it is niche is related to its "mahjong" theme, this is the only game on the list that is not so European and American.
It is worth mentioning that in the game's related videos, there are also copywritings such as "only 1% people can match them all", which shows that this is not the unique marketing strategy of "The Sheep".
Another difference from the aforementioned game is that the game has three difficulties, and players can choose simple, medium or hard modes by themselves. This is to expand user coverage as much as possible based on niche themes.
3 Tiles
Finally, let’s talk about the "3 Tiles" that has recently been pushed into the public opinion trend. This product was released by Belarusian manufacturer Appsulove. With the "plagiarism" storm of "The Sheep" has been on Weibo and Zhihu hot searches, many public account articles have analyzed the similarity between the two games. But in fact, after reading so many similar products above, you will find that "3 Tiles" is just one of the many products on this track.
It is undeniable that compared with the above products, it has relatively more young users, and users aged 21 to 40 account for 43% of the total game group (USA). This high proportion is related to its cute cartoon art style.
However, the game's overseas market performed relatively flat. Brazil is currently one of its most important markets and has not entered India. Interestingly, the recent downloads of the game are all from the Chinese iOS side. On September 20 alone, Chinese iOS players created 1.49 million downloads.
02 Key clues: Game design focuses on marketing creativity
People increasingly need a common social topic, and "The Sheep is a Sheep" meets social needs with a fast-paced, sad, regional competition, and star-led volume-based model. Under the fermentation of social fission and public opinion, players have also begun to spread spontaneously.
It can be said that "The Sheep is a Sheep" is a "topic show" jointly created by capital and social marketing. The reason why it can become a short-term phenomenon product is determined by its WeChat H5 mini game.
Tencent recently released the "2022 WeChat Mini Game Growth White Paper" revealed that the problem with mini games is that 's life cycle is short, the customer acquisition channel is single, the user portrait is not accurate enough, and it cannot reach potential users. "Sheep Less" solves the above problems through blocking levels, creating social topics, leveraging community fission, and creating regional competitions. In the process of the development of H5 mini games, the emergence of "Sheep Lesss" is both timely and provides reference significance for latecomers.
However, for mobile games going overseas, this marketing path has changed to a social environment. After changing to a track, it may not be replicable. Only ordinary developers can create game designs steadily can do it, and it is also acceptable for players in regions like India and Brazil.Entering the game with a low threshold, playing and stopping as you play. Is it the basis of passing the level, Xiaoxiaole has a wide range of players, but what really leaves the players is the incentive for the game to play. This incentive is similar to "The Sheep", and it is also the control of the difficulty of the level.
analyzes the popular Tile elimination level-breaking game in India and Pakistan. We found that as the player LT is extended, products that stand out in the niche track will keep the level within a suitable difficulty curve. A good level curve will give players a sense of "exploration-achievement-relaxation-proficiency-challenge-achievement" to rise step by step.
For example, when level 102, "Cube Master 3D" began to combine different elements and made the Rubik's Cube "interlaced and overlap" effect, making the levels familiar to players, and increase the difficulty of the game through changes in details.
In addition, the elimination mini-games in India and Brazil are more focused on "easy and decompression". After all, the audience is mostly for women aged 30 or even over 30 who have free time. To consider long-term retention and monetization issues, game design should focus on marketing strategies.
: Whether the marketing effect of "The Sheep" can be realized in the Indian and Pakistan mobile game, and how much budget is required to be tested, it still needs to be questioned at present.
03 vertical category deep cultivation: matrix-based, unconventional innovative test products
When we inventory similar products in India and Brazil, we found that game manufacturers like Higgs Studio have been deeply engaged in eliminating the track for many years. Perhaps not every product can be favored by the market, but compared with those companies that occasionally have hot products, multiple products that are perpendicular to a certain track will have more opportunities when resources can match, whether it is test products or user pool development.
For example, within three years, focusing on emerging markets such as India and Brazil, Higgs Studio has created more than a dozen elimination products. The difference between each one is not big, but the matrix method can measure the user's favorite design combination. In addition, when a new product attracts more volume, the old product can test the preferences of the original users by adding new content at a low cost, promote activity and iterate. The Tile track is actually very niche. Compared with traditional elimination and fusion elimination, it is theoretically difficult to produce popular products.
But from the previous product analysis, we can see that even such a vertical and niche track has its market space. The target users are accurate, benchmarked for products, and the market maturity is far beyond our imagination. This is the track opportunity after being vertical enough, and what is lacking is innovation and abnormality. Liu Xinhua (Partner of Gaorong Capital Investment and former Chief Growth Officer of Kuaishou) said: "A rule that is unusual is that sometimes it is easier to achieve a 10-fold growth than to obtain a 10% growth." In game design, it may be some bold details that make the hits.
Putting aside the characteristics of the H5 mini-game, "The Sheep" made an "unconventional" attempt in monetization goals. Generally speaking, games that focus on IAA monetization will consider user experience and will not force players to watch advertisements. However, "The Sheep" aims to make quick profits as its core goal, and has stuck the player's game process in the second level, forcing players to watch advertisements in disguise. This is one of them.
Secondly, in order to expand IAA revenue, many IAA games will also set up banner and interstitial ads in addition to incentive videos. However, "The Sheep of Sheep" only sets up incentive videos such as "Watching Ads Resurrection" and "Watching Ads Get a Prop", and forces players to watch advertisements frequently. This is why players complain: "The Sheep of Sheep" induces us to watch advertisements and fetch them, and we are that sheep."
But this does not prevent the game from quickly recovering its money and becoming a hit. Behind this, there are still some creative elements, and these creativity is the key to the vertical products standing out. Similarly, India and Brazil also have such market opportunities. Will such popular products appear in the future, and what will they look like? Let's wait and see.
Reference:
[1] Pass-through game ‘Sheep A Sheep’ becomes overnight sensing in China, while questions remain over durability - Global Times
[2] The "pushing hand" behind the hot search number one emerged. How is "Sheep A Sheep" operated? -DataEye
[3] 3Tiles responds to "Sheep" suspected of plagiarism: This is very unpleasant - Tencent
[4] 10 potential energy dividends that drive 10 times growth -36Kr
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-