AppMagic shared the best games of February by Revenue & Downloads; Hogwarts Legacy is the largest launch in Europe in the last 6 years; Appodeal shared eCPM benchmarks in 2022.
This week:
- AppMagic: Top Mobile Games of February 2023 by Revenue and Downloads
- GSD & GfK: The UK market came back to growth in February 2023
- ERA: UK 2023 Gaming Report
- GSD: Hogwarts Legacy is the largest European release of the last 6 years (excluding FIFA)
- Appodeal: Yearly eCPM Report (2023 Edition)
- Newzoo: Top-20 on Nintendo Switch by MAU is more diverse than on PlayStation and Xbox
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AppMagic: Top Mobile Games of February 2023 by Revenue and Downloads
Revenue
- Honor of Kings earned $113.5M on IAP in February 2023 which took it to the top.
- Genshin Impact with 111.7M IAP purchases made great competition to the MOBA from Tencent.
- Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle got back to the top 10 with $40M IAP revenue.
Downloads
- In February 2023 only one new game appeared in the downloads chart – Dumb Ways to Die. The game was in the charts in 2013, but it was 10 years ago, so we’ll consider it as a new one. Now the game became viral thanks to TikTok, and developers released a new update. Dumb Ways to Die is a compilation of mini-games that teaches people about the right behavior on roads.
- ROBLOX became the most downloaded game of February 2023.
GSD & GfK: The UK market came back to growth in February 2023
Games
- 2.8M console and PC games were sold in the UK in February. It’s 11% growth YoY.
- Hogwarts Legacy is the main game of the month. Its launch week sales were 100% higher than Elden Ring’s – the largest game of February 2022. After 3 weeks of sales, Hogwarts Legacy is close to overcoming overall sales of Elden Ring.
- The Last of Us: Part II is back to top-10; sales of The Last of Us Remastered (+50%), and The Last of Us: Part I increased too. Absolute numbers are not so high, but there is a notable effect from the HBO series.
Consoles and accessories
- 143k consoles were sold in the UK in February 2023. It’s 65% higher than last year and 14% more than in January.
- PlayStation 5 sales skyrocketed by 316% YoY, and 27% to January. The first two months of 2023 sales are 180% higher than in the first two months of 2022.
- Xbox Series S|X sales increased by 21% YoY, and by 15% MoM.
- Nintendo Switch sales are declining. In February it showed a drop of 15% in MoM sales. YoY decrease was 29%.
- 511.6k accessories were sold in the UK in February. It’s 17% lower than in January, and 14.4% lower than in February 2022.
- DualSense is remaining the leader in sales.
ERA: UK 2023 Gaming Report
ERA released a massive report about the entertainment market in the UK. Despite having many numbers, it allows comparing gaming with other verticals – music, and video.
- The overall entertainment UK market volume is £11.083B.
- In 2022 games were responsible for 42% of this amount; video content (movies, TV series, etc.) – for 40%; music – for 18%.
- Despite the fact that other sources are telling (like GSD, and GfK) about the declining gaming market, ESA analysts found that it grew by 2.3% to £4,66B.
- You might have heard a lot recently that video games are the largest entertainment market in the world. In 2023 the UK leadership may return to video content. Its growth hasn’t stopped after the pandemic in 2022 it surged by 14.4%. And this is the main entertainment market growth driver.
- Game sales in digital format in 2022 grew by 3.1; physical sales declined by 4.5%. 89.5% of video game sales in the UK have been made digitally.
- Steam (50.5%) and PlayStation Store (37.9%) are the main platforms for buying digital games in the UK.
- Sony is accountable for 45% of the UK console market; Nintendo – for 44%; Microsoft – for 11%. Only software sales are included here.
- The average price of the physical version of the game in the UK in 2022 increased by 6.7% to £36,47.
- FIFA 23 sales in the UK in 2022 resulted in 2.5M copies. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has been bought 1.68M times. Elden Ring sold 865k copies.
GSD: Hogwarts Legacy is the largest European release of the last 6 years (excluding FIFA)
Games
- Hogwarts Legacy is #6 in launch sales in the last 6 years with only FIFA games ahead. Hogwarts Legacy starting sales are better than any Call of Duty game; Elden Ring; Red Dead Redemption II, and other hits.
- After 3 weeks of sales, Hogwarts Legacy is already at #5 in the overall yearly chart. FIFA 23, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Grand Theft Auto V, and Elden Ring are yet to be overcome.
- Despite Hogwarts Legacy’s success, European game sales declined by 10% YoY to 12.9M copies sold.
- Analysts are connecting it with fewer releases than last year, where Elden Ring, Horizon: Forbidden West, Dying Light 2, and Total War: Warhammer 3 were released in February.
- Atomic Heart made it to the 9 place by sales in February 2023.
- The Last of Us: Part II sales increased by 317%, and The Last of Us Remastered sales were up by 285%. Thanks to the HBO’s TV Series.
Consoles and accessories
Numbers excluding the UK and Germany markets.
- PlayStation 5 sales in Europe in February 2023 surged by 5 times compared to the previous year.
- Nintendo Switch sales were down by 28%.
- PS5 is the strong leader by sales in Europe in February; Nintendo Switch was second; Xbox Series S|X is third with +13% YoY growth.
- 1.27M accessories have been sold in Europe in February 2023 (-0.2% YoY). The leader is the same as all last months – DualSense.
Appodeal: Yearly eCPM Report (2023 Edition)
The research is based on 200B+ views; 70+ ad channels; 100+ thousand apps. Data were collected from January 2022 to December 2022.
Mature markets
- eCPM on iOS in Rewarded Ads and Interstitials was more or less stable in 2022 in Tier-1 countries.
- eCPM of banner ads increased in Tier-1 countries on iOS.
- Rewarded Ads eCPM on Android in the US declined from $24.48 in January 2022 to $18.36 in December 2022. And many Tier-1 countries followed the negative trend.
- eCPM of Interstitial formats on Android is declining too.
- eCPM of the banner format on Android is copying the iOS movement – it’s growing, but not as fast as on iOS.
Emerging markets
- Rewarded Ads eCPM in Saudia Arabia on iOS increased through 2022 almost 2 times – from $6.79 in January 2022 to $12.06 in December. In no other countries, such massive growth was detected.
- Interstitial format eCPM on iOS in Saudi Arabia grew too – from $4.45 in January 2022 to $7.61 in December 2022.
- Russia is showing impressive growth in banner format eCPM on iOS – from $0.13 in January 2022 to $0.32 in December 2022. This is on par with Canada ($0.31), and higher than in South Korea ($0.23) or Germany ($0.14).
Newzoo: Top-20 on Nintendo Switch by MAU is more diverse than on PlayStation and Xbox
Newzoo tracked the top 20 games on console platforms by MAU in January 2023. Markets are the US and the UK.
- Fortnite, Pokemon Scarlet / Violet, and Minecraft are the top-3 games by MAU on Nintendo Switch in January 2023.
- Gamers on Nintendo Switch in general do prefer more genres. In the top 20, there are 12 genres, while on PlayStation and Xbox – there are only 6.
- The most popular games by MAU on Nintendo Switch are platformers. Simulations, RPGs, and sports games are next. There is only one shooter in the top 20.
- Among the top 20 games by MAU on PlayStation and Xbox – are 5 shooters and 5 sports games.
