Game Refinery and Liftoff have released a study on the situation in the social casino market

What the social casino market looks like on mobile platforms, how much it earns, what ROAS and CPI are on it, — Game Refinery and Liftoff told in a recent study.

The study covers the period from August 2020 to August 2021.

General facts

• During the reporting period, social casinos in the United States earned $990 million. This is only with iOS. As a result, such titles accounted for 18.89% of the local gaming revenue of the store.

• The category of social casinos is oversaturated. Almost all successful titles have been on the market for a very long time. During the year, none of the new products managed to break into the top 200 at the box office. The latest game in the cash rating — Cash Tornado Slots — was released in March 2020.

• There are men and women equally among the users of social casinos.
• The social casino has the oldest audience among all mobile games. 47% of players in such titles are over 45 years old.

CPI and ROAS

• The average per installation for the year was $7.21.

• CPI on Android at social casinos is almost twice cheaper than on iOS. So it was a year ago. The same situation is observed now. $5 on Android versus $11.09 on iOS.  But, as analysts note, a year ago the gap was slightly less significant. They explain the increased gap by changing the privacy rules for Apple devices.The average ROAS for social casinos is 11.12% on day 7 and 25.18% on day 30.
• This is significantly less than it was a year earlier (15.1% and 32.6%, respectively).
• On Android and iOS, the ROAS values are kept approximately at the same level. But on the seventh day, iOS showed the best results (11.34%), and on the thirtieth — Android (25.48%).

• If we talk about the CPI and ROAS map, the States traditionally show the best indicators.

Game mechanics

• During the year, various additional mechanics began to be used much more actively in social casinos.

• The vast majority of top social casinos (74%) use albums with collections. For comparison, last year the collections were only in 35% of the games from the box office top 100. The ability to collect rare items and receive rewards for them gives users an additional sense of progress.

• Another popular feature of social casinos is special events with new mechanics. They help to diversify the game and complicate the gameplay. Such events are usually associated with the main cycle of the game at the level of in-game currency or resources. At the beginning of 2020, this feature was present only in 40% of top projects, and in August 2021, it was already in 71% of games.

• Another popular mechanic in social casinos is the piggy bank system — they are in 70% of the most profitable games. Piggy banks work as follows: during the game, resources and currency are added to them, after which all the contents can be redeemed for real money.

• Guilds are also often found in top slots — this mechanic is present in 42% of games. It helps developers add social elements to the project and increase engagement. Guild members can communicate with each other, complete group tasks and participate in competitions.
• Over the year, the mechanics of seasonal passes have increased in popularity. If in January last year it was only in 5% of the box office leaders, then in August this year it was already in 36%. This feature accelerates the progress of users and gives them the opportunity to compete.

The full version of the report can be found here.