Does it make sense to release updates to games for sports competitions?

Based on the latest research by Opera Mediaworks, we assumed that today it makes sense for developers to release updates for major sporting events.

Recently, the advertising platform Opera Mediaworks published a study concerning the behavior of viewers while watching the basketball championship of the American National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The Championship can be called a major event in the sporting life of the United States. The number of people who watched it was more than 11 million people. Although, of course, he is far from the Super Bowl. Last year, 114 million people watched the final game for the National Football League title on NBC alone.

After conducting a survey of 800 mobile users who were also viewers of a series of NCAA basketball games, Opera found out that 46% of them played on mobile devices in parallel when watching live broadcasts. Opera does not specify at what moments they played. Perhaps during commercial breaks or breaks. But it’s not that important.

We are interested in something else here. Although the sample is not large, it seems to be quite representative, suggesting that such a solid number of “distractions” to the games is also true during other competitions. For example, when watching football or hockey matches.

From this, a completely banal conclusion is made about the existence of a large number of sports fans who are also interested in mobile games.

Another important point: as a rule, mobile developers observe a serious increase in revenue during seasonal and holiday updates — for Halloween, Christmas, Chinese New Year, and so on.

At the intersection of these thoughts, an assumption is born that today, in order to increase revenue from games, it also makes sense for developers to “put on stream” the production of content for any major sports competitions. For example, the introduction of temporary football-themed dungeons in battlers during the world Championship in this sport. Or, alternatively, replacing in three-in-a-row games those pebbles that need to be brought to the bottom of the field with pucks during hockey tournaments. Plus, of course, the mandatory thematic change of the icons and screenshots of the game itself in the stores for the corresponding event.

Such a decision may not only have a positive effect on the return of existing users to the game, which will temporarily increase revenue from the project, as happens within the framework of a regular seasonal update, but will also attract a new — sports — audience interested in the ongoing competition.

What do you think, do you have a similar experience?