Matrix of mobile games according to the Flurry version

The specialists of Flurry have built a “loyalty table” in which the nine most popular game genres and the frequency of access to them are marked.

Apps are big business. Moreover, as Flurry analysts write, games earn the most. Of the 10 billion that the mobile application industry will receive in 2012, 80% will fall on them. All this is well known, as well as the fact that the key direction of the modern industry is f2p projects.

The question that was asked in Flurry is different: which genres are most popular with users. More specifically, the analysts analyzed the behavior of mobile players and differentiated it by the frequency of use of programs, the level of retention, as well as separately by demographic parameter.

Based on the data obtained, they built a table reflecting the relevance of the types of games presented on the market, based on their position in the market.

The level of user’s attention retention for 90 days is the X–axis, the frequency of application use per week is the Y–axis.

Square I is a “tidbit” for developers, it includes those games that are not only long, but also often played: these are social step-by-step projects (most likely, they mean projects a la Draw Something), slot machines and builders. The former successfully form a loyal base of users who love to play with their friends. “One-armed pirates” and builders earn well on IAP, although Flurry notes that such projects have very good advertising potential.

Square II is characterized by very intensive “use” for a short period of time. And here, basically, strategic games are presented. The audience for such projects is demanding, and the game life cycle is short. Successful monetization is possible if PvP is introduced and costs are rewarded with rapid game progress. Since users play such projects often, then they pass the games quickly, as a result, it is necessary to constantly and promptly release additional content.

The games from Square III also attract a fickle audience. Therefore, in order to earn money, they have to go to various tricks. By the way, card collectible games are just from this square. The fact that they are played for a short time and rarely does not prevent Japanese developers from earning huge sums on such projects.

In the ivth square, there are those games that, as Flurry experts write, can remain in the “gaming gamelist” for years. The lack of a certain depth (simplicity of mechanics) does not allow you to earn money in them on IAP, but this is compensated by advertising (a classic example is the game “Tetris”).

Slightly lower is the differentiation of the popularity of games by gender and age. 

For the study, Flurry used data on more than 300 million users who played free titles on iOS and Android.