King Digital Beta Testing First Mobile Social Casino Game
Tia Winter | 13 October 2017
King Digital, a subsidiary of Activision, is currently beta testing its first mobile social casino game. With over 85% of social casino games now being played on smartphones and tablets, the move from King Digital is a clear effort to claim its share of the social gaming market and take advantage of the rise of Denada Casino gaming.
King Digital’s social casino games may even add to the firm’s growing $70 million monthly net sales from its popular Candy Crush Saga – a magical candy-themed mobile puzzle game that requires players to match various candies in order to progress to the next level and unlock new features.
The social casino gaming industry is now projected to generate over $4.4 billion in revenues in 2017 alone, making it an exceptionally profitable arm of the iGaming industry as a whole. Furthermore, over 84% of social casino players have been shown in studies to now be playing via smartphones, making mobile-optimised games a key source of revenue for social gaming developers.
King Digital To Release Royal House Pokies Soon
An average estimate states that mobile social casino players play for around 57 minutes per gaming session, and also spend $39.87 per month on average on in-game purchases. Pokies players have also been shown to have the highest Lifetime Value on smartphones on average at $324. King Digital has based their first-ever social casino game for mobile – Royal House Pokies – on this statistic.
There is no doubt that the social casino industry is a rapidly growing opportunity for Activision Blizzard and its subsidiaries. According to Eilers and Krejcik Gaming LLC, the social casino market has been growing at a CAGR of as much as 30% every year since 2012 – explaining why King Digital has chosen to break into the industry with its flagship social casino game for mobile.
Social Casino Gaming Becomes Increasingly Profitable
Activision’s financial future may depend on its entry into the social casino sphere, even though firms like ICT, Playtika and Zynga have long dominated the market. Korean firm NetMarble attempted to purchase Playtika for a whopping $4.3 billion in 2016, but unfortunately, a Chinese consortium won the bid with a slightly higher offer.
The $4.4 billion acquisition of Playtika is yet another compelling piece of evidence that game publishers should become more serious about social casino gaming. As of March last year, Playtika was enjoying a 26% market share in the social casino industry, with projected revenues of $1.14 billion in 2017 – a figure that Activision could replicate if successful.
Source links:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4112477-activision-now-expanding-social-casino-games