The year 2022 was a challenging one for the mobile gaming industry, with fewer game licenses, stricter anti-addiction mechanisms, and the global economic downturn. These factors presented difficulties for industry professionals and allowed players to more directly sense the overall changes in the gaming industry through the reduction of heavyweight new releases and the shutdown of numerous older games.
In this extraordinary year of 2022, TapTap, which has been striving to help players ‘discover great games,’ underwent what changes and what data is worth paying attention to? What industry trends can be observed from this data? Let’s explore these insights together through the ‘2022 TapTap Annual Report,’ observing the interesting, unique, and potentially overlooked aspects of the mobile gaming industry over the past year from TapTap’s perspective.Distribution Trends: Annual Downloads Grow Against the Trend, Open-World Games Lead the ‘Heavy Gameplay’ Trend In 2022, the total annual game downloads on the TapTap platform reached 801 million, a year-on-year increase of 32.33%. Notably, against the backdrop of a negative growth in the scale of Chinese game users in the first half of 2022, this growth is more attributed to the continued expansion of TapTap’s user base and the optimization of download distribution paths.
Under the premise of some domestic top mobile brands’ relentless strengthening of restrictions and interception of third-party app markets, such growth also proves the long-term value of more valuable game recommendations and more comprehensive game content communities for players and game manufacturers. With the gradual opening of the iOS third-party app market, it is expected that iOS users will also be able to enjoy higher quality game services in the future. In terms of annual blockbuster trends, due to the reduction in the number of heavyweight new releases, products with tens of millions of downloads on TapTap are still dominated by familiar products such as ‘Sausage Party,’ ‘Genshin Impact,’ and ‘Sky: Children of the Light.’ However, at the same time, there are also some ‘new faces’ worth paying attention to. ‘Subway Surfers’ was one of the biggest ‘dark horses’ of 2022, but its ‘second spring’ is not entirely due to luck. As early as last March, before ‘Subway Surfers’ became popular again in China, we had already been paying attention to this product. Unlike its once lukewarm popularity in China, it has always been very popular globally. In 2021, it still ranked second in global mobile game downloads. In addition to its core gameplay that has stood the test of time, the game’s consistent high-intensity version updates over the past decade and its emphasis on operations are also important reasons why it was able to seize the opportunity to become popular again in China.In stark contrast to the resurgence of old friends, a large number of games that have been in operation for less than a year are closing their servers. Is it due to the quality of the games themselves or the failure of operation? This question is worth more contemplation.
The success of works such as ‘Neon Abyss: Infinite’ and ‘Egg Party’ has opened up more possibilities for bringing PC and console gameplay experiences to mobile platforms. The buy-to-play model represents the purest gaming experience, the most recognized way by PC and console players. Offering free downloads with in-game purchases of items or content lowers the barrier to entry and attracts more potential users; this is an inevitable choice to make. However, the prerequisite for pursuing greater commercial success is to maintain the original gameplay experience without disruption. Simply and crudely grafting mature ‘single-player’ gameplay onto the mobile game business model will not gain player approval. Opportunities have always arisen, from the auto-chess of a few years ago to last year’s ‘Vampire Survivor’, but opportunities are only for games that are well-crafted in their gameplay. In 2022, the popularity of open-world games continues to rise. Despite a limited number of open-world mobile games actually launched, downloads still increased by 50.31% year-on-year, proving that players’ demand for open-world games remains strong. Contrary to the stereotype that TapTap users prefer indie and anime games, in 2022, TapTap saw a significant increase in downloads in SLG and idle play categories – as the platform’s overall user base grows, the user attributes inevitably change. Through algorithmic distribution, some niche users can now find games more suited to them on the platform. From the pre-order volume of products and categories, we can see that action games stand out. ‘Subnautica: Below Zero’, ‘Sonic Frontiers’, and ‘Hades’ have further strengthened the operability of the game from their respective directions and have gained more player expectations. The performance of anime products, occupying three out of the top five pre-orders, also proves that this category still has untapped potential. If anime products can obtain more licenses in 2023, it is believed that there will be an unexpected performance. ‘Shine’, with over 1.3 million pre-orders, has entered the top five and is the only game leaning towards female-oriented dress-up and management. Although in recent years, pure female-oriented products have not had the momentum of large and small factories competing for layout as in previous years, they still have a considerable user base. From the other three anime products, it is not difficult to see that after years of development, leading products no longer have a particularly obvious gender orientation.Paid mobile game sales have been a traditional strength of TapTap. In 2022, high-quality titles such as ‘Tribal and Blade,’ ‘A Look Inside the Cage,’ ‘Evoland 2,’ and ‘The Adventures of a Young Man’ achieved significant sales. On the other hand, the long-tail sales of high-quality paid games were also considerable, with ‘Terraria’ and ‘Human: Fall Flat’ showing enduring vitality on mobile platforms.
It is anticipated that in the coming years, with the release of high-definition mobile games and the improvement of players’ phone configurations, more console and PC titles that were difficult to port due to performance issues will have the opportunity to launch mobile versions.Exclusive games on console platforms significantly influence player purchasing decisions, and even in the era of multi-platform distribution, ‘time-limited exclusivity’ remains a crucial bargaining chip in the competition between console and PC game platforms. On mobile platforms, the importance of ‘exclusive games’ is also increasing. In 2022, TapTap’s exclusive game downloads reached 184 million times, a year-on-year increase of 109%, and the number of exclusive game signings reached 219, a year-on-year increase of 44%. Continuous investment in exclusive games will be one of the important means of differentiated competition. Unlike console ‘exclusive games,’ mobile ‘exclusive games’ do not create hardware barriers, requiring less ‘sacrifice’ for mobile game developers and players, making it easier to form a win-win cooperation.
User Ecosystem: Rapid Development of UGC Ecosystem, Discovering Great Games Beyond Reviews. In 2022, player reviews on TapTap received over 12.7 billion exposures, and the introduction of more detailed evaluation dimensions such as playability and operational services provided players with more referential review forms. TapTap’s game reviews and ratings continue to maintain a unique content ecosystem and influence, and they are also the most intuitive reference for manufacturers regarding player feedback.
Beyond game reviews, the rapid growth in the number of UGC content such as text and videos has provided players with more ways to ‘discover great games.’ Over 70,000 high-quality videos cover the content needs before and after players download, giving TapTap players more dimensions to assist in their download decisions beyond game reviews, and also providing more choices when browsing content of interest.
Experience Support: From ‘What Games to Play’ to ‘How to Play Games.’ In 2022, TapTap provided more comprehensive operational tools on the developer service level. Even without rich development and operational experience, you can realize your game ideas through the ‘Creative Workshop’ with low barriers, use ‘Live Streaming’ for initial game exposure, recruit internal test players through ‘Bonfire Test,’ enhance player activity and retention with ‘Sign-in’ and ‘Forum Activities’ when the game is launched, and even use ‘Cloud Play’ and ‘TapPlay’ to give players more gaming options.
Once, cloud gaming was a concept belonging to console and PC games. Playing a mobile game via the cloud on a mobile phone was once an unimaginable scenario. However, the increasing configuration requirements and installation package sizes of major mobile games have become insurmountable obstacles for low – configuration and low – capacity mobile phones. In 2022, more than 19 million players used TapTap’s cloud gaming service, with the average usage time reaching 8.
4 hours. The mobile cloud gaming service, which allows users to play high – quality major games without downloading, installing, and with low – configuration devices, enables more players to overcome the obstacles of mobile phone configuration at the lowest cost and experience high – quality game works. The larger user base of mobile games and the relatively lower cloud gaming prices give mobile cloud gaming more room for imagination. As cross – platform mobile games landing on PCs and consoles are gradually becoming the mainstream, the increase in the configuration requirements of major mobile games is a foreseeable result. Mobile cloud gaming will be an essential tool for more players to experience major mobile games. The progress of production tools is an important driving force for reducing the threshold of creation. The evolution of the shooting effects of mobile phone cameras and the popularization of 5G networks have made it possible for everyone to become content creators through videos and live broadcasts. However, game development has always been a field that ordinary people have difficulty quickly entering due to the hard threshold of coding. Spark Editor is a low – threshold game development tool. The built – in graphical interface, art materials, and even gameplay templates give more ordinary players the opportunity to become game developers. In 2022, games made with this still – in – testing development tool received more than 14 million playtimes, and the hit work “Unknown: Ascension” received more than 7 million playtimes, initially verifying the possibility of creating good works recognized by players using Spark Editor. In 2022, TapTap continued to grow. It is not just about “discovering good games”. We are also striving to help more players who dream of becoming developers create the good games in their minds; provide players with richer and more valuable decision – making dimensions; and better connect developers, content creators, and players. In 2023, let’s continue to work hand in hand with every developer and Tapper to discover good games, play “good games”, and “play games well”!
