As we are moving right to the end of Q1 2016, it is time to review the China mobile game market. TalkingData released its latest report discussing China mobile game industry benchmark of January 2016. Here I will demonstrate some of the data from the report to deliver a general picture of China mobile game market to date, and make a comparison with the December 2015 one to show some insight of the trend in the market.
Basically, the China mobile game market didn’t change too much. The pay rate of mobile RPG on both Android and iOS platforms increased slightly through January 2016. The top one game genre of pay rate still goes to RPG, which increased around 0.03 percentage point compared to December 2015 on Android. On iOS, RPG also shows an increase of 0.02 percentage point.
Pay rate of China mobile game genres, January 2016 (Source: TalkingData, 2016)
One of the most important metrics in mobile game operation is DAU/MAU. The most rapid growth of DAU/MAU falls to Card Game on the iOS platform, with increased approximately 30.8% compared to December 2015. The Android platform shows a flatter trend of growth on Puzzle Game, Strategy Game, and Casual Game; each increased 9.1%, 8.3%, and 12.5%.
Average DAU/MAU of China mobile game genres on iOS, January 2016 (Source: TalkingData, 2016)
Chess Game, took over Puzzle Game in December 2015, ranks top on monthly active users for Android, and Casual Game keeps its leading position on iOS. Compared to the monthly active users in December 2015, the trend shows a 3.31 percentage point growth for Chess Game on Android and a 1.80 percentage point decrease for Casual Game on iOS.
Monthly active users of China mobile game genres, January 2016 (Source: TalkingData, 2016)
Day-one retention remains stable for most of the mobile game genres with a fluctuation within 10% on both of the platforms.
Day-one retention of China mobile game genres on iOS, January 2016 (Source: TalkingData, 2016)
For the peak time spent on each game genre, RPG is the only genre that shows a slight increase on both platforms compared to December 2015. On the other hand, the Android platform has three genres increased on their peak time spent, including Strategy Game, Casual Game and RPG, with RPG ranks the top of the peak time spent chart.
Peak time spent of China mobile game genres on iOS (in seconds), January 2016 (Source: TalkingData, 2016)
By comparing the January 2016 and December 2015 reports from TalkingData, there wasn't any dramatic change in the China mobile game space. It reassured my point of view about RPG and Action Games will dominate the mobile game market in 2016. You can check out my previous blog post here*.