Attack Hole gains popularity again, black hole games bring surging downloads and ad creatives

With the aid of its App Intelligence and other modules, SocialPeta sorted out the top 20 global mobile games by advertising, revenue, and downloads in January 2023, hoping to help mobile app industry professionals better understand changes in the global mobile game market.

The overall performance of global mobile games in January included several notable developments:

• Attack Hole saw soaring downloads, helping black hole mini-games gain popularity.
• SpringGame targeted the South Korean market again, advertising 이모탈 소울 primarily with creatives built around a character's back view.
• Newly released cards attracted attention and helped Fate/Grand Order achieve a 40% month-over-month increase in revenue.
• With its first TV ad, Royal Match recorded nearly 200% month-over-month revenue growth.

Media Buying Keyword: Mini Game

Panoramik Games made extensive use of black hole mini-games when advertising Mighty Party. The game released many black hole-themed creatives, with its video ads resembling the gameplay popularized by Attack Hole.

According to SocialPeta's Advertiser Analysis at the time, Mighty Party released about 2,900 deduplicated creatives in January, keeping the title at No. 2 on the iOS advertising ranking.

• Casual, casino, and music media platforms were among its top advertising platform categories.
• Its main advertising regions included Portugal, Romania, and France.
• Video accounted for 100% of the creatives released during the referenced 30-day period.
• Popular mini-game concepts included black hole games, stickman tower climbing, line drawing, and policeman-and-thief gameplay.

In addition to black hole creatives, Mighty Party also released creatives based on other gameplay modes, including policeman-and-thief and stickman tower-climbing concepts.

Media Buying Keyword: Back View

After the release of 엑자일: 어벤징 파이어 in South Korea in August, SpringGame made another push into the market. In January, 이모탈 소울 entered the iOS advertising ranking at No. 3 with around 2,200 deduplicated creatives.

According to SocialPeta's Advertiser Analysis at the time:

• Arcade, simulation, and puzzle media platforms were among its top three advertising platform categories.
• Most creatives were videos and images, with image creatives accounting for more than 53%.
• 이모탈 소울 frequently used numbers in its ad copy, including messages such as "5-year R&D, 6 major classes, 48 class changes."

The game's recent creatives were characterized by different class-quest backgrounds and corresponding changes in maps. Its detailed in-game environments made the scenes visually expressive, while the repeated use of characters shown from behind was intended to stimulate player curiosity.

One example referenced in the original article ran on Facebook News Feed and had estimated impressions of approximately 187,000.

Strong media buying was not limited to MMO, card battle, mid-core, and hardcore games. Casual puzzle-game advertisers were also active. Rollic's hyper-casual game Crowd Evolution! had approximately 7,000 deduplicated creatives in January, while Two Dots, Braindom, and other puzzle games remained on the advertising ranking with stable creative output.

App Store Revenue Highlights

• Thanks to the Chinese New Year period and the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M4 World Championship, MLBB recorded 187.4% month-over-month revenue growth in January.
• ウマ娘 プリティーダービー continued expanding its product matrix. During January, the franchise announced a stage drama and held the Racing Carnival game event, while game revenue increased 131.5% month over month.
• The well-known match-3 game Royal Match released its first TV advertisement on December 23. The campaign brought the game broad exposure and was followed by nearly 200% month-over-month revenue growth in January.

Google Play Revenue Highlights

• モンスターストライク collaborated with the Gundam series. Related news and livestream activity across Twitter, YouTube, and other social platforms accompanied a 77.9% month-over-month increase in revenue.
• Fate/Grand Order released New Year events and unusually designed character cards. The visual contrast attracted player attention and coincided with approximately 40% month-over-month revenue growth.
• The then-new anime-style title NIKKE continued regular content and character-banner updates, recording relatively stable revenue with approximately 6% month-over-month growth.

Can you believe those are cards from an anime-style game in 2023?

App Store Download Highlights

• Party games experienced renewed momentum. Downloads of Stumble Guys and Among Us! increased approximately 187% and 190% month over month, respectively.
• Free Fire launched Spring Festival celebrations, livestreaming and metaverse-related activities, as well as an IP collaboration with Devil May Cry. Its downloads increased approximately 227.8% month over month.
• Playrix had three titles on the ranking simultaneously: Gardenscapes, Township, and Homescapes. Downloads for all three increased by more than 150% month over month.

Google Play Download Highlights

• ABI's makeup simulation game Makeover & Makeup ASMR combined detailed makeup simulation with ASMR elements. Its creatives also used striking treatment imagery, including wound cleaning and other intentionally attention-grabbing scenes. According to SocialPeta App Analysis in the original report, the Brazilian market contributed approximately 3.10 million downloads.
• Homa's hyper-casual game Attack Hole adapted the familiar black-hole gameplay mechanic and remained on the U.S. free-game ranking for several days. It also inspired black-hole mini-game creatives used by mid-core and hardcore advertisers. Attack Hole recorded more than 10 million downloads in January.
• Supersonic's casual puzzle game Emoji Puzzle combined traditional linking gameplay with emoji culture and rapidly updated content based on social-media trends. According to SocialPeta App Analysis, Emoji Puzzle was updated three times in January and recorded 145.5% month-over-month download growth.

January 2023 highlighted how quickly a simple gameplay mechanic could spread beyond a single hit game. Attack Hole's growth did not only affect download charts; its black-hole mechanic also became a recognizable pattern in advertising creatives for other mobile games.