Zynga riding high with social slot game
News on 15 Mar 2015
News on 15 Mar 2015
Zynga’s mobile social game ‘Hit It Rich! Free Casino Slots!’ was the subject of an assessment this week that also illustrated the potential of mobile social gaming in the publication Seeking Alpha.
The assessment quoted current numbers from the independent monitor Statista which showed that the Zynga offering, developed by subsidiary Spooky Cool Labs, is at number nine in the Top Ten games and delivers daily average sales from US iPad and iPhone users alone of $159,000, a figure the assessment estimates could be as high as $479,000 if Android and global usage is taken into account.
To put the figures into perspective, ‘Hit It Rich! Free Casino Slots!’ still has a way to go before it reaches the heights currently achieved by top game Clash of Clans, which has daily average sales of $1.63 million, but the important thing to note is the strong presence of social gaming apps on the overall list – the social casino genre is the third most lucrative mobile games category, with Hit it Rich, Big Fish Casino (sixth on the list) and GSN Casino at tenth.
Ways in which Zynga might extend its penetration into a clearly lucrative market are suggested by the study, principally to follow the example of Big Fish and expand the games choice to casino games beyond slots, such as blackjack or baccarat, increasing variety and interest in the offering.
Seeking Alpha also gives an interesting insight into the value of the social casino market, quoting statistics that indicate that this sector commanded 11 percent of mobile gaming revenue last year, according to the Casual Games Association, and that by the close of 2015 it will be worth $3.30 billion a year.
Newzoo estimates that mobile games revenue will reach $30.3 billion this year, so that sort of estimate is not too optimistic.
The Seeking Alpha article includes an interesting graphic of the top ten iPhone and iPad games in the United States, and can be accessed here:
