Level Up with App Annie’s Revolutionary Games Analytics Product
A decade ago, the gaming industry was very different than it is today. Consoles were king and smartphones were nascent.
Fast forward to today: mobile games have gone mainstream and have changed the gaming landscape as we know it. This year alone, more than 20 billion games have been downloaded worldwide, 3x the number of people on earth.
The result of this growth is an incredibly complex games ecosystem, with a diverse audience playing many different types of games, and multiple categories continuing to proliferate across the app stores.
Yet without a way to granularly segment the gaming industry or to pinpoint the in-game features and attributes that drive success, games publishers have been obstructed from analysis at the default app store category level, and risk missing out on the next best opportunities.
App stores provide some level of classification through their own categories, but they’re not up-to-date and are overly broad. As a result, some publishers have established their own taxonomies on an ad hoc basis - a time-consuming and arduous process that's challenging to maintain.
“With millions of games in the stores, there hasn’t been a meaningful way to classify and segment the games industry. Game IQ changes all of this, providing an altogether new way for publishers to strategize game launches and size up market trends.” —James Gagen, Principal Product Manager, Game IQ, App Annie
Game IQ changes this. Our product leverages data science to create and maintain a customizable taxonomy that automates game analysis at scale.
The heart of Game IQ is our new game taxonomy, developed with leading gaming industry experts. Game IQ delivers visual reports to answer questions such as:
- Market size: What are the market opportunities under the different granular categories?
- Class: Is the game tuned for Core, Casual, or Casino players?
- Genre: Which genre fits the gameplay - RPG, Hyper Casual, etc?
- Subgenre: What is the core loop of the game - Slots, Match 3 Puzzle, etc?
- Tags: What are the unique app characteristics such as IP, art style, monetization mechanic or gameplay features? View the full tags list here.
“Game IQ goes many levels deeper. It's not just about understanding that, for example, amongst all Core games, Turn-based games have the highest ARPU. It enables users to go beyond this to understand that amongst Turn-based games, most of them monetize via Gacha/Loot boxes, and also have unique IP.” —Junde Yu, General Manager, Gaming, App Annie
This streamlining allows publishers to:
- Inform their product roadmap based on game play trends, granular market sizing, and competitor strategies.
- Discover new regions for user acquisition or global expansion, by understanding regional gameplay trends and market potential.
- Find new markets by noting the other types of games that your users are playing (and their specific IP, game features, themes, and monetization models).
- Never lose sight of the top games and top gaming companies leading genres, subgenres, and more.
- Understand how specific features, IPs, and monetization mechanics lead to game success.
Additionally, we’ve launched Custom IQ, enabling users to build their own custom classifications. Custom IQ can be used to tweak the Game IQ taxonomy to just the way you need it — or to create your own taxonomy altogether.
The Game IQ taxonomy — combined with App Annie’s industry-leading market estimates, out-of-the-box reports, and data visualizations — transforms the way that publishers strategize new game launches and optimize for market changes.
Take a deeper look at how Game IQ’s groundbreaking taxonomy and customizable reports can transform how you publish games today:
We are proud to already be supporting leading game publishers such as SciPlay, PlayStudios, and more.
The Game IQ team will be hosting live demos of Game IQ. Register today!
