Top 10 Hypercasual Games in Q2 2022
It’s mid-July, and that means it is time for our regular quarterly overview of the hypercasual games market segment.
— by Diana Levintova
It’s mid-July, and that means it is time for our regular quarterly overview of the hypercasual games market segment.
Traditionally, let’s compare the results of the year’s second quarter to its first one. During the months of April, May and June, the market reached 4.4B downloads, nearly leveling with that of the three previous months. Therefore, the first half of 2022 appears to demonstrate a general trend for market stagnation. However, if we compare the downloads in Q2 2022 (4.4B) to the downloads of Q2 2021 (4.0B), we will realize that the market has actually grown by 10%, even if the YoY delta is somewhat unstable from month to month.
Let’s now have a closer look at the top 10 games by downloads in the second quarter of 2022 and find out if there is anything unique that they’ve introduced to the market.
As usual, we can see a few old-timers that won’t give up their positions in the top ten, such as Bridge Race (No.1), Going Balls (No.8) and Count Masters - Stickman Clash (No.10); however, we won’t focus on them here since you know them quite well. Yet still, if you want to brush up on your knowledge of those titles, you can always go back to our earlier case studies.
Instead, let’s look at the new games in the chart. The first one to draw our attention was definitely Tall Man Run, which holds the second position in the top with its 49.6M downloads for the period. To better understand the title’s success, we referred to the case study published by Supersonic. Turns out, to make it this high in the chart, developers took a complex approach: they mixed in some trending mechanics (making the character taller and wider); made the game more dynamic (added levels and included new obstacles); introduced more monetization features (such as the skins shop); and produced cunning and quality creatives to lower CPI.
Next one up (or down, hehe) is line number three—Fill the Fridge, which has already gained 48.8M installs with a major share of those (15%) coming from the US. Fill the Fridge is a puzzle where the player has to organize the space in the fridge trying to fit in as many products as possible. The trend for such games comes from TikTok, where videos of fridge restocking have been harvesting millions of likes. Thus, it is far from the first time that we see how TikTok turns out to be the source of inspiration for developers that might otherwise be running out of ideas for new games.
The sixth position in the chart is occupied by Deliver It 3D with 34M downloads. Deliver It 3D is a hypercasual game where the general goal is to deliver orders to the clients avoiding obstacles on the way—and, of course, earn as much money as possible. Mechanics-wise, the game looks like an upgraded version of Left Turn!, also published by VOODOO. If we check the ad creatives of Deliver It 3D and Left Turn, we will find some similarities as well.
Tailgating is DOP 4: Draw One Part with 33.7M downloads. In this puzzle, the player is supposed to draw the part of the picture that’s missing in order to get to the next level. There’re quite a lot of similar games to be found in our classification by the tag Draw Line Puzzle. Even SayGames themselves released several “prequels” before with slightly different mechanics. What’s notable about this game in particular is its ad creatives, the most effective of which are rather edgy: for example, there is one where boobs have to be drawn in order to “make a girl prettier”, or fire gets sketched to get a woman to undress. However, let us mention here that traffic acquisition targets Low Tier countries such as India and Brazil. Altogether, it leads us to a conclusion that, in this case, the title’s success is linked to the fact that SayGames have realized what their audience is interested in and continued developing the theme based on their experience from previous titles.
The final game we’d like to highlight here sits at position 9 in the top: Dessert DIY has already gained 30.4M installs only one month after its release following its soft launch. Its main concept is about making desserts for clients at their request, bettering the cafe by buying equipment and furniture. Dessert DIY is yet another game with somewhat controversial creatives: for example, there are short videos where you watch ice-cream for celebrities being made from cockroaches and smelly poo. We wonder if that’s the reason behind such a big splash of downloads!
In conclusion, it seems safe to say that many successful developers in the hypercasual segment have comfortably adopted a multi-faceted approach to game design with a few distinct specifics to it, such as: relying on provocative ad creatives to catch their potential users’ attention; building on some older game mechanics reinvented afresh; and drawing inspiration from viral TikTok trends.
The article was written with the support of AppMagic invited experts - Anatoly Maximov and Anton Skudarnov. Anatoly is a game developer with 10+ year of experience, who currently is focusing on the hypercasual segment. Anton is a co-founder and CEO of hypercasual games studio Indie GameDev Club.