Merge Mansion Triumphing with $0.5B User Spending
In this piece, we outline the game's metric dynamics, focusing on Metacore's team strategy in LiveOps, which boosted game performance.
— by Diana Levintova
Metacore Games’ hit Merge Mansion has arrived at a new user spending milestone: $0.5B! The game has experienced consistent growth since its launch in 2020, reaching its peak in the fall of 2023. Following this, there came a gradual decline until a certain stabilization in the recent months.
Disclaimer: To calculate user spending, we have revised the revenue metric displayed on the app’s page by adding back store fees and inclusive taxes that stores in some countries have to settle before making their payment to a publisher.
To give you a more precise number, in October 2023 the revenue of Merge Mansion reached its historical height at the $11.7M monthly revenue and then declined by 32% until hitting a plateau in February 2024 at $8M.
Today, we are doing a little deep dive into the liveops of Merge Mansion to try and figure out if there is any associated influence on the four earnings spikes in 2023, as well as to have a look at the approaches Metacore has been taking in 2024 so far in order to get its revenue back on the growth train.
Overall, looking at the game’s event greed, we can notice that it’s not as infused with different types of events as its close competitors, such as Travel Town or Gossip Harbor. Just have a quick peek at the last 90 days for the three games.
The main types of events in Merge Mansion include: - Seasonal events with a pass (e.g. The Wedding Mystery) - Events on a separate board featuring mechanics such as order fulfillment, object level maximization, board clearing, or decoration exchange (e.g. Double Date Disaster) - Bingo events (e.g. Recycle Runway Garage Cleanup) - Events with special orders on the main board (e.g. Box Car Derby) - Fishing events, a 2023 innovation (Lucky Catch and its seasonal variations)
Previously, Merge Mansion also hosted weekly events with a pass, priced similarly to their competitors' monthly passes. However, after running these events three times without the desired results, the studio decided to discontinue them.
As opposed to games like Travel Town or Gossip Harbor, Merge Mansion does not offer short engagement-boosting events that last only a day or a few hours; nor does it feature seasonal events built around albums and collectibles.
However, a notable aspect of the events is Metacore's emphasis on the narrative, reflecting the game’s overall focus. A distinctive feature of *Merge Mansion*’s liveops is the events on separate boards where the team experiments with simple mechanics.
A recent success for the liveops team is the introduction of Lucky Catch: this event features unique fishing mechanics designed to diversify the gameplay and extend player engagement through random gacha elements and multiple progression layers. Held on a separate board with its own energy system, Lucky Catch introduces an additional monetization layer through purchases with gems and real money. This innovative approach likely contributes to the event's success over similar undertakings by Gossip Harbor and includes multiple points for cashing in currency, potentially increasing player spending.
First introduced in September 2023, Lucky Catch coincided with the Deb’s Mystery event, leading to a 100% revenue spike.
It also contributed to an 83% revenue increase in October alongside Lady Voyance’s Mystery. Subsequently, it produced additional revenue spikes of 50% on average every time it ran again, with the latest in mid-April coinciding with The Wedding Mystery event and resulting in a hefty 90% revenue jump.
It would be safe to say that, while Merge Mansion experiments with events less frequently than the competitors, its innovations are proving successful, introducing new and effective event types that become quickly adopted by other leading titles in the genre.