The end of the universe is elimination. Although it is a joke, in the field of leisure games, which play an important role in the mobile game industry, elimination games have always been the most important category. In addition to the classic three cancellations, there are three tracks that are more meaningful: merge elimination, stack elimination and simulation play
The end of the universe is elimination. Although it is a joke, in the field of leisure games, which play an important role in the mobile game industry, elimination games have always been the most important subdivision category. In addition to the classic three cancellations, there are three tracks that are more meaningful: merge elimination, stack elimination and simulation play.
For example, in the field of merger and elimination, Lemon Weiqu has achieved a monthly flow of more than 100 million yuan by virtue of Merge County. In the simulation track, the monthly flow of Happy Hospital: ASMR Doctor by Tianlong Mutual Entertainment is also close to 30 million yuan. Another track, stacking elimination, ushered in another "Big Mac" in the overseas market.
Recently, King launched the test of his new tour Candy Crush 3D in Google Play, Malaysia. So far, with the addition of Tencent, Zynga, Voodoo and other companies mentioned by Gamelook before, the de stacking track is likely to have a rapid growth, or even double growth, next year.
From 2D to 3D, the big guys have entered the race to stack and eliminate the track
Stack elimination does not appear today. As early as 2021, Turkish start-up Loop Games developed Match 3D, an ultra casual game released by Lion Studios under AppLovin, adopted this method of play. At that time, Tilting Point also publicly announced that it would invest 60 million dollars in buying this new product that was soon launched. After the addition of internal purchase, the monthly flow peak of this game exceeded 30 million yuan and helped Loop Games earn 200 million dollars in foreign exchange.
The play method of Match 3D is very similar to that of finding fault, which was popular in China a few years ago. Players only need to drag the same two or three items into the ball at the bottom of the screen to eliminate and obtain stars. The goal of each level is to eliminate all items on the screen within a limited time.
In the domestic market, "Sheep has a Sheep", which was screened on the whole network last year, is actually a stacking elimination game. The peak MAU of this game exceeds 100 million. According to third-party data in the industry, the revenue of the top four stacking elimination categories has reached 220 million yuan by August 2023, more than five times that of the same period two years ago.
From the perspective of monthly flow, Triple Match 3D is the best stack three elimination game at present. During August this year, its monthly flow was close to 130 million yuan, and then it has maintained the level of monthly flow of more than 100 million yuan. At the Q1 financial report conference in May this year, Tencent regarded Triple Match 3D as one of the contributors to the 25% year-on-year growth of its international game revenue. The developer and publisher Boombox Games have a close relationship with Tencent's overseas subsidiary Miniclip.
The core play method of Triple Match 3D is stacking, three elimination and fault finding. There will be many semi realistic daily items on the game panel, such as fruits, toys, sneakers, musical instruments, etc. Players need to complete specific elimination tasks within a fixed time. Click three identical items to put them in the item column below to eliminate them. Since there are too many stacked items, the elimination of the item list only has 7 spaces, so players need to make a quick decision in a short time.
Voodoo, the "king of small games", also launched the stack elimination product Block Jam 3D. In addition to the core play method, different from other games, players in Block Jam 3D need to click on three characters of the same color in the game desktop, and let them go to the item bar grid below to eliminate. The difficulty will increase with the level.
Not long ago, Zynga also launched the stack elimination game Match Factory. The core play method is very similar to Triple Match 3D, but a few physical effects are added, and the elimination items are mostly life oriented vacuum cleaners, fans and other props. Players need to select the same item from the item pile, and select three items to eliminate them, so they can pass the customs when they reach the goal. "Express packaging" animation was also added after the completion of the level to refine the transition link of the level and improve the user's sense of substitution.
Stacking+plot adventure: What's different about Candy Crush 3D?
If you are familiar with the stack elimination game, you can understand the play method of Candy Crush 3D almost at a glance. It gives players a bunch of objects, lets them click and match elimination in a messy puzzle solving grid, and also adds the familiar Candy Legend items, acceleration props and aesthetic style of King.
According to Gamelook, this game is currently only tested in Google Play, Malaysia. At present, the description of this game in the app store is:
A new game from the developer of Candy Legend, Candy Crush 3D, is the ultimate 3D elimination challenge game. The toy is an attractive challenge level, which can train your brain while solving exciting puzzles. Classify delicious candy, find hidden and special food, and explore new ways to enjoy candy crush. This game introduces an attractive adventure, which can not only meet your needs for sweets, but also exercise your brain.
From the description, King has also added a global travel meta mechanism to Candy Crush 3D in addition to its core play method, and added a progress system to the simple stack elimination operation, which is conducive to the long-term survival of the game.
Different from many stack elimination, Gamelook found that the game also introduced the iconic candy legend. Since there is no detailed evaluation video yet, we still do not know more details about it. However, it is obvious from the screenshot of the app store that the game has added the familiar candy acceleration props "color bomb", a "stream" system and offline play method.
This is not the only new Candy Legend game being tested. According to Appmagic, Candy Crush Solitaire has also been tested on Google Play in Canada and the Philippines. This game was released in July 2023. According to the description of its product page, it "integrates the excellent functions of the Hawaiian card game with the fun but challenging puzzle solving method of Candy Legend."
In addition to the familiar core playing method of Hawaii solitaire, there is also a global travel meta playing method, which allows players to "decorate beautiful postcards from Hawaii, Paris, Japan and more places while promoting the progress of the game."
King's other game tested is Rebel Riders, a kart racing game, which has not been launched in any region yet. The last test of this game was in June. Since then, King has not released any information about this game on its social platform.
King's president, Tjodolf Sommestad, mentioned earlier when talking about the game, "We are testing the game in different ways. Rebel Riders is a game that we test more actively and in the community, but we are still in the testing stage and are considering what to do with the game in the future."
The test release of Candy Crush 3D comes at a very good time for King. At present, it has belonged to Microsoft, which has said many times that it hopes to launch its own app store to compete with Apple and Google.
In addition, according to the statistics of data company Appmagic, King's game Candy Legend is experiencing difficult development. The number of downloads of the game in November was about 8.8 million, the lowest since 2015. The internal purchase revenue of the game last month was $66 million, the lowest since March 2021. In March this year, the internal purchase revenue of the game was $92 million.
Can Candy Crush 3D become another "masterpiece" of King?
In short, with King's more than 200 million MAUs, mature leisure game operation experience, and the integration of stack elimination and adventure progress, this game is more likely to enter the top of the list. Of course, the adoption of 3D painting style will undoubtedly increase the hardware requirements of the game, and King's entry will also increase the purchase cost of the category. Therefore, the ARPU value of Candy Crush 3D after its launch may be the key to determine whether it can stand out.
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