New Market Research Drop: Sports, Puzzle & Simulation Games

New Market Research Drop – Sports, Puzzle & Simulation Games In this latest part of my market research series, I dive into three of the most promising mobile game categories based on actual performance data:- Success rate of newly launched games- Top-1 and top-3 revenue concentration- Share of revenue coming from new titlesPuzzle games show massive scale but intense competition.Sports games offer longevity, but breaking in is tough.Simulation games are dominated by incumbents and hard to crack.The analysis is based entirely on AppMagic data and built for F2P game developers looking to validate their next move with data, not guesswork.

Jukka Hilvonen April 22

Highlights

Mobile Game Market Research: What Everyone Gets Wrong

Most studios say they’ve “done market research” before greenlighting a new game. But more often than not, what they actually did was check the top charts, scroll through a few competitors, and call it a day. The result? Missed opportunities, misaligned concepts, and wasted dev time. If you’re serious about building a successful mobile game—especially in the free-to-play space—you need to go deeper. Here’s what most teams get wrong about market research, and how to fix it. Start With Reality, Not Charts Before looking outward, start inward: What is your company’s vision? What are your team’s actual strengths? (Genre mastery matters.) What is your timeline and resource allocation? This context is essential. There’s no point identifying a billion-dollar opportunity in hardcore strategy if your team excels in casual puzzle and has 9 months of runway. Market research should align with what […]

Jukka Hilvonen April 10

Journal

Before Development, Validate Your Game Concept

Developing a new mobile game is one of the riskiest and most expensive moves a studio can make. Especially in the free-to-play (F2P) space, where competition is fierce, user expectations are higher than ever, and marketing is crazy expensive, making a wrong bet can mean burning hundreds of thousands of dollars—or more—with nothing to show for it. That’s why concept validation isn’t just a smart move. It’s essential. The Harsh Reality of Mobile Game Development Let’s talk about numbers: According to a SuperScale study, 83% of mobile games fail within three years of launch. Only 2 to 3 out of 10 soft-launched games ever make it to a global launch. According to a study by Go Practice, 2.73% of all mobile games released between 2016-2023 were able to generate at least $100k 12 months after the launch (study did not consider ad revenue). According to expert […]

Jukka Hilvonen April 9

Jukka Hilvonen