Understanding midcore games and their monetization principles
Midcore games bridge the gap between casual and hardcore experiences, offering engaging gameplay with moderate complexity and strategic elements. They prioritize player engagement through balanced challenges, diverse content, storytelling, and intuitive design.
Developers of midcore games usually use “free-to-play” and “mobile-first” strategies to build a larger and more engaged user base. Once players are hooked on the game, they begin to incorporate strategically designed in-app purchases that use behavioral psychology principles to nudge players into buying items that enhance their gaming experience.
Mobile gaming surges in popularity
Russia is significantly shifting towards online gaming, specifically mobile gaming. This trend is fueled by a growing smartphone user base (unit sales increased by 25% in 2023, reaching 30.7 million units) and the growing popularity of mobile games (over 70 million active gamers and 40 million using mobile gaming apps).
Midcore and hardcore games are no exception. More and more people choose to play them on their mobile devices.
Projected growth and market volume for mobile games
According to forecasts, the mobile games market in Russia will grow by 6.73% between 2024 and 2027, reaching a market volume of 0.62 billion US dollars in 2027.
Most Downloaded Mobile Games
Opportunities for midcore game developers
Leveraging local expertise with Yandex Ads
Navigating the cultural and legal intricacies is crucial for success in any market. The Yandex Advertising Network, Russia’s leading advertising network, backed up by other Yandex services (from a search engine to food delivery) used by 100 million people each month, offers developers invaluable ad placement, targeting, and data enrichment opportunities.
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Success in numbers
RPG Game: 40% cost reduction and 2x more in-app events
A midcore role-playing game with over 100,000 monthly installations was looking to optimize CPA (Cost Per Action) for in-app events.
The campaign started on Yandex Search and Yandex Advertising Network with optimization of CPI (Cost Per Install). Then, it shifted towards improving CPA (Cost Per Action), encouraging users to take specific in-app actions like purchases and level completions.
The results were impressive: the number of in-app events doubled in January, while their cost decreased by 40%.
Midcore game: 50K monthly installs with the same CPI
With 50 million installations, a famous midcore game targeted the Russian market. The primary objective was to increase the number of game installations.
The partnership with Yandex Ads helped to achieve breakthrough results. Game installations via GetApps, an official app store for Xiaomi users, surged by an astonishing 2.5 times compared to previous months. As a result, the game achieved a monthly installation rate of 50,000. The CPI (Cost Per Install) remained unchanged despite this substantial increase.
