83% of mobile games fail in three years after launch, report states
While almost half are cancelled during development.
According to a new report, 83 percent of games released on mobile platforms fail within three years of launch. In addition, 43 percent of mobile games are cancelled during development.
The report, conducted by Atomik Research for SuperScale's Good Games Don't Die and shared by Eurogamer's sister site GamesIndustry.biz, was based on interviews with 500 game developers, from both here in the UK and across the pond in the US.
The report stated the majority of mobile games reached peak revenue within the first 12 months of their release. While 76 percent reach their peak revenue in the first year, only four percent peak in the second year of release.
This could, perhaps, be due to new content released for mobile games, with the report finding that 38 percent of developers don't release regular updates for their titles. Less than half provide their playerbase with monthly updates, and just five percent of games actually receive support seven years post-launch.
According to the report, 78 percent of mobile game developers prefer working on a new title, despite the fact that they don't seem to have a long shelf life. However, many of those interviewed are reluctant to currently make a new game due to trends in the market. 30 percent of those spoken to said they felt the current market "is too difficult to succeed in", with layoffs and studio downsizing being mentioned.
"These are volatile times for the games industry," SuperScale founder Ivan Trancik said. "Many mobile game developers are finding it hard to remain profitable in the face of challenges such as ATT, heavy competition in a mature mobile market, and macroeconomic conditions like high inflation."
He added that findings from this report "serve as a wake-up call for the industry", calling it a "source of inspiration with actionable data" which can equip "developers and publishers with insight on how revenue can be maximised across their portfolio - for games both new and old."
These recent findings are perhaps not all that surprising. Even Niantic, which released mobile game phenomenon Pokémon Go (pictured above), has failed to repeat its success across its other launches. Earlier this year, Niantic announced it was to lay off 230 staff - around a quarter of the company. At this time, it also announced it had cancelled its yet to be released Marvel AR project, World of Heroes.
This year also saw Angry Birds pulled from Google Play due to its business "impact" on developer Rovio's other mobile games. While the popular mobile release did remain on iPhone, the developer renamed it to "Red's First Flight" in a bid to push its other, less prolific and therefore less profitable, Angry Bird games to the fore.