SYBO Games is Testing a Major update for Subway Surfers as a Standalone App

Original Subway Surfers

Background

The original Subway Surfers was released in May 2012. Since that time, its worldwide downloads have reached an astronomical 2.5 billion. According to App Annie, the project is the most downloaded game of the decade.

She is a phenomenon not only because of downloads. Subway Surfers, even eight years after its release, consistently ranks in the top 10 most downloaded mobile games every month.

That’s just for this period, the game has not undergone significant changes. This applies to both core gameplay and meta. The player still runs along the railway tracks, accumulates in-game gold for skins and spends real money on flying boards that insure against losing.

The main feature of the game remains the regular reskin of the environment. The Subway Surfers track changes every month. In January it may be snowy Moscow, and in February, for example, Paris.

The main channel for monetization of the game is advertising. But she is almost exclusively rewarding in the game. However, given the large installation base and a MAU of 100 million on IAP, SYBO Games also earns well for this type of product. About $500 thousand a month.

Monthly dynamics of IAP sales in Subway Surfers (AppMagic)

The situation with a major update

Despite continued success, changes are overdue. Today, at the meta level, mobile games have been working differently with users for a long time. Classic events, regular updates, two currencies and video ads are not enough to maximize profits.

At the same time, developers are afraid to change the game much, to scare away the established audience. Perhaps the whole point is that neither they nor their publishing partners from Kiloo fully understand what the reason for success is. After the release of Subway Surfers, both companies did not have projects that were close in success.

So the team is testing a new large-scale update as a separate Train Riders game. This is an exact copy of the existing Subway Surfers with three key innovations. The first is the opportunity to travel around the cities of the world by yourself. The second is seasonal hunting, an analogue of the combat pass from Fortnite. The third is a new interface and, possibly, moving to a new version of the engine.

Train Riders

Did it make sense to take the update so seriously

Considering that Train Riders have an average score of 2.8 points, and players complain about problems with bugs and performance, it made sense.

Now the original version of Subway Surfers continues to bring downloads and money to the company, updates and new events are still coming out for it. At the same time, the new version of the game has been quietly polished since November 2019.

Also on the topic:

• Subway Surfers has reached 2.5 billion downloads in seven years. What is its key feature now?
• Subway Surfers is the first game whose downloads from Google Play amounted to 1 billion. How did it happen?
• Subway Surfers Gameplay Analysis