The other day – as part of the report on the financial results of the first quarter – Gameloft described Dungeon Hunter 5 as “the most successful release in the history of the company in terms of box office results at the start.”
Not so much?
Usually, when it comes to high box office results, it is assumed that this or that game got into the overall Top 10 or at least in the overall Top 25. In the event that such a major player as Gameloft claims to be the best launch in its history, not only numbers with a large number of zeros flash before your eyes, but also thoughts about, at least, the overall Top 3.
But is this really the case?
Just not in the case of Dungeon Hunter 5 (although in Russia, one of the best on the chart indicators of the game market, this is not so noticeable – the project can be regularly seen in the box office Top 50). For example, in the English-speaking markets, the game has far from ideal indicators, which our colleagues with PocketGamer.biz . Following them, we also decided to see what, according to Gameloft, a successful sales start is.
Methodology
Before I tell you about the results of a small study, a few words about the methodology.
We considered three conditional platforms – iPhone App Store, iPad App Store and Google Play.
As regions, we took the Top 10 regions that earned the most money on iOS in 2014 according to App Annie: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Plus, we took South Korea for Android.
We have divided all the regions into three groups in order to make the information easier to read (11 curves on one graph turn into porridge): English-speaking, European and Asian countries.
We looked at the positions in the cash top only in the gaming category.
The main working tool for us — as usual – was the App Annie analytics system.
What have you found?
English-speaking countries
The highest position of Dungeon Hunter 5 in the American box office gaming iPhone top is the 65th place, where the game never lingered. In Australia, the situation is generally bad for such a level of the project: the game regularly drops below the 500 position. In general, in English-speaking countries, the game has nothing to brag about on the iPhone.
Indicators of the iPhone version of Dungeon Hunter 5 in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia
The situation of the iPad version of the game in the same regions is somewhat better.
That’s just there is no stability. In the same Australia, the game reached the eighth position in the box office gaming top, after which it easily slipped to 1300 places.
Indicators of the iPad version of Dungeon Hunter 5 in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia
In Google Play, the situation in the countries under discussion is more stable, without flashes, but it is impossible to talk about high results here either.
Indicators of the Android version of Dungeon Hunter 5 in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia Europe
In the Old World, Dungeon Hunter 5 is doing much better. The iPhone version of the game in the main European regions has been steadily hanging in the box office for the third month (the exception is Italy). The highest rates of the game are in Russia.
There are different ways to explain the latter, but the following version comes to my mind: the game, being a mixture of Western and eastern mechanics (in more or less equal proportions), was perceived more warmly in Russia due to the fact that Russian culture (way of thinking, perception of life, and so on) it is also a similar mix.
Indicators of the iPhone version of Dungeon Hunter 5 in Italy, Russia, France and Germany
On average, the situation with the iPad version in Europe is similar, only the position of the game is slightly higher (on PocketGamer.biz on average, the best performance of the iPad version before the iPhone version was explained by the large size of the distribution, as well as the type of gameplay, which disposes to longer sessions than a user can afford on an iPhone).
Indicators of the iPad version of Dungeon Hunter 5 in Italy, Russia, France and Germany
With the Android version of Dungeon Hunter 5 in Europe, everything is a little different than with the iOS versions of the game.
The fact is that Italy is already acting as the second gold-bearing region here, and not France/Germany going “nose to nose” earlier. But otherwise, the situation resembles everything that we saw a little higher (in terms of the position of the game in the box office tops — the first hundred, but a little further from the Top 50).
Indicators of the Android version of Dungeon Hunter 5 in Russia, Italy, France and GermanyAsia
The most stable situation in terms of money supply is now with the game in China. Although it is impossible to talk about high rates here either — the 70th place in the gaming box office top is far from the limit of dreams. But in Japan, the game is sad at this stage.
Indicators of the iPhone version of Dungeon Hunter 5 in Japan and China
The Chinese iPad version of Dungeon Hunter 5, on the other hand, demonstrates very impressive indicators for the project.
A stable thirty on the second-highest—grossing iOS market is almost a success.
Indicators of the iPad version of Dungeon Hunter 5 in Japan and China
Most likely, Gameloft’s game is doing well in China and on the Android market, but unfortunately, it is not possible to find out from App Annie.
Google Play does not work in China, and Red Anya does not track other Android stores yet. As for the results of the game in South Korea and Japan, they are definitely not good.
Indicators of the Android version of Dungeon Hunter 5 in Korea and Japan
In general, as you can see, Dungeon Hunter 5 is difficult to call a super-successful project.
The game has really good commercial results at the moment only in China, Russia and Central Europe. The other thing is surprising here. Even Gameloft had enough of them to call the novelty successful at the start.