On September 9, NetEase published Harry Potter: Magic Awakened in China, a mobile card game with an original combat system. For the whole first week, it holds the first place at the box office in the local App Store.
As analyst Daniel Ahmad notes, this is an exceptional case. Usually the first place in the local sales chart is for Tencent games. The last time this “rule” was violated was in November 2016. Then the first place was retained for some time by Onmyoji from the same NetEase.
By the way, part of the Onmyoji team was just engaged in the development of Harry Potter: Magic Awakened. For example, the new game in the Harry Potter universe had the same producer. According to Ahmad, this contributed to the success of the title.
Another success factor is a strong marketing campaign. For example, shortly before the release of the title, NetEase sent out letters to users inviting them to Hogwarts. And two days before the release, gamers were able to log into the game and go through the faculty distribution ceremony. This led to 15 million pre-registrations.
According to AppMagic, to date, the revenue of the iOS version of Harry Potter: Magic Awakened alone has reached $22.7 million. The daily earnings of the project exceed $3 million. Downloads of the game amounted to 2.8 million. It is easy to calculate that with such indicators, its ARPU (average revenue per user) reached $8.1.
The main character of Harry Potter: Magic Awakened is a child who received an invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The user learns spells with him, brews potions, fights and makes friends.
The gameplay is based on real-time card battles, and you will have to fight both monsters and other players. In fact, the cards here resemble skills. One card is one spell. The more cards a character collects, the easier it is for him to defeat opponents. There are also draft cards with which you can summon various creatures or heroes on the battlefield. Success in the match depends not only on the collected cards, but also on how the character moves around the field.
However, the gameplay is not limited to maps only. NetEase tried to attract as many users as possible, so it added several modes at once. Among them there are Quidditch matches, roguelike mode in the forbidden forest and a mini-game with dancing.
In winter, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened will be released in Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Whether the release will take place in the West is unknown.