tinyBuild has detailed its marketing strategy for Punch Club 2: Fast Forward, a sequel to its fighting management sim. Here is how the publisher prepared for the successful launch.
Launched on July 20, Punch Club 2 currently has a 80% rating on Steam based on over 1,200 user reviews. The game also peaked at 5,509 concurrent players (via SteamDB).
According to a blog post by Alex Nichiporchik, CEO and co-founder of tinyBuild, Punch Club 2 generated $1.4 million in gross revenue in 18 days. Below are the key activities the publisher did pre-launch to promote the game.
- In February 2023, Punch Club 2 was announced simultaneously on PC and consoles, with the first trailer being posted on official Xbox and PlayStation channels. “Less games launch on consoles, and by announcing and launching across several platforms you leverage a halo effect,” Nichiporchik said.
- This resulted in the first spike in wishlists, which was later supported by the release of the demo in May. Nichiporchik noted that it is better to have your demo live well before the Steam Next Fest to get feedback from the players.
Wishlist graph for Punch Club 2 (the last spike is global launch)
- In June, tinyBuild sponsored the pre-show leading up to the PC Gamer Show, using this window to announced the release date and pre-orders.
- During the latest Steam Next Fest, the Punch Club 2 demo performed good, but missed the trending spot due to its length (40-60 minutes of gameplay). It turned out that longer demos are usually more favored by the algorithm.
- Here is a good piece of advice from the publisher: “Find ways to make demos longer if you’re going into a festival. In our case it was a challenge, since the game is story-driven and spoiling too many moments in the demo could negatively impact the full game experience.”
- Launched with over 100k “fresh” wishlists (collected during this year), Punch Club 2 currently has 200k wishlist additions. This resulted in a high day 1 converation rate. According to tinyBuild, the “fresher” your wishlists, the more likely a user is to purchase your game.
- Punch Club 2 also reached over 10k pre-orders sold on PC and Xbox. It was also 35% ahead in sales for the first couple of weeks compared to the first game.
- Median playtime is over 10 hours. “This stat directly correlates to how well your game is going to sell,” Nichiporchik explained.
More data and information about the launch of Punch Club 2 can be found in the full blog post.