Last year was a tremendous success for MONOPOLY GO!, as the game surpassed the one billion dollar mark in just seven months since its global launch. This is a remarkable achievement for any game in the modern market. The latest numbers indicate that this is just the beginning.
According to AppMagic data, last December was the best month in the game’s history. During this period, on four occasions, the game’s daily net revenue exceeded $5 million. The average daily revenue in December alone was about $4 million.
In total, the game brought in around $130 million in December, which is a record month in MONOPOLY GO!’s short history. It’s worth noting that the previous month showed a less impressive result of $106 million, while in October, the game generated $95 million.
The tremendous sales made MONOPOLY GO! the world’s top-grossing game in December, surpassing evergreen leaders such as Honor of Kings and PUBG MOBILE (excluding the Chinese Android closed ecosystem).
According to recent data, MONOPOLY GO! is likely to continue its upward trend in January, with its revenue expected to surpass the $100 million mark once again. The game currently generates $5 million during peak periods.
To determine whether Scopely’s blockbuster is a new long-lasting king with a bright grossing future, we need to examine the game’s download dynamics. After the global launch in April, the game’s UA team became very aggressive. For six months in a row, MONOPOLY GO! showed more than 11 million downloads on a monthly basis (with a peak of 15 million installs in August).
During these months, MONOPOLY GO! sales were on the rise, and they still are. However, since October, the team has started to reduce its aggressive UA strategy. According to statistics, the game now has around 8-9 million downloads on a monthly basis, which is still a significant number.
It’s worth noting that this level of downloads is common for top mobile games in the casual niche. For example, to maintain high sales, Candy Crush Saga has to generate about 8-9 million downloads each month, while Royal Match’s publisher tries to keep a threshold of 12-13 million downloads.
The situation with MONOPOLY GO! shows that the game could work in a more stable way than other games, such as Candy Crush Saga, which shows an immediate decrease in sales when installs start to fall. However, the main question remains: for how long?
For now, it is likely that Scopely pays for user acquisition at the same level as King, Moon Active, and Dream Games. As we can see from the data, MONOPOLY GO! generates more money than its competitors. Additionally, the team is trying to cut expenses. For now, the approach seems to be working.
In the mobile market, where the cost per install (CPI) is expected to rise significantly (partly due to the elections in November), the ability to retain paying players without the need to acquire a large number of new players on a regular basis could become a crucial factor for survival.