Recently, YouTube released a notice that the mini-game function Playables is officially launched on all platforms, once again triggering a craze for overseas mini-games. This is the first video/social platform to enter the game after Facebook, TikTok, and Line.
Why H5 games?
Mini games are mainly divided into two types: H5 games and native apps. Among them, H5 games are based on HTML 5 technology and mainly include web games and in-App mini-program games.
Nowadays, the trend of overseas expansion has reached H5 games. Backed by super applications with large DAU, developers are expected to reap a wave of dividends in terms of customer acquisition and monetization.
Customer acquisition side
- H5 game development threshold and cost are relatively low. It can be transplanted from the App version of the game and quickly put on the shelves for operation.
- Super apps such as YouTube and TikTok are natural giant traffic pools, providing ample incremental markets for game developers.
- Users of social networking and video applications are exactly the target group of mini-games, mainly young people. They like light entertainment and have more fragmented time. They are precise general game players.
In May 2024, YouTube mobile has more than 700 million monthly active users, TikTok has more than 400 million monthly active users; LinkedIn mobile focuses on more than 20 million workplace socialites.
Realization side
- In the short term, H5 games mainly rely on IAA monetization as the main profit model. Its rapid spread and diversified traffic sources provide convenience for earning revenue from advertising displays.
- The trend of gamified advertising is on the rise. H5 games are highly interactive and entertaining, and can meet the needs of advertisers in different fields to integrate game elements for refined marketing.
Why now?
H5 games are in a stage of rapid growth in overseas markets. Data shows that global H5 games are expected to grow at an average annual growth rate of 16.7% by 2028.
As YouTube officially launches the mini-game function, more mature super apps will accelerate the process of the mini-game section, which will bring about a breakthrough in the difficulties faced by domestic mini-games before going global – and there will also be super apps similar to WeChat as a basis. , exploring the model of in-app mini-program games going overseas.
Combined with the development history of domestic mini-game ecology, H5 games have huge development potential in overseas markets:
- The market space is huge, and the user scale is far from reaching the ceiling. While the market is not crowded, first movers can quickly occupy the high ground.
- In the incremental competition stage, with the support of purchase volume, small games can easily achieve user growth and create hit products.
- IAA categories such as tools, casual games, online articles, and short plays have successfully achieved overseas expansion. These categories have accumulated a set of market-proven buying strategies, providing valuable reference for H5 games.
Who can seize this trend?
In the mini-game section of the super application layout, the first target is undoubtedly the hyper-casual and casual game market. Due to the huge differences between different regional markets, players in T1 markets such as Europe and the United States tend to prefer games with strong confrontation and complete storylines. Therefore, adding medium-to-heavy elements and mixed casual categories is also the direction of the future layout of H5 games.
It is worth noting that the mini-game ecology and user preferences in overseas markets are somewhat different from those in China. When H5 game developers go overseas, they often encounter problems such as difficulty in acquiring volume in the early stage and high user acquisition costs.
Overseas users pay more attention to experience, and the introduction of mini-games on the platform is mainly to increase user stickiness. Therefore, game advertisers should pay attention to avoid disturbing users too much when placing ads.With years of experience in integrating research, operation and investment, Huajin-Top game center helps H5 games successfully go overseas, impress overseas players through high-quality advertising content, and achieve high ROI returns.
At the same time, for social apps like YouTube with huge DAU, they are faced with the problem of maintaining users’ material interaction rate and increasing user LTV during the golden period. Personalized materials combined with remarketing strategies (Retargeting) can effectively help advertisers improve brand exposure and conversion performance.
Gamified advertising is an effective way to implement a remarketing strategy. With the widespread deployment of H5 mini-games in large DAU applications, developers have accumulated rich experience and mastered the core technologies and creative content of rapid development of gamification elements and interactive ads, which can provide advertisers with more diversified and innovative ads. Solutions to help promote the undertaking and development of gamification advertising business.