Merging games are a subgenre of puzzle games - the most profitable type of mobile games. Merging games are successful because of their core puzzles and engaging meta-level elements that may include building, storytelling, treasure hunting, and resource management. These elements provide publishers with a way to reach a broader audience and stand out in a competitive puzzle game category.
This article will analyze the market and target demographic for merge games, its means of user acquisition, and monetization potential.
Merge game market overview
Player motivation
In these games, players need to drag identical or similar items and merge them together. Once completed, these items become new and improved items. It's not just the rewards that players like about merging games. It's what they like most about them.
One of the things that makes merge games so appealing is their simple gameplay. Players can very quickly pick up a merge game and understand the mechanics. As a result, the learning curve is short because there are no complex mechanics that require lengthy explanations.
The other is instant gratification. When players merge items in these games, they create order out of chaos. This gives some players a special kind of satisfaction. Similar to clearing your room at the end.
Finally, merging players enjoy the simple progression mechanics of the game. They always know their path to the next level, so they always have a goal to work towards.
Merge is essentially competing for the same audience as Match-3, which has six times the audience and is still growing. It's not an easy UA battle for Merge to monetize and win at scale, and EverMerge's gender distribution is fairly even - both genders love the game almost equally. More specifically, 52% of the players are female and 48% are male. If we look at the age of EverMerge players, 45% of players are over 45 years old and 44% are between 25 and 44 years old. Only 11% of the players are younger than 24 years old.
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Merge game revenue
2021 Q3 statistics show that Match3 puzzle games have the highest revenue share (15.62%) among iOS mobile games in the U.S. and the highest revenue share increase (1.36%) compared to the previous quarter (2Q 2021). 2Q 2021 revenues are almost three times higher than Q1 2019, showing a clear upward trend across the genre trend. In other words, every combined game that can reasonably scale is squeezing the lemonade of long-term monetization for the player base it has already acquired.
Merge games have two major advantages right out of the gate - 1) by replicating and scaling Match 3's proven best practices around meta-design, real-time operations, production value, and user acquisition, they are likely to start from a higher LTV baseline, and 2) the core merge mechanic is well-suited for relatively low-cost content scalability, which is especially important considering how content-hungry the genre's audience is!
Merge game growth drivers
The existing Merge market has been hungry for a new "non-Merge Dragons" experience for a long time, and they finally have more options. As a result, players may be going through a discovery phase, which will drive audience and download market share shifts between games. This also means there is more room for new competitors to enter.
Merge's next phase of growth will be driven by 1) more games entering the genre and attracting new audiences, and 2) those games driving user acquisition through product differentiation. Differentiation between genres will be key, so triple-play players have a compelling reason to switch, and Merge developers can compete with triple-play giants (King, Playrix, AppLovin, Dream Games, etc.) for one of the hottest games. The expensive UA battleground on mobile devices. This could come in the form of gameplay, art, theme, narrative, gender and even UA tactical differentiation (don't forget IDFA) while the merge core remains intact and the meta-system + real-time action + production values continue to be optimized. It's going to be a slow growth climb for Merge, but definitely a genre to watch.
User acquisition strategy for merge games
Video ads
While playable ads can be an amazing source of installs, especially during soft launches, video ads continue to dominate when it comes to mobile game advertising. When advertising for mobile games, it makes sense to show potential users how the game is progressing. It can be very tempting to look at the game's late game experience. Giving people a taste of the interesting characters they can unlock is a strong incentive to download the game.
You can also delve into user behavior and motivation, making a clear connection between the user's behavior/personality and game play. The creative ends with a message that can also be used as a call to action phrase.
App store optimization
Another way to attract users for the game is directly through the app store. This is organic user acquisition and is free.
A big part of this is app store optimization, as this process increases the visibility of the game. Moreover, if done properly, the content on the game's app store page can help people decide to download it. For this reason, ASO also helps with paid user acquisition campaigns.
Here are the types of content you can find on EverMerge's Google Play page and how they are optimized.
Game titles
Most merge games have the word "merge" in the title (e.g. Merge Dragons, Merge Mansions, Merge Stories, Merge Designs, Merge Worlds, etc.).
EverMerge is no exception.
However, the name of the game also implies that you can merge everything - which is what makes it so clever. It is both descriptive and engaging, which was the main goal when coming up with the title for the game.
Game Icons
EverMerge's icons feature one of the main objects of the game - the apple tree. Most game icons feature game characters or special objects from the game - a great way to showcase the game's content and make it easily recognizable.
App previews
EverMerge's app promo video does a great job of explaining the basics of the game. It provides a quick overview of the main features and how to play the game.
Those are：
- Merge Create
- Combine and build
- Harvesting and crafting
- Discover new continents
- Completing quests
The tone of the video is light and fun, just like the game. There are no action-packed or fast-paced scenes. This suggests that EverMerge is a relaxing game.
Screenshots
The purpose of the app store screenshots is to illustrate the most exciting game features.
Big Fish accomplished this by designing appealing graphics for EverMerge to explain what the game is about.
Monetization strategy and potentials
As a subgenre of puzzle games, merge games are entering one of the largest audiences in the mobile gaming market. Like most puzzle games, they generate most of their revenue from in-game purchases, allowing players to bypass the wait time involved in generating new items (certain items are generated by clicking on objects) or providing instant access to higher-level items.
In-app ads
In-app ads is not a major source of revenue for top-tier merge games.
However, we can find app ads in many applications. This is because they usually appear as an additional source of revenue. In most cases, the ad format that appears in merge games is incentivized video ads.
It is well known that most puzzle players are non-paying players. No matter what strategies developers use to get these players to spend money, most of them just ignore their efforts. By incentivizing video ads, merge game monetization leverages a large number of non-paying players. At some point, all players will run out of resources or need some kind of help.
In this case, bonus video ads can be a lifesaver for those who don't want to spend money. This ad format is also perfect for in-app purchases. If merge correctly, they should not cannibalize each other. In fact, according to IronSource, bonus video ads can increase IAP by a factor of 6.
The key to their success?
The right placement.
In merge games, bonus ads typically come in the form of boosters and time boosters. The booster is placed when the player needs help to appear. For example, there is the option to earn currency by watching ads while stuck. The time booster placement allows players to reduce waiting time by watching bonus video ads.
In-app purchase
Merging games will tell you which items are needed to proceed, but sometimes there can be long waits or a degree of difficulty in finding items that need to be merge. This is because some of these items are locked after timed generation (e.g. you may need to click to open and generate the item's chest). If players don't want to wait, they can bypass these waiting periods by purchasing the items they need to merge through in-game stores, such as those in Evermerge.
In-game currency
The way these stores are stocked also encourages players to keep coming back and, more importantly, to keep spending more often. In Evermerge, items are refreshed periodically to improve player retention and there is an option to completely reset the currently selected item by spending a ruby (in-game currency). Other games, such as Merge Dragon!, allow you to purchase premium currency that doubles the rewards you receive for completing missions. This is different from how things like experience boosts work in first-person online shooters such as Call of Duty. The end result is the same: you can finish the game faster and more efficiently.
Notifications
Players are notified of these options so that they can complete the game faster through the synergy of incentive ads. The clever and timely implementation of these ads is essentially a boosting theory that motivates them to continue playing the game or simply avoid repetitive tasks they may not be interested in. Due to the synergies between different game types, hybrid merge games offer additional monetization options such as Merge Gardens using Match3 monetization techniques such as mergeable booster cartridges, Match3 level monetization retries, and refilling lives with gems (paid items).
Scalable merge games are the most flexible when it comes to monetization. As game boards grow in space, they inevitably become more chaotic, requiring players to acquire more mergeable items and devote more time to clearing the board. As players build more complex chains, the items needed to complete them may become more difficult to obtain. This is the time for limited-time specials, like those in Merge Dragons! can become irresistible when the items players need to complete their chains suddenly appear for purchase.
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