Japanese franchise Yokai Watch celebrated its tenth anniversary in July, and this milestone has pushed the success of the franchise’s cellular title Yokai Watch Punipuni.
The franchise was born with the discharge of the unique 3DS recreation Yokai Watch in 2013, which was quickly adopted by a cellular adaptation, Yokai Watch 1 Smartphone.
Yokai Watch Punipuni was launched in 2016, and noticed sturdy development from July 1 to July 16 2023, with income growing threefold in comparison with the identical interval in 2022, bringing its complete recorded income to over $600 million.
The sport proved much more profitable when it comes to downloads, growing 800% in Japanese retailer rankings from July 1 to July 16 in comparison with the identical interval of 2022.
In comparison with June 30, the day earlier than the anniversary occasion, the sport stood at quantity 29 when it comes to income and quantity 14 when it comes to downloads, however July 1 noticed the sport bounce to quantity 12 and a pair of, respectively. Since then, the sport has remained throughout the prime 10 in each charts virtually constantly.
Analysing success
In accordance with Sensor Tower knowledge, the expansion places Yokai Watch Punipuni in fourth place within the Japanese market when it comes to income development from July 1 to July 16. When it comes to obtain development the sport positioned second, with solely MLB 9 Innings Rivals, launched in July, pulling forward.
As a part of the occasion, developer Stage-5 ran an occasion the place gamers may get rewards for inviting their pals to play. Moreover, the corporate geared toward retargeting gamers who had not performed since June 24.
As well as, the developer ran a marketing campaign on X (previously Twitter) the place gamers have been rewarded with Y factors – a type of in-game foreign money – based mostly on the variety of reposts recorded, attaining greater than 200 thousand. This marketing campaign helped the sport’s income bounce to $4.5 million from July 1 to July 7.
Earlier this month, Sensor Tower reported that enviornment and journey video games are set to exceed $4.7 billion in income this 12 months.
