The fast-paced decompression design lures players into the pit, and cleverly sets levels to drain traffic for advertisements
Simple applet games hide complex business experience
Our reporter Yuan Lu intern reporter Xia Hua
After the popularity of "Sheep and Sheep", developers have seized the air of small program games to launch new works.
Looking at the simple mini-program game, there is a business experience that can make developers earn a lot of money.
However, industry experts said that the popularity of most small games comes and goes quickly. If you want to continue to make profits, you still need to take the boutique route.
Mini Program Games Crazy Seize the Market
"I'll give you a suite at the beginning, there are so many ways to play" "Finger drag and synthesis, the night market is prosperous again"... Ms. Gao, who chose to stay at home during the National Day holiday, found that there were many small game advertisements in the WeChat public account she subscribed to. The main advantages are "no need to download, just click and play" and "suitable for killing time".
"The King of Salted Fish", "Call Me Big Shopkeeper", "I'm the Big Game", "Happy Xiaoxiao Xiaoxiao"... Some of these games have been on the official WeChat mini game popularity list, showing that "more than 100,000 people have played it" .
On social platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, pictures, texts and videos that recommend various mini-program games are also emerging one after another. Many game bloggers have launched detailed trial evaluations.
The reporter found that many of the games recommended by bloggers are simple, and some even seem a little naive.
"Bang, bang, bang..." As the stylus taps the screen of the mobile phone, it will make a crisp sound that simulates knocking wooden fish. This is the game "Electronic Wooden Fish" that Ms. Xiao likes.
Citizen Mr. Hu was fascinated by "The King of Salted Fish", "You don't have to think much at all, just follow a little bit, and then your combat power will increase wildly, which is very exciting."
Decompression, fast rhythm, and ease of use are the main reasons why young people prefer or even indulge in mini-program games.
"I'm tired enough to go to work on weekdays. I really don't have the energy to play games that are intense and require a high degree of concentration." Mr. Hu said that playing small games can free the brain, and passing the test in simple mechanical operations will produce strong psychological satisfaction sense.
The reporter searched for mini-program games on WeChat yesterday and found that more than a dozen similar games became popular, and two or three of them showed that "more than 1,000 people have used them recently".
On the Douyin platform, the topic video of the "Electronic Muyu" game has been played more than 36.63 million times.
Low production threshold but a lot of income
It is not difficult to make a small program game.
The reporter found that there are many merchants on the market that can provide small program game development, with quotations ranging from 8,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.
"Currently, there are many cloud development low-code platforms that can quickly generate applications with only a small amount of code or even no coding, which greatly reduces the application development threshold for small programs." An industry insider said.
The reporter noticed that most of the current mini program games do not have game version numbers, which means that they cannot be monetized through the mode of in-app purchase and recharge, and advertising has become the most important way to make money.
The reporter tested a number of popular mini-program games. These games not only set up a lot of links to watch advertisements in the mechanism, but also hung various advertisement display interfaces directly above, below and on the side of the game interface.
The revenue from these views is considerable.
The reporter learned that operators who meet certain conditions can voluntarily share the designated location in the applet with advertisers for advertising display, and receive advertising revenue on a monthly basis.
The main advertising space is settled based on the number of effective advertising impressions per thousand times, and the platform charges the advertising fee and shares it with the main traffic, which is divided according to 50% of the daily advertising revenue, and there is no upper limit.
"Currently, the CPM (cost per thousand people of advertising exposure) for the iOS system is about 200 to 500 yuan, and the Android system is about 50 to 150 yuan." Hu Wei, a senior game marketing manager, estimates that if 100,000 players watch the iOS system once Advertising, advertising expenditures are between 20,000 and 50,000 yuan, and developers will have 10,000 to 25,000 yuan in revenue.
It is difficult to continue to make money from traffic advertising
According to the "2022 WeChat Mini Game White Paper", the number of WeChat mini game developers has exceeded 100,000, and the number of games with monthly turnover of 10 million has increased by 50% year-on-year.
In 2021, Tencent's advertising game optimization plan has more than 50 casual game products with annual turnover exceeding 10 million yuan, and 7 games with turnover exceeding 100 million yuan.
A large number of game practitioners are making money in the mini-program game outlet, but many popular mini-program games cannot escape the fate of "short-lived", and the recently popular "Sheep for a Sheep" is no exception.
The WeChat index shows that the game popularity index has dropped from about 388 million times on September 19 to about 14.5668 million times on October 6.
"The popularity of casual mini-program games comes and goes quickly. It is not a small challenge for such games to continue to be profitable." Hu Wei said.
After the "Sheep and A Sheep" exploded, the "shanzhai" version also came one after another.
The reporter just searched the WeChat applet and found dozens of similar mini-games such as "Pig a pig" and "Camel an ostrich".
"This also exposes the short board that the mini-program game ecology is still unstable. At present, most mini-program games are seriously homogenized." Wang Lei, a product manager of a game, said that mini-program games are more prone to explosions and have obvious import value. , but if you want to retain users, you still need to optimize the gameplay and take the boutique route.
The industry must also ensure sound development through policy regulation such as copyright protection.
Some experts also said that short-term profiteering games that rely on simple codes to gain eyeballs easily run counter to the spirit of the development of China's game industry.
"Trying to use players' conformity, comparison, and vanity to make quick money is not a long-term way. If you want to achieve sustainable profitability, you still need to increase R&D investment and spend more time polishing the game to make it more scalable. sex."