Executive Summary

First-Try Win Collection Event

During the initial release of Magic Keys of Oz in Wizard of Oz Magic Match, revenue was +13% and downloads were -13% WoW. The second release saw revenue +31% and downloads -6% WoW.

Levels Economy

Lily’s Garden and Matchington Mansion have the greatest number of levels labeled “hard” or “super hard” in their first 100 levels. Fishdom and Home Design Makeover do not classify any levels as hard.

Gardenscapes and Fishdom average the most obstacles per level, while Home Design Makeover averages the most goals. Other apps maintain relatively equal numbers of goals and obstacles per level.

Homescapes offers the most varied goal types and is the only app to make significant use of “spread” goals. Fishdom, Lily’s Garden, and Matchington Mansion strongly prefer “find/uncover/remove” goals, while only Home Design Makeover favors “collect/get” goals.

Trends

Challenge events dropped from 8% of total releases in Q4’19 to just 2% in Q1’20. This drop has been met by a nearly equivalent increase in mission events. Solitaire Grand Harvest released 44% of all mission events from tracked apps in Q4’19 and Q1’20.

Quarterly revenue from tracked match-builder apps has almost doubled since Q4’18, averaging a +14.5% quarterly increase and quickly approaching $400 million. During the same period, tracked match-3 apps averaged just under a 0% change QoQ.

Since Q3’19, Fishdom, Gardenscapes, and Lily’s Garden have seen average quarterly revenue increases of +27%, +22%, and +75%, respectively. As of Q4’19, Gardenscapes and Homescapes make up over 70% of match-builder revenue from tracked apps. 

Quarterly downloads for tracked apps grew in all puzzle subgenres except collapse during Q1’20. Match-builder continues to lead in total downloads, averaging over 106 million per quarter since Q1’19.

Soft-Launch & Breakout Apps

Pirate Evolution! combines merge-3 upgrade mechanics and action-based naval battles in a game world of over 140 islands.

In DreamWorks Trolls Pop, players beat bubble pop levels to unlock trolls with special abilities and customizable outfits.

Matchland: Build A Theme Parks makes extensive use of rewarded ads within its match-builder progression.

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Table of Contents

Revenue Driver

  • First-Try Win Collection Event
    • Magic Keys of Oz in Wizard of Oz Magic Match

Level Design

  • New Level Designs

Levels Economy

  • Level Difficulty
  • Goals and Obstacles

Trends

  • Challenge and Mission Events
  • Revenue Analysis 
  • Downloads Analysis

Market Watch

  • Soft-Launch & Breakout Apps
  • Notable Releases

Appendix

  • L&G Puzzle Personas
  • Puzzle Product Council
  • Premium Partnerships
  • Puzzle Mechanics Taxonomy

Review all features and events in the Data Tool.

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