Are win streak systems the hottest new monetization mechanic? Gardenscapes had a busy month in October with numerous updates and tweaks to gameplay systems, many of which were focused on streak systems. This reflects recent market trends, such as the heavy focus on streak system evolution by Angry Birds: Dream Blast, which we explored in the August edition of the Analyst Bulletin.
Speaking of trends, HABBY’s latest release, Capybara Go!, is a new roguelite game out of Japan capitalizing on the viral Capybara Tik-Tok trends. After taking the Asia market by storm, do these lovable Capybaras have a strong enough bite to leave a mark when the game hits the US later this month? Or will players in the West be too busy playing the recent Age of Empires mobile release and Pokémon TCG Pocket? More on both of those titles in this month’s bulletin!
Finally, the re-release of Hearthstone, following the end of its dispute with Netease, saw it significantly surpass its pre-hiatus status, while a new season event in League of Legends: Wild Rift provided League fans with plenty of things to do as they counted down until the release of Arcane: Season 2.
You’ll find much more on these updates, as well as the latest events and trends from the casual and midcore markets, below!
October’s casual game updates
Gardenscapes landscaped its LiveOps calendar extensively in October, making several changes to its win streak systems while adding new events.
First up was Super Rainbow Blast, an all-new charge-and-sustain type power-up system where players need to complete 10 levels to activate an upgraded version of the standard Rainbow Blast boost and then maintain a winning streak to keep it active. The system is heavily reminiscent of Royal Match’s Super Lightball win streak, which is functionally almost identical. Alongside Gardenscapes, several other popular puzzle titles have released similar updates since Super Lightball launched in the summer of 2023, including Zen Match, TwistedTangle, and many more.
Gardenscapes’ Super Rainbow Blast
Gardenscapes’ Super Rainbow Blast
Gardenscapes’ Super Rainbow Blast
Catch a Wave, a trending win streak tournament event, was also tested in October. The event adds a win streak-based point multiplier to the regular tournament experience, supercharging the competitive aspect of the event.
These win streaks are another popular trend in the puzzle market, being implemented across 45% of the top titles in that genre. The first title to use these streaks was Toon Blast’s Shield Clash event, which launched back in July 2023. Generally, their basic premise is that players need to maintain the maximum possible streak in order to stay competitive, which means they’re more likely to opt for IAP when things go wrong. Developers can easily apply win streaks to almost any live event type—including minigames, battle passes, leaderboards, and many others—which helps to explain why they’ve become so prevalent.
Gardenscapes’ Catch a Wave
Gardenscapes’ Catch a Wave
Gardenscapes’ Catch a Wave
In support of exploration minigame events, a new boost event called Lucky Hour—renamed Lucky Break in November—was introduced. This one-hour flash event offers a 30% discount on the energy needed to clear obstacles in the exploration event. Similar limited-time flash events have become popular in casual mobile games, but this type of energy discount event is especially common in tycoon/adventure games that share the core gameplay of exploration events. The sense of urgency for a game where the core monetization loop is built around energy running out has turned out to be a strong mechanic.
Gardenscapes’ Lucky Break (previously known as Lucky Hour)
Gardenscapes’ Lucky Break (previously known as Lucky Hour)
Merge2 developer Microfun also experimented with some interesting minigame events in October. A vending machine minigame event called Big Drop Rush was added to Gossip Harbor. It featured a leaderboard with rewards that players could obtain after reaching a certain amount of points.
Seaside Escape also added the Fairground Challenge event, which featured selectable difficulty levels. This is an interesting approach, as we haven’t seen difficulty levels too much in event design apart from the season passes in games such as Candy Crush Soda Saga and Dragonball Legends.
Seaside Escape’s Fairground Challenge
Seaside Escape’s Fairground Challenge
Mattel’s Phase 10: World Tour added a new PvP minigame event called Pirate Duel. The event introduced a Battleship-type minigame where you duel one opponent at a time, trying to sink their ships and earn rewards. Players need to play Black Cards in the Journey Mode to get Cannonballs for use in the Duels. This is a unique PvP version of the trending digging minigame format we have seen in multiple top-grossing titles, such as State of Survival, Monopoly GO!, Royal Match, and BTS Island.
Mattel: Phase 10’s Pirate Duel
Mattel: Phase 10’s Pirate Duel
Coin Master opted for cooperative gameplay over shovels when it introduced its first-ever co-op task event, Plant Buddies. This event lets players team up with up to four friends and grow a plant that unlocks shared rewards. To support the event, a special event currency, “Sunshine,” was introduced through core gameplay and used to gain points. The event will be immediately familiar to any Monopoly GO! fans, as it’s inspired by that title’s immensely popular Partner Events, which have also cropped in many other titles—including Royal Match, Klondike Adventures, and more.
