How You Can Generate Revenue With The Leading Developers Of Social Games
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The arrival of the first online casinos in the mid-1990s was a milestone in the history of the gambling industry, changing it for good. The iGaming sector has witnessed tremendous growth since then and is currently worth billions of dollars per year. Competition is stiff indeed, with hundreds of online casinos competing for players’ real-money action.
Despite this immense choice, some people remain reluctant to gamble for real money, either due to lack of experience or mere risk aversion. This is where social gambling comes in – a new breed of casino games that generated the staggering $5.2 billion in revenue in 2018 alone, according to Bloomberg.
Social Casino Games in Brief
Available via free-to-download apps or social platforms like Facebook, social casino games enable you to play with your friends and other users without betting real money. You use virtual credits instead. Rather than profiting from real-money bets, social casinos generate revenue through in-app purchases.
Some companies specialize exclusively in the development and distribution of social casino games, although real-money gambling software providers also attempt to tap into this lucrative market lately.
Market research portal Statista reports that Playtika led the global social gambling industry in terms of market share in 2020, followed by Aristocrat, DoubleU Games, and Zynga. Let’s have a closer look at these publishers of social casino content and their market reach.
Playtika
Hailing from Israel, Playtika specializes in the development and provision of free-to-play mobile games. The company accounted for 22% of the global social casino market in 2020, generating $2.1 billion in revenue. Established in 2010, Playtika is among the companies that pioneered the free-to-play gaming genre on mobile platforms and social networks.
Highly recognized for its social casino games, the company processes more than 6 terabytes of data per day. Playtika boasts a massive following of over 27 million active users each month, according to a report on bestcasinosites. Its highest-grossing mobile casino apps for 2020 include Slotomania Slots ($323.7M), House of Fun ($131.3M), WSOP Texas Hold’em Poker ($122.7M), Caesars Slots ($78.9M), and Poker Heat ($6.6M).
Aristocrat Leisure and Big Fish Games
Australia-based company Aristocrat Leisure purchased social gaming leader Big Fish Games in 2017 for the hefty sum of $990 million. The acquisition enabled the Aussie gambling giant to extend its footprint to the social games market, so much so that it ranked second behind Playtika in terms of market share back in 2020.
Established in 2002, Big Fish boasts a versatile portfolio across several key segments – social gaming, social casino, and paid premium games. The Seattle-based company generated over $295 million in IAP revenue in 2020, a 14.4% increase compared to the previous fiscal year. Its Big Fish Casino has over 10 million installs from Google Play.
DoubleU Games
DoubleU Games is a South Korean company whose beginnings date back to 2012. Over the years, the company has established itself as a top-tier provider of social gaming solutions. It further consolidated its global position with the $825-million purchase of DoubleDown Interactive. The global developer serves players from over 120 jurisdictions and started trading publicly on the KOSDAQ back in 2015.
As of 2020, DoubleU Games accounted for 10% of the global social gambling market. Its native DoubleU Casino application boasts a ranking of 4.4 out of 5 stars on the Google Play Store. DoubleU Casino users gain instant access to the full portfolio of 140+ titles as soon as they log in, rather than having to level up through purchases or free play.
Zynga
Founded in the spring of 2007, Zynga is one of the oldest software developers of social games in the industry. The San Francisco-based game publisher has greatly expanded its market presence since then and presently has offices in the UK, the USA, India, and Canada. As of 2017, more than 30 million active users enjoyed the company’s games each month. At the moment of writing, over a billion people have played Zynga’s games on desktop and mobile. Some of the most popular products developed by the publisher include Zynga Poker, Black Diamond Casino Slots, and Hit It Rich! Lucky Vegas Casino. In 2020, Zynga boasted an 8% market share in the social gaming industry and generated $1.97 billion in revenue, achieving its highest annual results to date.
