The following article comes from Zhixian, written by Xiaozhi

In the Q1 quarter of 2021, the background of large platforms crawled 1,878 strategic advertisers, which was basically the same as the same period last year; the cumulative amount of crawled materials in the Q1 quarter exceeded 1.7M, which was higher than the previous quarter. A month-on-month increase of 107% and a year-on-year increase of 200%; the peak daily material volume in March was nearly 80,000 items.

We can see from the above data that the competition for strategic game material distribution in Q1 has entered a fierce stage. The number of advertisers is basically the same, but the amount of advertising materials has increased significantly. While the monetization ability of the game remains the same, the overall customer acquisition threshold has increased, so advertisers are willing to spend money to increase advertising to obtain more download data.

Judging from the project layout of various domestic companies, major game companies have increased their layout in the SLG project. IGG's "Lords Mobile", which has a five-year operating history, has returned to the top of domestic overseas revenue. We also learned from leaked market news that SLG products are expected to account for half of IGG's new games this year; SLG "newcomers" who just entered the game last year "Zulong Games also showed in its financial report that it plans to have an SLG product this year and next year.

Judging from the feedback from the entire market, more and more game industry practitioners are also focusing on SLG. Among the top 30 domestic mobile game products with overseas revenue, SLG products account for One-third of the seats; a recent observation of domestic media and platforms focusing on overseas game creation found that the content related to the "SLG" theme was twice as high as last year's statistics.

It can be seen that whether it is the players on the SLG track or the audience in the stands, everyone's attention to SLG products this year is unprecedentedly high. So today, with the help of Guanda, the world's leading advertising creative platform, let's take a look at what hot materials these high-quality products have brought us this year.

Catch the most popular materials newly released by advertisers between January 1, 2021 and March 31, 2021.

The popularity value (between 0 and 1000) is a comprehensive value, and its size is related to the number of days the advertisement has been launched, the number of discoveries and the market effect. The higher the popularity value, the more competitive the material is.

Track 1: Cartoon style, how to start volume in small language areas

Taking stock of Lilith’s game “Rise of Kingdom” and IGG’s “Lords Mobile”, both products have topped the domestic and overseas SLG revenue list many times.

"Awakening of Nations" uses famous Twitch anchors to conquer the Spanish language highlands

The most popular material of "The Awakening of Nations" in Q1 is the oral presentation material of an anchor named TheAlvaro845, who has accumulated more than 550,000 user subscriptions on the Twitch platform. It currently mainly broadcasts Supercell's "Brawl Stars" and "Clash of Clans". It can be said that the target users have a high degree of overlap with SLG products. In addition, small language KOLs themselves have strong ability to attract traffic, making this popular material Get a high heat value of 800.

"Lords Mobile" Vegetable Planting + Tower Defense Break Through the Arabic Area

Horizontal tower defense materials have always been the most commonly used material routines in SLG products. Among them, "Lords Mobile" is probably the best one to use this type of routines. According to the vast majority of backends, According to statistics, among the top 100 popular materials, this kind of horizontal tower defense material with exhilarating combat as the highlight accounts for 70%. In this highly popular material, the advertiser added the element of growing vegetables at the beginning to attract some players who are interested in business.

Track 2: Doomsday theme, the three heroes are doing their best

Inventory of FunPlus' "State of Survival", Camel Games' "Age of Z" and Longchuang Yuedong's "Last Shelter". Due to the global new crown epidemic in 2020, the doomsday theme has become more popular. In order to provide unique development opportunities, the materials are mainly zombies, but the popular materials of the three advertisers have their own characteristics.

"State of Survival" The power of human unity in the apocalypse

Doomsday survival, apart from the doomsday background, survival is the core driving force of the game. The plot of "State of Survival", a popular material, is that the male protagonist rescues the female protagonist, and finally completes it together The plot of your own base.

"Age of Z" is the best way to relieve stress by killing zombies

Zombies have always been a standard element of doomsday themes. Early movies, TV series and games portrayed them as terrifying monsters with tenacious vitality and large numbers that are difficult to defeat. However, with the success of "Dead Rising" on the console platform, many gamers have experienced the pleasure of killing zombies, so this type of material also performs very well. Facing the rolling tide of corpses, "Age of Z" material allows you to become the one-man warrior.

"Watching the Dawn" Build a house to defeat the doomsday

In doomsday survival, it is very important to build a fortress that can resist zombie attacks. This feature is also very consistent with the core krypton gold element resources and buildings in the SLG game. The name of "Last Shelter" itself is highly related to architecture. In the material about architecture, it does not show the traditional horizontal tile layout on the ground, but uses a vertical building structure similar to "Fallout Shelter", plus Many "doomsday worshippers" in Europe and the United States have the tradition of converting their basements into shelters, making this type of material more appealing to their hearts.

Track 3: World War II theme, old and new struggle for hegemony

Take stock of tap4fun's "Kiss of War" and Lilith's game "Warpath". Among them, "Kiss of War" has been captured on the majority of major platforms and has been released for more than 560 days. "Medal of Fire" was only officially released for global public beta in March this year.

The beauty commander of "Kiss of War" is the secret to starting volume

From the data captured by the vast backend, "Kiss of War" is the third largest advertiser in Q1 quarter, ranking 30 places higher than the previous quarter, and its Android side has accumulated materials After deduplication, there are more than 11,000 items. One of the core gameplay features of the game is the development of beautiful commanders. In terms of materials, beauty materials account for nearly 90% of the top 100 most popular materials.

"Medal of Fire" uses movie lenses to recreate the famous battles of World War II in high definition

As the second SLG product of Lilith Games, it ranked first in many application markets around the world as soon as it was released to the public in March. As we all know, SLG player users are mainly concentrated in the male group between 25-45 years old. This group of people itself has a high degree of attention to war themes. "Medal of War" itself is also a World War II theme and a cinematic narrative, and the material relies on the post-war theme. Taking advantage of this, many famous World War II battles are visually restored through UE4 high-definition, which is very attractive to hard-core military fans.

Track Four: Ancient War, PC Games Achieve Popular Materials

Looking at Long Chuang Yuedong's "Rise of Empires" and FunPlus' "Guns of Glory", both popular materials are related to PC games.

The nostalgic material of "Age of Empires" pokes fun at childhood memories

"Age of Empires" is believed to be the real-time strategy enlightenment game for many people born in the 80s and 90s. With the development of information technology, reliving childhood memories is the simplest and most passionate demand of many players. , "Age of Empires" has captured the pain points of players very well in the advertising materials. It uses the boot of Windows 98 system and the retro graphics of "Age of Empires" to evoke the purest gaming emotions of users. It has been put in for a hundred days and reaped rewards. The popularity of the material exceeds 800.

The naval battle materials of "The Age of Guns" are deeply loved by players

Ubisoft's famous product "Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag" has made the gameplay of naval battles deeply rooted in the hearts of players around the world. In addition, ancient Europe itself also has a very rich maritime history. "Age of Guns" itself is also an SLG product with a medieval background. These common attributes allow it to add naval combat elements to the material delivery, and the display also specifically highlights the elements of cannon shooting and ship driving, giving users a stronger desire for interaction.

Track 5: Underworld theme, the largest BOSS friendly tower network

Speaking of the underworld theme, the first product that everyone can think of is definitely "Mafia City" by Youta Network. This product is the most popular SLG advertiser in the Q1 quarter. , and it has been the No. 1 purchaser on the SLG track for a long time. Its main theme of underworld plot materials has become a template for many product learning.

In order to ensure its absolute advantage in the gangster-themed vertical track, Youta Network adopted a double-hit strategy. The subsequent release of "The Grand Mafia" became the strongest in "Mafia City" A powerful competitor, "The Grand Mafia" is a 3D upgraded version of "Mafia City" in terms of gameplay. It has a more in-depth development gameplay. In addition to inheriting the traditional gangster plot of Big Brother, its material is similar to a card game. Combat-oriented materials also have excellent performance.

Write at the end

Due to space reasons, there are many outstanding SLG advertisers that we have not been able to take stock of. For example, "Three Kingdoms Strategic Edition" from Lingxi Interactive Entertainment began to enter the SLG market in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea at the end of last year; For many years after going overseas, it has continued to operate Three Kingdoms-like, "Three Kingdoms: Overlord", which is distributed by Hangzhou Jedi; "Pocket Raiders" from Jiangyu Interactive, which takes a new approach to synthetic leisure; and has been deeply involved in the Middle East SLG market. Longteng Jianhe and so on.

The competition on the SLG track in the Q1 quarter of this year has ended, but various manufacturers have long been prepared to launch a charge into the purchase battle in the Q2 quarter. Is it the newly released products that are beginning to overtake the market, or is it the established hot-selling products that are creating greater revenue? It's the same as the core gameplay of SLG products - "Compete in the Central Plains, who will win, let's wait and see!"