China online game tracker:Survival games remain under spotlight

Wilderness kicked off monetization before the holiday season and becamethe No3 grossing game on China iOS on 22 Dec (See details here). NetEasetried to monetize Wilderness by promoting seasonal in-app costumepurchases and, as we had expected, the game’s grossing rank fell afterChristmas to around mid-teens. Wilderness and Terminator 2 continue toshow stable growth in DAU (daily active user) and time-spent (see chart). Webelieve newer ways of monetization will be the key things to watch in 2018.

    Honour of Kings still No1 grossing though DAU has declined. HoK heldits leading ‘grossing’ position while its DAU and time-spent softened in 4Q offthe end-3Q peak. The rise of the survival shooter genre may partly explain.

    QQ Speed Mobile swiftly topped No2 game grossing on China iOS.

    Launched on 27 Dec, by TiMi Studio of Tencent, the mobile version of QQSpeed (QQ 飞车) inherited the popularity of the long-standing PC onlineracing game. It has also become the most-downloaded game on China iOSnow. According to Tencent, the DAU of QQ Speed Mobile reached 10m within24hrs of its launch, thanks mainly to the vast user base in the PC version.

    Seasonal upgrades boost Legacy TLBB, JX Mobile and Lord Mobile.

    Legacy TLBB (Changyou + Tencent), JX Mobile (Kingsoft + Tencent) returnedto top10 grossing list on China iOS at end-2017, thanks to the upgrades on 26Dec and 19 Dec, respectively. IGG’s Lords Mobile (799 HK) also improved totop 14, thanks to its first expansion pack launched on 13 Dec.

    MOBA game of Onmyoji, which was launched on 31 Dec 2017, is now No 7in terms of downloads on China iOS. The downloads and grossingperformance of this much anticipated game of NetEase are the next to watch.

    Minecraft Mobile monetization was planned to kick off from January 2018.

    Though we don’t expect a significant revenue contribution from MinecraftMobile on NetEase (given the game’s low ARPU, high user base), the rank ofthis game remains a catalyst for NetEase shares.

    Tencent’s PUBG