Only three games in the past two years have been able to hit No. 1 on the iPad revenue chart: Clash of Clans, Game of War and Candy Crush Saga. These games all belong to the strategy simulation or puzzle genres, which are widely regarded as the two most lucrative segments of the mobile app market. But that may be changing.
Over the past two years, a cluster of social casino apps has slowly been rising up the app revenue rankings, both on the iPhone and iPad platforms. Today, nine out of the top 20 biggest money-makers on the U.S. iPad chart are social casino games.
Social Games include card games such as KamaGames’ Pokerist, as well as, board games such a Slots and Roulette games like Roulettist. The goals of each of these games is provide players with a realistic gaming experience in a fun and social environment.
The leading slots simulations often convert 2% to 4% of the people who download them into paying customers. Retention levels are also higher than with regular games: 15% to 30% of people who download a good casino app can still be playing 6 months later.
