Impact of EURO 2024 and COPA America on Mobile Football Games
Analyzing Mobile Football Games Revenue Over a Three-Month Period
Hey Football Fans and Gamers,
Two weeks ago, we wrapped up two spectacular football tournaments around the world, EURO 2024 and COPA America. To be honest, I enjoyed a loooot watching both tournaments
It was also sad to watch the last tournaments of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but today’s topic isn’t about that. Today, we’re gonna focus on the impact of those tournaments on Mobile Football Games.
I’m the guy who, if there’s a tournament of any sport, has the habit of downloading that sport’s games and playing them during the event.
P.S.: Because of my habit, I started playing darts in real life
In this instance, rather than downloading a mobile football game, I found myself playing FC 24 and Google’s EURO 2024 Mini Cup browser game. It was a fun way to immerse myself in the excitement of the tournaments!
But enough about me — let’s dive into the main topic. After the final whistle of those two events, I started wondering about the impact of people’s excitement on Mobile Football Games.
My analysis focuses on three periods. The first one is the tournament period. I just wanted to add one day more to that duration, so the dates were June 14th to July 15th.
The other two periods are June 13th — May 13th and May 12th — April 11th. All periods have the same length. I analyzed data from the top 20 mobile football games by their revenue, download numbers, ad impressions, and number of version updates in those three periods.
Note: All the data is provided by AppMagic. Thanks to them!
Which games are listed in the top 20:
- eFootball™ 2024
- EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile Soccer
- FIFA 모바일 (FIFA MOBILE)
- Top Eleven Be a Soccer Manager FC
- FC足球世界-2024欧洲杯 (Football World — 2024 European Championship)
- 实况足球 — 2024 (Pro Evolution Soccer — 2024)
- FIFA ONLINE 4 M by EA SPORTS™
- ブルーロック Project: World Champion (Blue Lock PWC)
- eFootball™ CHAMPION SQUADS
- Dream League Soccer 2024
- Captain Tsubasa: Dream Team
- プロサッカークラブをつくろう！ロード・トゥ・ワールド (Create a Professional Soccer Club)
- Football Rivals: Online Soccer
- OSM 23/24 — Soccer Game
- 最佳球会 (Best Soccer Club)
- 実況パワフルサッカー (Jikkyou Powerful Soccer)
- 足球在线4移动版 (FC Online 4 M)
- Head Ball 2 — Online Soccer
- Ｊリーグクラブチャンピオンシップ (J.League Club Championship)
- Football Master 2-Soccer Star
I was going to analyze more focused geographical location data. However, these two events were the most well-known, so I wanted to check worldwide data instead.
Konami’s eFootball 2024 Had Earned the Most IAP Revenue during Tournaments
Konami’s eFootball earned 31 million USD in IAP (after reducing platform fees and taxes) during the tournaments. Compared to previous periods, 40% of eFootball’s total revenue in three months belonged to the tournament period.
Thirteen games out of twenty hit higher revenue than in previous periods. The most successful one was “Captain Tsubasa: Dream Team” with 48% of the total revenue.
91 million USD in revenue was produced by the top 20 football games during the tournaments.
The average total revenue of the top 20 games loss between the first and second periods is -3%. The market narrowed before the tournaments. However, if we compare the third period with the first and second ones, the average market total revenue increased by 20% compared to the second period and by 17% compared to the first period.
The first twelve games earned more than 1 million USD in IAP during the tournaments.
EA SPORTS FC Listed in Top 20 Most Downloaded Games in June and July 2024
Before the events, EA SPORTS FC was the 29th most downloaded game in May 2024 and the 42nd in April 2024. Between June 14 and July 15, the game reached its peak and surpassed 9 million downloads.
Seventeen games out of twenty got higher download numbers than in previous periods. The most downloaded ones were both Chinese market games; FC足球世界-2024欧洲杯 & 实况足球 — 2024 with 49% of their total download numbers.
The average total download numbers of the top 20 games loss between the first and second periods is -1%. The market narrowed before the tournaments, similar to what happened with revenue. Comparing the third period with the first and second ones, the average total download number increased by 11% compared to the second period and by 11% compared to the first period.
Total IAP revenue in these three periods was 245 million USD, and the total download number was 130 million users. The average RpD (Revenue per Download) is close to 2 USD.
Full-Update Numbers Increased Right Before the Tournaments
Of course, all the games are maintained by LiveOps and probably have really solid content delivery management systems. However, developers still updated their games using stores for Full-Update.
Within this three-month period, the top 20 games released 130 new full updates.
Top Eleven, Head Ball 2, and Football Rivals are the top three games that frequently updated their content. OSM 23/24, also from Miniclip, ranks fourth; it’s worth noting that Head Ball 2 is a title under Miniclip (Masomo is a subsidiary of Miniclip).
During this period, 39% of all updates were released before the tournaments, while this percentage decreased to 33% during the tournaments.
Before I conclude, I’d like to share some details about the advertising strategies of these games.
Over the past three months, only seven games surpassed 1 million user downloads: EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile Soccer, Dream League Soccer 2024, eFootball™ 2024, Head Ball 2 — Online Soccer, Top Eleven Be a Soccer Manager, OSM 23/24 — Soccer Game, and eFootball™ CHAMPION SQUADS. Collectively, these seven games generated 610 million ad impressions across various ad networks, with Facebook, YouTube, and Applovin being the most popular platforms.
Disclaimer: Some Asian market-focused games did not provide ad-impression data. However, there are still meaningful insights available for the games that surpassed 1 million downloads.
I shared popular ad creatives specific to the tournaments:
The excitement of EURO 2024 and COPA America had a significant impact on mobile football games. Revenue and download numbers surged, showing how much these tournaments drive interest in football games. Konami’s eFootball 2024 led the pack in revenue, while EA SPORTS FC saw a huge spike in downloads.
It’s clear that major events like these not only captivate fans but also create a ripple effect in the gaming world. Developers and marketers are well aware of this, timing their updates and ad campaigns to ride the wave of excitement. As someone who loves diving into the world of sports games during these events, it’s fascinating to see the data back up what I’ve always suspected — these tournaments make us all want to play.
Thanks for reading my blog post on the world of mobile football games! Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog for more insights and updates. I can’t wait to see how the next big tournament will shape the gaming landscape — stay tuned!
