This post was last updated on April 16, 2020 at 7:36 pm

We have witnessed amazing growth in hyper-casual games over the past few years. Last year’s Goldman Sachs’ 200M investment in hyper-casual gaming developer Voodoo and in 2018, Zynga’s acquisition of Gram Games for $250 million also shows the giants are following them as well. We can understand their growth by the fact that Voodoo alone had about 150 million regular users per month. And its games were downloaded about 300 million times last year. In this article, I will try to explain why Hyper Casual Games are becoming so popular.

The industry experts began noticing the popularity of hyper-casual games from the start of 2018. When 13 of the top 20 new mobile games by downloads were hyper-casual and this increased to 16 in 2019. The latest report by Sensor Tower Store Intelligence states that of the 2.1 billion installs amassed by the 20 most downloaded games released in 2019. 77.6 percent were from the games belonging to the hyper-casual genre, this number was 68%, the year before. Sensor Tower reported that the increased percentage in 2019 reflects a continuing shift in consumer tastes in mobile games. And also growing user acquisition spending among hyper-casual publishers.

Of the 2.1 billion installs amassed by the 20 most downloaded games released in 2019, our data revealed that 77.6% were for games belonging to the hyper-casual genre. Full analysis here: https://t.co/4LEW1H4gwx #mobilegrowth #mobilegaming pic.twitter.com/vaV2p8FNPg — Sensor Tower (@SensorTower) March 26, 2020

What are the hyper-casual games?

Hyper-casual games are becoming so popular because they are easy to learn and understand. They are also very addictive and so its audience comprises of all the genders and age groups. These games have very simple mechanics and that results in players’ engagement for a long time. For example, Crowd City, Aquapark.IO by Voodoo, Art Ball 3D by Alictus, Ball Action by Ponos, etc are considered under the hyper-casual category.

How hyper-casual games become profitable

The profitability is mainly accredited to the advancements in ad monetization and proliferation in mobile users. While other games leverage on In-App Purchases to increase their revenue, hyper-casual games monetize through advertisements. These games try to show video ads in one way or the other, as they have been highly downloaded. Also, global mobile data traffic is expected to grow sevenfold between 2017 and 2022. This can also result in an increase in the downloads of the hyper-casual gaming category as their games majorly focus on mobile users.

Most Popular hyper-casual games of 2019 by downloads

Most Popular hyper-casual games of 2019 by downloads

The most popular game with 219 million global downloads was Fun Race 3D. It accounted for 10.4 percent of all installs among the top 20 new games released last year. Its developer, Good Job Games, had three other titles in the top 20 as well. That was Run Race 3D, Color Fill 3D, and Color Hole 3D. The combined downloads of them all comprised 23.8 percent of all installs.

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