How Kabam used Sensor Tower to Launch a Top 20 Mobile Game

Challenge

In order to get their new mobile game Shop Titans off the ground, Canadian game developer Kabam had several hurdles to overcome. For one, the game’s “hybrid” mechanics — a mix of simulation and RPG elements — were unconventional, and needed to be properly positioned to communicate their value to potential players. The team had to build an entirely new user base from scratch, while smartly differentiating from the rest of the ultra-competitive mobile gaming landscape. With a laundry list of tasks and not much room for error, the user acquisition team turned to Sensor Tower data to make key decisions on how to shape their launch roadmap.

Solution

The team started off by analyzing a short list of relevant competitors, looking at top-performing games in two genres —simulation and RPG— to gain an understanding of their post-launch growth trajectory, and establish reasonable benchmarks for Shop Titans. Next, they turned to Sensor Tower’s App Store Optimization (ASO) tools, to identify the best way of achieving organic growth. Kabam reviewed competitors’ keywords while cross-referencing with the Global Breakdown feature to better understand performance metrics across countries. This enabled them to tackle keyword localization more effectively, and identify the regions with the biggest growth potential.

Next they turned to the creatives themselves. They noticed many of the top-performers were demo-style ads that presented “comparisons” between the player’s gameplay and that of friends or loved ones. The team then put together an ad that compared the players’ shop to a friend’s shop in a “meme” style format to draw interest. With organic and paid user acquisition sorted, the team felt confident in their strategy to ensure Shop Titans had a successful launch.

Result

Since launching globally in June of 2019, Shop Titans has continued to thrive, reaching the Top 20 Role Playing games in September. The game has found a solid foundation of users in both North American and APAC countries, and sees a healthily growing revenue rate across both the App Store and Google Play. Compared to Kabam’s targeted competitors, Shop Titans is outperforming post-launch: the game is receiving 8% more downloads than its next closest competitor and has held onto its successful trajectory; it is one of the few titles that has crossed seven figures in monthly revenue in the same time period. The team is looking forward to building on this momentum in the coming months.