Some casual Match3 games like Disney Emoji Blitz, Candy Crush Friends, or Angry Birds Match are using character collection as a part of their core gameplay loop as well.
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31% of puzzle games in the US top grossing 500 have put on their construction hats and started building beside matching.Īnother meta layer used primarily in puzzle RPGs (Empires & Puzzles) is character collection or upgrade mechanics. Playrix’s Gardenscapes, in particular, can be seen as the trendsetter for this meta-game trend. The meta element of building your own “base” such as gardens, houses, etc., has become exponentially more popular in recent years. In the US top-grossing 500, most Match3 games lack a meta element, with around 46% of games still trusting in the pull of cleverly designed puzzles. Many developers have started adding meta layers on top of the core gameplay to enrich Match3 gaming. Nowadays, however, as the whole mobile market and players have matured, more and more players expect more in-depth gaming experiences in casual genres as well. Back then, the simple level after level approach was compelling enough to reel players in. When Match3 games first came to the market in the early days of smartphones, they were the first mobile gaming experience (or gaming overall!) for many. If you want a more in-depth look at these games and their feature sets or thousands of others, log in to the GameRefinery service here. The twist here is that you’re not swapping or collapsing puzzle pieces, but you send them horizontally or vertically to specific lanes. In the game, the puzzle pieces are different colored cars, and players erase them from the board by matching cars with similar colors. Last year it brought a totally new matching style to the top-grossing charts. Traffic Puzzle is developed by Picadilla and published by Huuuge Games. In Traffic Puzzle, players send cars into vertical or horizontal lanes. This matching type is still the most common matching type, with 59% of Match3 games in the top-grossing 500 (iOS US) sticking with this rather traditional mechanic. Original Candy Crush’s matching works by swapping two board pieces to get 3 or more pieces of the same color lined up. Let’s start by taking a look at the most common ones. There are several different ways of how those board pieces can be matched and destroyed in a Match3 game. The core gameplay in Match3 – Matching type Second, we’re discussing the recent rise and growing importance of meta-game aspects in Match3 games.
First, we’re taking a high-level look at the various matching types and their popularity (e.g., swapping vs. In this blog post, we’re focusing on two main aspects of Match3 games. But during the last couple of years, there has (fortunately) been quite a bit of innovation in the Match3 space, as designers have tried to create even more compelling experiences for their audiences. On the surface, Candy Crush Saga is a straightforward game: just grinding those candies level after level and advancing in the “Saga Map” with no material meta-elements in sight. It remains the number one game of the Match3 genre today with a stunning 27% share of the whole genre’s revenues in US iOS! Consequently, many designers and (players for that matter) view Candy Crush Saga as the “basic template” of a Match3 game. King’s Candy Crush Saga was originally launched all the way back in 2012, but it’s still generating super-high revenues and lingering at the very top of the grossing charts. For instance, when looking at IAP revenues generated during the past quarters, the Match3 genre beats its competitors quite clearly in the US iOS:Ī quick look at GameRefinery’s Market Share view shows that the Match3 genre generates over 20% of revenues in the US iOS market.
If you’re interested in researching over 200 in-game features, their popularity, and implementations or checking out feature deconstructions of hundreds of games, you might want to pay a visit!īeing “in the top” can, of course, be defined in various ways, but when it comes to Match3 games, they tick all the boxes. (Update: In November 2020 Supercell announced that it will cancel Hay Day Pop.)Īll data and examples in this post are gathered from the GameRefinery service. With the Hay Day Pop soft launch, we thought it’s about time we took another look at the Match3 market to see what has changed and what has stayed the same. The simple yet addictive Match3 mechanics appeal to a wide range of players and for many of them, crushing candies and popping bubbles are the first steps into the world of mobile gaming.Įditor’s note: It’s been a few years since we took a proper look at Match3s. Match3 puzzle is and has always been one of the top genres in mobile gaming – especially in western markets.
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