Exclusive ranking of “Werewolf Killing” App: Can “killing each other through the air” become the next Kuaishou?

"I still don't understand what Werewolf is," Liu Tao said on Weibo after participating in the latest episode of "Running Man."

Liu Tao, who has a royal sister style, took a cute and silly route in this episode that imitated the setting of the "Werewolf" game . Ma Dong, a "Werewolf" master who has a direct relationship with the rise of the "Werewolf" mobile game , also appeared in the show. Just a few days before the show was broadcast, Ma Dong's Miwei Media's "Dinner Werewolf" App was officially released.

Driven by variety shows and live broadcasts , the "Werewolf" game that was popular among teenagers moved from offline to online and exploded on the mobile game side at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Currently, there are no less than 40 products of the same category as "Werewolf" in the App Store . Hongtai Fund, Newgen Venture, Qingsong Fund, Tiange Interactive, etc. have appeared in the list of investment institutions of the "Werewolf" App. Not only have Huya , Miwei Media and others entered the market, but there are also rumors that Tencent is also taking some activities.

Is “Werewolf” going to be revived online? Can Werewolf succeed in voice and video interactive social networking ? From games to live broadcasts, events, and film and television, how big is the imagination space for "Werewolf"? Cheetah Lab (formerly Cheetah Global Think Tank ) helps you carry the whole game with data.

1. Data on the “Werewolf” App

Based on the performance of various "Werewolf" online products on Cheetah Mobile's big data platform Libra, Cheetah Lab has exclusively compiled the "Werewolf" App weekly active user penetration rate ranking for you.

From Cheetah Lab’s ranking, it can be seen that there is a big gap in the weekly active user penetration rate of each product. The advantages of the two leading products, “Happy Werewolf” and “Werewolf”, are more obvious.

Judging from the average number of times each game is opened per week, the numbers for the second-ranked "Werewolf" and the sixth-ranked "Hand Wolf" are significantly higher, while the first-ranked "Happy Werewolf" has no advantage in comparison.

Cheetah Lab's second-ranked "Werewolf" was launched at the end of 2016, and the first-ranked "Happy Werewolf" was launched in April this year. Judging from the trend of daily active penetration rate, the daily active penetration rate of "Werewolf" reached its peak between March and April this year, and the App just received millions of dollars in Series A financing in early March. After the peak, its daily active users declined, but started to rise again recently.

The daily active users of "Happy Werewolf" suddenly soared about a month after its launch, and it surpassed "Werewolf" and maintained the lead.

In addition, it can be seen from the ups and downs that the activity of both products is significantly higher on weekends. The Werewolf game is a heavy app because each game takes about thirty minutes on average.

The new installation penetration rate trends of the two apps are similar to daily active users. The new installation penetration rate of the number one-ranked "Happy Werewolf" reached its peak on May 7. This is directly related to the Werewolf show with a luxurious star lineup that was staged on Happy Camp on the evening of May 6. As the spokesperson of the App, Xie Na endorsed "Happy Werewolf" in this episode which was attended by many celebrities including TFBOYS, Marco, and Jane Zhang, with remarkable results.

2. It’s dark, please close your eyes and the fight has just begun

Currently, the two leading products of Cheetah Lab already have certain first-mover advantages. The top-ranked product comes from Huya (the parent company of YY and Huya Live ), which has rich experience in game operations and a ready-made voice technology platform, while the second one has already gained the favor of capital and is developing rapidly.

But the online battle for Werewolf goes far beyond this. Some products are difficult to evaluate simply through data due to factors such as their late launch. For example, " Everyday Werewolf " (Cheetah Lab ranked fifth), which was launched relatively late on the Android side, and "Dinner Werewolf" (no data yet) which was just launched on May 18. As more Werewolf projects receive financing, more heavyweight players are entering the market, and the situation will undergo more changes. In fact, this fight has just begun.

Based on public information on the Internet, Cheetah Lab has integrated information such as product features, financing progress, and behind-the-scenes forces of several key Werewolf projects.

1. Financing strength should not be underestimated compared to latecomers

Cheetah Lab’s “Werewolf” ranked second became a hot topic of public opinion because it announced the next round of financing from Jinshajiang Venture Capital shortly after its Series A round.

"Werewolf Official" has also received tens of millions of financing and has accumulated more than 1 million users through the WeChat service account . According to media reports , the Werewolf game was developed and registered by Beijing Big Devil Board Game Club in 2009. Werewolf (Hainan) Cultural Media Co., Ltd. completed the acquisition of Werewolf-related brands under Big Devil Board Game Club at the end of 2016, becoming the only company in China that owns Werewolf-related intellectual property rights, namely "Werewolf Official". With an official banner and large amounts of financing, the strength of "Werewolf Official" should not be underestimated. The App product is about to be launched, which will bring a new wave of impact to the online fighting.

2. Comparison of the forces behind variety shows, live broadcasts vs. board game platforms

Judging from the forces behind each Werewolf killing project, the current players are mainly divided into live broadcast, variety show fields and board game platforms.

Products directly linked to variety shows and live broadcasts include:

(1) “Werewolf” sponsored by Panda TV

Cheetah Lab's fifth-ranked "Werewolf Everyday" adopts a video interaction mode, and its Android version was launched on March 15. "Werewolf Everyday" is said to have completed its first round of financing, attracting the well-known anchor JY as a shareholder, and can broadcast the game live on Douyu and Panda Live.

(2) Miwei Media’s “Werewolf Dinner Party”

"Dinner Werewolf", which was launched on May 18, is advertised as an "audio and video social app". Official data shows that 30% of its platform users use video format, and 70% prefer audio format.

Screenshot of the Werewolf App

"Dinner Werewolf" has also been integrated with live streaming and launched on six major live streaming platforms : QQ Space, NetEase Bobo, bilibili Live, Tencent Live, Zhanqi Live, and Mango TV . The edited programs are also available on demand on platforms such as Tencent Video , iQiyi , Youku, and Mango TV.

Miwei Media’s powerful program production and marketing capabilities can add a lot of points to “Dinner Werewolf”. As both are video killing games, although it is currently difficult to determine the winner based on data, the competitive situation between it and "Everyday Werewolf" can be imagined.

At present, there is no consensus on whether "video killing" or "voice killing" has more advantages. Although many users believe that the interactive experience of "video killing" is more intuitive, problems such as traffic consumption and difficulty in banning vulgar content have also brought more challenges to video products. The premise for video to become an advantage is to ensure the smoothness of the experience.

(3) “Happy Werewolf” by “Huya Times”

"Happy Werewolf" is currently ranked first in Cheetah Lab. The product is endorsed by celebrity Xie Na and promoted through the "Happy Camp" program. According to official data, the daily active users exceeded 2 million in more than a month after it went online.

Products with board game background include "Werewolf Official" and "Werewolf Online" from the board game online platform "Wanba". "Wanba" received tens of millions of yuan in Series A investment last year.

From the previous data, we can see that although the battle has been going on for half a year and the Werewolf Pioneer product has accumulated a certain number of players, the situation is not clear. Given that there are currently no gaming giants involved in the Werewolf Killing project, the differences between the several products are not obvious in terms of their own differences or background forces. It is conceivable that the battle will be more intense and full of variables.

3. Taking advantage of variety shows and live broadcasts, enter the social platform

When Werewolf exploded on the mobile gaming scene, many people couldn't help but marvel at how resilient this board game, which has been popular in China since around 2000, has been, in fact, so resilient that it has survived quietly in the player circle for more than a decade and even waited for the magical mobile Internet era.

Screenshot of Baidu Index for Werewolf

From the Baidu Index trend, we can see that the keyword "Werewolf" became popular in July last year and experienced explosive growth at the beginning of this year.

There is no doubt that Werewolf's popularity is due to the support of variety shows and live broadcasts. The earliest can be traced back to the e-sports reality show "Lying Man" with the theme of Werewolf Killing launched by Zhanqi Live in 2015 and "Panda Kill" launched by Panda Live in 2016. In the second half of 2016, Miwei created the variety show "The Temptation of Dinner" in the form of "celebrity interviews + Werewolf Game". With its total playback volume of 500 million on Tencent Video, it helped Werewolf Game to become the "hot spot".

As an old offline game, Werewolf has innate social attributes. Whether it is a gathering of old friends or breaking the ice with new friends, a round of Werewolf can always generate a lot of sparks. The social function of the online platform can not only continue this attribute, but also bring new business opportunities. Therefore, entering the social field from the game has become the consistent tone of various Werewolf Apps.

When it comes to taking the social route, each company has slightly different approaches. "Werewolf at Dinner Party" and Cheetah Lab's third-ranked "Werewolf Online" both played the "female card". "Werewolf at Dinner Party" emphasized that its product beta data showed that more than 60% of its users were female , and 80% were college or highly educated women; the slogan of "Werewolf Online" was directly "The Werewolf APP with the most girls".

"This is not a game, I'm socializing with strangers." Li Yuchen, the founder of "Werewolf Everyday", which ranks fifth on Cheetah Lab, emphasized this point many times. "Werewolf Everyday" directly set up a "Talent Show Area" on the platform. By turning on the front camera, game players began to express themselves. Many people joked about this section, "Is it going to become the next Kuaishou ?"

Screenshot of the "Werewolf Killing Everyday" App

In addition, Shanghai Mask, the developer of the "Werewolf Killing" App, had another previous product "Orange Hotline", which was a stranger social platform that focused on girls' privileges through voice calls. It had 700,000 registered users within two months of its launch and received a Pre-A round of financing led by Hongtai Fund. The experience of this voice social product has brought certain advantages to Shanghai Mask's "Werewolf Killing" project financing. The company behind "Happy Werewolf" is also a traditional show app.

The popularity of live video streaming in 2016 laid the foundation for Werewolf as a new communication medium. As video interaction becomes the mainstream form of content consumption in the mobile Internet era, the Werewolf App can be regarded as an innovative application of voice and video interactive social networking. However, it is probably difficult for the Werewolf App to eventually become a social platform. From social networking to gaming, there is the precedent of Tencent supporting Honor of Kings , but from gaming to social networking, all we can see at the moment is a blank sheet of paper.

As the starting point of social interaction, Werewolf has the ability to do so, but it may still be a long way to go before it can become the end point of social interaction. With giants such as WeChat , QQ and Weibo occupying the market in front and the war in social short videos and live streaming continuing ( Huajiao Live recently launched game live streaming to improve stickiness and user activity through game content), it seems that Werewolf Killing does not have any special advantages to break through.

Fortunately, the Werewolf game has never lacked players, as can be seen from its tenacious vitality and the fact that new wine in old bottles can become popular again. The "brain-burning" nature of relying on rhetoric, logic and psychology for confrontation, and the irreplaceable game settings are the basis for Werewolf to generate user stickiness. The support of live broadcasts and variety shows can bring a considerable number of new fans to Werewolf to expand the market. At present, the key is how to retain users on the App side with a better experience.

4. The imaginative market space combining online and offline

The entrepreneurial derivatives of Werewolf Killing can extend from online to offline, and enter from different angles from industries such as games, live broadcasts, film and television, and the market space is full of imagination.

1. Live broadcast cooperation

In addition to grafting live broadcast to unlock functions such as giving gifts and rewards, live broadcasting and commenting on Werewolf on the live broadcast platform, providing guides, reviews, performances, etc. for novice users are all cooperation models that Werewolf and live broadcast can develop. "Werewolf Killing Everyday" is a precedent.

At present, many e-sports live broadcasts have gradually transformed into full-time Werewolf Killing anchors, and some have even become shareholders or spokespersons for the Werewolf Killing project.

Screenshot of Panda Live's "Werewolf"

In addition, with the general trend of live streaming platforms entering the game live streaming market, co-organizing competitions between Werewolf Killing and live streaming platforms is also a direction of cooperation. For example, Huajiao Live, which just completed its Series B financing, has reached a strategic cooperation with Cheetah Lab's second-ranked "Werewolf Killing" App, to jointly host a national professional werewolf killing competition, and launched the Million Werewolf Killing Tour on May 28. The champion prize is set at 1 million, which is the highest prize setting in the current werewolf killing competition.

2. Offline stores and card sales

Werewolf Cards

Offline killing experience platform, cards, masks and other peripheral products are several offline monetization methods of Werewolf. On March 10, JYClub, an offline werewolf store of JY, ​​one of the shareholders of "Everyday Werewolf", opened on Hongmei Road in Shanghai. The turnover on the opening day exceeded 1 million yuan. This offline werewolf platform currently has two flagship stores in Beijing and Shanghai, and will start a global franchise model. In the second half of the year, it will open branches in seven cities and launch a national membership card.

On April 24, the 2017 version of the card deck created by the "Werewolf Official" was launched on JD.com crowdfunding, and the crowdfunding goal of 300,000 yuan was achieved in 10 hours. At present, the crowdfunding amount has exceeded 810,000 yuan.

3. Events

Cheetah Lab compiled several recent Werewolf events based on publicly available information on the Internet:

Although many offline competitions have been held in the Werewolf game circle, and the number of competitions broadcast through live broadcast platforms is gradually increasing, problems such as the lack of a unified competition system and standards still exist, and no professional competition with national influence has stood out. Huajiao Live has cooperated with the "Werewolf" App to conduct competitions in an online + offline format and set up high prize money, which may promote the development of Werewolf competitions to a certain extent.

Huajiao live broadcast of Werewolf killing event

At present, except for Cheetah Lab's second-ranked "Werewolf Killing" App, other online products have basically not made any moves in terms of competitions. Drawing on the experience of " League of Legends " to create the professional league LPL and the currently popular mobile game "Honor of Kings" to create the professional league KPL, if the Werewolf Killing online product can find a competition model with strong social stickiness for promotion, using the online as a venue for auditions, and offline to gather players, attract interactions and direct traffic to the online, and then create video value through live broadcasts of competitions, it can also provide more development space for the Werewolf Killing App.

4. Film and TV

Games are gradually becoming a mainstream literary and artistic form, and a sufficiently exciting game setting can even be used for content production. With the popularization of the concept of "pan-entertainment", integrating the resources of "film and television + games" and launching cross-field business expansion has become a new direction for the development of the game industry. And Werewolf has just that potential.

Tencent Entertainment recently reported that the first large-scale work on the werewolf theme, "Werewolf Radio Storm", has been completed and is scheduled to meet the audience in the second half of this year. This film will be the first in the "Werewolf" film series.

The "Werewolf" series of films is jointly produced by Heyi Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and South Film (Beijing) Media Co., Ltd. The producer said that once the time is right, he will continue to create the Werewolf film series, and does not rule out the possibility of producing a Werewolf web series to further develop this popular IP.

V. Conclusion

The revival of Werewolf online is related to its own attractive game attributes and also to timing. The old offline players cultivated in advance, the new users cultivated by variety shows, and the first year of live streaming that just passed have laid the foundation for Werewolf to go online. An old game that has been around for many years has begun to evolve into a social and entertainment game, which also provides a new dimension for thinking about the development of mobile Internet products.

Under the pressure of social platforms such as WeChat, Werewolf's social path is not easy, but as mentioned in the article, the fight has just begun, and Werewolf's imaginative market space has brought it many possibilities.

"Werewolf", "Werewolf Official" and "Werewolf Every Day", which are ahead in financing, will develop rapidly and seize the market with the support of capital. The competition between "Werewolf Every Day" and "Werewolf at Dinner Party", which are also video killing forms and closely related to variety shows and live broadcasts, will become increasingly fierce.

Currently, there is little difference among various online products in terms of user experience , and there are common problems such as microphone grabbing, uneven player quality, arbitrary exits midway, and frequent server crashes, which are criticized by users. There are rumors that Tencent is planning a Werewolf Killing project. Once such a gaming giant enters the market, if the existing products cannot make breakthroughs in functionality, it will be difficult to withstand the challenge.

It is foreseeable that we will see more intense competition among Werewolf projects in the second half of the year. Regardless of whether the market will continue to prosper, Werewolf users will always exist. Cheetah Lab will continue to pay attention to whether the first entrants will be the first to break through or whether new players will stand out.

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

This article was compiled and published by @Cheetah Global Think Tank (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting! Site Map