With hundreds of products showing off their talents, what kind of games can Douyin make popular?

In recent days, the third place in the App Store's free game rankings has been occupied by "Speed" produced by Ketchapp .

I opened the game out of curiosity and experienced the gameplay of avoiding police cars. Looking at the simple and cool interface, I always had a sense of déjà vu.

I’ve seen you on TikTok . I’ve seen you on TikTok.

Related videos on the topic "Speed" in TikTok

It seems like this is another game made popular by Tik Tok. As early as the beginning of April, "Speed" video content recorded by players themselves appeared in Douyin's recommendations. The rare gaming theme coupled with the players' tricky operations quickly captured a large number of Douyin users, bringing the video more than 100,000 likes, over a thousand discussions, and reposts. Thanks to the popularity of the "Speed" series of videos on TikTok, the game itself has also received extremely high exposure . In addition to the promotion of the game company, the fact that "Speed" was able to rank third on the list is inseparable from the contribution of TikTok. It can even be said that it was Tik Tok that made this game popular.

1. Hundreds of games are showing off their skills on Douyin: some are popular, while others are flops...

"Speed" is indeed a typical example of the recent "Tik Tok game". According to data provided by Qimai.com, in the iOS free game rankings, the ranking curve of "Speed" rose sharply from April 18 to 25, climbing from 291st to 3rd on the game list.

Similarly, Speed ​​is not the only game that has relied on TikTok 's traffic . The rankings of several games that frequently contain the words "from TikTok" have soared in App Store reviews.

From April 18 to April 19, the game ranking of "Old Iron is Heartbroken" rose from 556 to 89.

"Physics Pinball" also experienced two major increases in ranking in April, rising from 691st in the overall list to 7th in the overall list and 4th in the game list.

And the luck of some games doesn't seem to be so good. Games such as "Uninvited Guest" were criticized by players for their frequent advertisements that ruined the gaming experience, causing their rankings to rise briefly before falling again and again, failing to retain users.

Tik Tok is a traffic hub that everyone is vying for, and everyone wants to grab a wave of users from it. However, there are many videos promoting games on Douyin, but the effects vary greatly. Why is it that the company next door can get 100,000 downloads with just one video, but I only get 3 likes on Tik Tok after working diligently for a month?

2. What kind of games can Douyin make popular?

After comparing games like "Speed" (No. 3 on the game list), "Physics Pinball" (No. 4 on the game list), and "Brain Burning Game" (No. 13 on the game list) that have successfully attracted attention by riding on the popularity of TikTok, we found that these types of games have several things in common.

1. Niche light games: can bring a refreshing feeling

Mid- to heavy-duty games are side dishes for hardcore gamers, while casual games are the dumplings for people all over the country. Casual games have a low time cost, with one game taking only three to five minutes. You can play a few games while waiting in line, on the subway, or at traffic lights. Douyin's core users are mostly white-collar workers and elites in first- and second-tier cities, which fits this positioning exactly.

Niche, different from popular blockbusters. There are many imitators of popular games, and the audience is easily fatigued. Without dedicated personnel to produce well-made videos, it is difficult to stand out from the vast number of followers. Niche games have a small audience and are easy for users to feel fresh, so it is less difficult for the content they create to become popular and the possibility is relatively higher.

2. Simple enough: 15 seconds of video can show the essence of the game

Result = desire - friction. Making the game more complex can improve the playability of the game and the player's operating space, but as the game rules become more complicated, the difficulty of game operation will increase accordingly, which will create "friction" on the desire of some players to continue playing. The result of this game in the minds of some players will be: it’s not fun.

The games that are made popular by TikTok are usually suitable for all ages and are simple and easy to understand. There is no need for tedious instructions, and users can understand how to play the game through a 15-second video on Tik Tok. There is basically no threshold to play. Once you open the game, anyone can understand the general rules after playing it once.

3. “Toxic” games have an advantage

The spread of Douyin alone cannot support the sustainable development of a game. The game itself must have enough highlights to retain users. To be able to go viral on TikTok, you have to become a virus yourself.

Parody, magic and quality are the three key words for playability.

Parody refers to the secondary creation of existing materials. In the field of games, it can be understood as "anti-common sense" and "anti-human". The unconventional design makes players who have passed the game happy but also keeps complaining, and the complaints themselves bring attention to the game. Representative games of this type include the "Brain Burning Game" series.

Magic is a game with a wild imagination and unexpected gameplay that you can't stop playing. Its representative works include "Eighth Note Sauce", which successfully conquered bilibili and is still popular on Douyin.

If the game is not one of the first two eye-catching categories, making it a niche boutique is a good choice. The pictures are exquisite and eye-catching, and each frame has wallpaper-level quality, which naturally attracts large numbers of users. Representative works of this type include "Monument Valley".

4. Hard advertising cannot bring in users, only UGC communication can bring in "tap water"

The content that can be made popular by "Douyou" are the content that is spread spontaneously by users, rather than the advertisements. Most of the game ads on TikTok have failed to get more than 20,000 likes, and conversion cannot be guaranteed. After a large number of negative comments appeared on the advertising pages, some advertisers directly turned off the comment function.

The social attributes of Tik Tok can satisfy the publisher’s need to show off. Out of their own interest, players post videos on Tik Tok to complain or show off, allowing the product to get more exposure. As long as the content itself is not bad, interesting videos can easily stimulate fans' herd mentality and provide a large amount of traffic for the game. This will form a virtuous cycle of users playing games - spreading the game on TikTok - and more users downloading the game.

5. Perhaps the unique background music is also a highlight

The bgm here is not the bgm that comes with the game, but the bgm in the Tik Tok video. The importance of background music is self-evident, especially on the Tik Tok platform. If I see a Tik Tok video with only pictures but no music, I won’t think that there is no BGM, I will suspect that I am deaf. The technical school is highly respected in Tik Tok. Top influencers move the camera and change their movements according to the rhythm of the BGM, and edit them into cool and high-end videos. BGM can not only serve as the finishing touch, but sometimes it can also become the protagonist and surpass the content itself. Different bgm can give the content different, even completely opposite feelings. For the same scene, sad BGM gives people a tragic feeling, while cheerful BGM makes people laugh out loud.

Taking "Speed" as an example, the video content with the mean song "You Can't Beat Me" as the background music has far more likes, comments and reposts than other works.

Compared with the LTV of Douyin's high-quality user groups, the cost of producing high-quality videos is negligible. Douyin, a platform with terrifying stickiness, will definitely become an important battlefield for manufacturers to compete for traffic. But before you get involved, please think about what kind of games Tik Tok is suitable for? Will your game flop on TikTok?