In the ranking of Chinese mobile games and apps exported to overseas markets in January, Lords Mobile had the highest revenue, and UC Browser ranked first in downloads

In the special article "China is Fascinated by the Game World" recently released by the People's Daily, not only did it affirm China's position as a major game exporter in the world, but it also praised the representative works of many mobile game and PC game manufacturers going overseas. In today's analysis report, we continue to explore the theme of China's mobile application going overseas. Starting from mobile games, we extend to non-mobile game apps, revealing which mobile games and apps developed by China have performed outstandingly in the overseas market in January 2018, ranking in the top 30.

We analyzed the latest data from Sensor Tower Store Intelligence. In addition to the three overseas blockbusters "Lords Mobile", "Clash of Kings", and "King of Avalon", which continued the momentum of 2017 and took the first, second and third place in overseas revenue in January as expected, "Azur Lane" and "Gunpowder Era" performed outstandingly, ranking fourth and fifth. From the perspective of non-mobile game apps, among the TOP30 Chinese products with outstanding overseas downloads, tool apps accounted for the largest proportion, with a total of 14 apps; followed by five mobile apps for video playback and editing and photography. Overall, these three types of APP products developed in China are the most popular in the overseas market.

Lords Mobile had the highest overseas revenue in January, and Gunpowder Age made significant progress

"Lords Mobile", "Clash of Kings" and "King of Avalon", three overseas masterpieces targeting the European and American markets, once again occupied the top three overseas revenues in January. What is worth discussing is "Guns of Glory", another market-oriented strategy MMO work launched by FunPlus after "King of Avalon". Since its launch at the end of September last year, the monthly revenue of "Guns of Glory" has maintained a steady and rapid upward trend worldwide. Sensor Tower data also revealed that "Guns of Glory" has currently exceeded 15 million US dollars in overseas App Store stores. Looking at the App Store and Google Play, American players account for the largest proportion of spending, currently nearly 40%. South Korea and Germany are next, each accounting for about 10%.

Compared with the overseas rankings of October and November last year, which were counted by Sensor Tower, Guns of Glory did not make it into the top 30 in October due to its early launch; while Guns of Glory, which ranked 17th in November, entered the top five of the Chinese mobile game overseas rankings just two months later. This is a remarkable improvement.

[[220133]]

In addition to exporting to Europe and the United States, leading works with stronger target regions include "Azur Lane" (Japan) ranked fourth, "Sultan's Revenge" (Saudi Arabia) ranked eighth, "Idol Dream Festival" (Japan) ranked ninth, and "The King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Battle OL" (Japan) ranked 14th.

UC Browser ranked first in overseas downloads, and tools, photography, and video playback and editing apps performed best overseas

From the perspective of non-mobile game apps, we mainly focus on the products with the highest download volume. In January this year, the most downloaded Chinese app on the overseas App Store and Google Play was Alibaba's UC Browser. It is worth noting that almost all of UC Browser's overseas downloads since its launch have come from Android devices, and the main markets are developing countries. Last month, the largest number of downloads in the Indian market accounted for more than 60%.

The second place in overseas downloads is SHAREit, developed by Zhonglian Jixiang. Similar to UC Browser, SHAREit has the majority of downloads from Android users in developing countries. Last month, India still had the largest share of downloads (over 40%). There are 14 tool apps including SHAREit on the TOP30 list, five of which are anti-virus apps designed specifically for Android devices. Chinese manufacturers account for almost half of the tool apps on the TOP30 list.

The other two popular Chinese-made apps are photography and video playback and editing. Camera apps mainly serve users to take selfies and beautify photos, led by BeautyPlus, the international version of Meitu's Beauty Camera. Ranked seventh, BeautyPlus' main market is still Indian users, accounting for more than 50% of downloads last month. In the video playback and editing category, the popular short video apps Douyin and the international versions of Huoshan Short Video, Tik Tok and Hypstar, also made it into the top 15. Tik Tok is most popular in Indonesia, accounting for more than 40% of downloads last month, followed by the Japanese market, which accounted for nearly 16%; and Hypstar is downloaded the most by Indian users, accounting for more than 60% last month.

Mobile applications go global with a clear focus on markets and categories

After many years of Chinese mobile products going overseas, the trend and target market have gradually formed and become clear. There are of course many different factors to consider when going overseas for mobile games and non-mobile games. But the target market is one of the main considerations. Judging from the excellent Chinese non-mobile game apps going overseas, the Android market in developing countries is still the main target group; there are still a few apps that go beyond this range. Mobile games are more flexible; we can see different works targeting Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

Depending on the target audience, the style and category of the game are also different. It is extremely important to tailor it to the local market. However, apart from the three popular categories mentioned above, there is relatively little localization work required for different markets. We will continue to pay attention to the progress of Chinese mobile games and APP overseas markets in the next few months.

About Sensor Tower: Sensor Tower is the world's leading mobile application and mobile game intelligence platform, providing application intelligence, store intelligence, and mobile advertising intelligence (www.sensortower-china.com).