How To Build a Diversified Distribution Strategy for a Mobile Game

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How To Build a Diversified Distribution Strategy for a Mobile Game

September 20, 2022•15 min

This blog post reveals the highlights of a diversified distribution strategy. For a more detailed roadmap, download our free ebook to help you understand how to build a diversified game distribution strategy, the challenges you might face in the process, and how Xsolla can help you release your games on new platforms.

Global Game Market Overview

Recently, mobile gaming’s revenue experienced unprecedented growth. Statista projects this industry segment to reach over $124 billion by year-end, with an anticipated 2.3 billion users by 2026. Mobile isn’t the only strong market for game distribution — PC and web games are equally lucrative. Further, experts expect the browser game market will reach $9.10 billion in 2026. PC gaming will yield $38.7 billion this year and gain about 1.8 billion players by 2022.

Combined, web and PC games make up 1/5th of the global games market, bringing in over $40 billion annually. The growth in popularity of these markets (mobile, PC, and web), reveals a trend brewing: Diversifying a game’s distribution strategy. Releasing on all three platforms lets you capture revenue you would otherwise miss, acts as a safety net against market performance shifts, and grants developers a competitive advantage.

What is a Diversified Distribution Strategy?

Releasing your games on multiple platforms is only part of a diversified distribution plan. Analytics, regional laws, and additional research also inform a fully-fledged strategy. Read on for details to consider when considering your approach to diversified distribution. You’ll need to first determine into which markets you want to expand. Evaluating where your game will best perform is vital. Your process should begin with research and due diligence into what markets are best for your game genre, customer base, and which competitors (with similar titles) have succeeded. Then, define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and set goals your studio wants to achieve. These goals and KPIs measure against factors like growing your audience, increasing downloads, generating higher returns on ad spend (ROAS), and similar metrics. These parameters will help guide your decisions once you start distributing your game. Next, prepare to collect data and run analytics to track how well you’re performing on new platforms. Monitoring your game’s performance will help you maximize success and mitigate risk — you want to set up an early warning system in case your game begins to drop in popularity, so you can adjust as needed. The analysis will also help you track progress towards completing your goals and inform you whether a change of plans is necessary. It’s wise to anticipate challenges you may face while distributing your game across numerous channels. You may need to hire more staff to deal with the extra work required to launch a game on a new platform, find ways to deal with an increase in customer volume or adjust your marketing spend. Drafting a plan to address the shifts related to expanded distribution is your insurance against unforeseen issues. The steps above should provide a solid foundation for distributing your game. At this point, you should have a clear picture of new platforms targeted for release, what growth you should expect, and be able to pivot if plans need to be updated.

Reasons You Need to Devise a Diversified Distribution Strategy

Beyond the rising popularity of the mentioned platforms, there are additional reasons why you might want to broaden your distribution strategy. Some players can “outgrow” mobile as a platform in search of more precise controls, more powerful graphics, and longer play sessions. You can address their desires by marketing and distributing to their evolving gaming needs. Once you do, you’ll likely discover that beyond simply increasing your game’s download numbers, capturing the “hardcore” player base can result in improved customer sentiment and a more significant return on ad spending. Distributing your game across multiple channels mitigates the overall risk of launching a game. If one platform fails, you’ll have one or more alternatives to rely upon – particularly if the failure results from factors outside your control. Industry shifts, like Apple’s IDFA, make advertising to players more difficult and impacts the mobile market. So, you can see why having a contingency plan is a substantial benefit to your overall strategy. Mobile advertising’s Increasing cost-per-lead (due to rising competition) is impacting developers and inspiring their departure to other (or embrace of additional) platforms. Industry titans like Minecraft, Hearthstone, Albion Online, Roblox, and Among Us have already diversified across numerous platforms validating the method of growing one’s player base and kicking off a growing trend in the development community. Given all the challenges (research, staffing, planning, etc.) incumbent on ensuring a successful launch, it may seem overwhelming to consider your path to game distribution diversification. We’re happy to let you know that there are solutions and tools to ease you through your planned growth and ensure that the rewards ultimately outweigh the risks. Xsolla Multi-Platform Publishing Solution provides streamlined content delivery to developers with games ported to other platforms.

Meet Xsolla Multi-Platform Publishing Solution for Mobile Games

Xsolla mission is to support mobile developers seeking to expand and to provide them with essential tools to evolve your business. Our Xsolla Multi-Platform Publishing Solution for mobile games helps you seamlessly deliver a game across different devices and platforms and reach new markets and new players. Xsolla’s Multi-Platform Publishing Solution helps save you time, resources, and money in your effort to deliver a game as quickly, conveniently, and seamlessly as possible across platforms.

Reach new players: An estimated two billion gamers play on PC and the web
Fund more efficient and effective ad campaigns, lowering your cost per lead vs. mobile
Increase player lifetime value by 30% by maintaining a closer connection to your audience
Gather more information on your players and keep it secure with seamless, one-click authorization

Get Started

The first step in your new distribution project is to download Xsolla’s FREE EBOOK on building a diversified distribution strategy. It features a range of useful tips and advice for taking your game across PC, web, and mobile.

Next, deploy Xsolla Multi-Platform Publishing Solution, a highly effective set of tools, including Xsolla Launcher, Login, Site Builder, Pay Station, In-game Store, and Partner Network. It’s a robust solution that supports mobile game delivery to PC and web with a custom, branded client app and a seamless one-click authentication tool. Create your publisher account to explore Xsolla’s range of publishing and developmental tools. If you want to learn how Xsolla can help reduce your workload and provide a simple solution that allows you to publish your game across multiple platforms, contact an expert from our team.