Avengers VS. Justice League in the Mobile Arena

Avengers: Infinity War debuted on April 27th to much fanfare. It’s exciting to watch your favorite comic book characters on the big screen, but when the movie ends, we want the fun to continue. And so we turn to mobile games where we can put ourselves into the adventure by controlling our favorite superheroes. Comparing the 10 days prior to the movie’s launch with the day of + 9 days after, we see that excitement unfold in boosted downloads, active users and revenue.

Excitement from the film translated into an average boost of 120% more new downloads, 50% more IAP revenue, and 16% more average daily active users.

As you can see above, we looked at a grouping of five apps. There are more MARVEL games, but the ones we’ve included focus on the Avengers as a group and not an individual superhero.

Most of the games see a BIG boost of new downloads. Some of these turn into active users and some of the active users spend money in the game, at least for a few days while the excitement is fresh and they are engaged with the adventure.

MARVEL vs. DC

Looking back from Q1 2017, we wanted to determine which set of games are more successful. Looking at the success track records from the movies, we know MARVEL tends to do better. This holds true for mobile games. With the exception of Q2, where Injustice 2 launched (Justice League game), Avengers games pull more downloads and revenue than Justice League games.

Data estimates in the two below charts is worldwide.

Just like the grouping of MARVEL games, we chose DC games that focus around the Justice League and not individual superheroes. Something very interesting to note is that each of the five MARVEL games are backed by a different publisher. All five DC games are backed by Warner Brothers. From left to right, in order of the games listed in the first chart, the MARVEL publishers are Kabam, Netmarble, FoxNext Games, TinyCo and D3PA. Warner Brothers does actually back one MARVEL game, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, but only because it owns the rights to the LEGO movies, and they were able to work out a deal.

When looking at MARVEL’s success, keep in mind Contest of Champions creates the bulk of revenue for the grouping, at an average of 63%. For the DC grouping’s revenue, once Injustice 2 launched, it created an even larger chunk at an average of 71%.

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