Miraculous Takes the Top Spot, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Surges to 5th Place.
Every week we at Metaverse Marcom publish exclusive research about how brands are activating on the Roblox platform. And at the start of each month, we gather data on how many visits branded experiences have accumulated on Roblox during the previous month in order to see what's currently popular on the platform.
-17% Monthly Decrease Across Top 20 Branded Games
When looking at the top 20 branded games combined, overall visits decreased -17% month-over-month. In August, the top 20 games collectively had 106.5 million visits, versus having 128.3 million in July.
Not only did we see well-established branded games near the top of our rankings take a dip month-over-month, but we also saw brand new experiences fail to take off in their first month.
As we enter Fall and back to school season in September, I imagine that we'll see even further visit declines in next month's list.
Miraculous Moves Into First Place on Roblox
Miraculous RP: Ladybug & Cat Noir, developed by Toya and based on the hit children's animated series, has been near the top of our monthly Roblox brand rankings since we started tracking this data a year ago.
Over that period the experience has hovered around 10-14 million monthly visits. Last month, it surged to over 19 million visits, and this month it dropped slightly to 18 million. That total was enough to edge out Sonic Speed Simulator for the top spot this month.
At the start of the year, Sonic was near 30 million visits, and it has remained above 20 million visits for most of the year.
Hello Kitty surged in the springtime, thanks to a robust live ops update and free UGC, but it has cooled off to below 15 million visits over the summer.
And Miraculous has surged over the past couple of months after having been fairly flat over the first half of the year.
TMNT Battle Tycoon! Has Strong Month on Roblox
Launched at the end of July, TMNT Battle Tycoon came to Roblox shortly before the release of the summer movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. This branded experience was developed by Gamefam, the studio that also released the Barbie Dreamhouse Tycoon game on Roblox timed to the release of the smash hit Barbie movie.
TMNT had a big +1166% increase in month-over-month visits, which may have been driven by enthusiasm for the IP stoked by all of the marketing surrounding the movie release. Before the movie came out, I saw loads of TMNT merchandise in the toy aisles at Target.
Another reason the experience had such a strong month in terms of visits could be because the in-game incentives are very compelling.
As you play the tycoon game, you can create new buildings tied to the TMNT world, including a training dojo and garage. As you level up, you can also unlock new weapons as well as the titular characters, who you can play as.
One TikTok video creator said it took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to unlock all of the turtles.
Success with the Roblox Algorithm
When players spend lots of time in an experience, that boosts average session times considerably.
And strong session times help garner attention from the Roblox algorithm, which surfaces high-performing games to more players.
This comes back to the importance of making something fun that players will enjoy and want to keep coming back to over and over again.
The more that brands can make real games that are fun and re-playable instead of brand marketing activations in virtual worlds without much gameplay, the more they'll succeed in driving consistent traffic through the Roblox algorithm.
With TMNT Battle Tycoon!, Gamefam has the potential to create lasting success with a well-known IP, similar to what they've done with perennial top-performer Sonic the Hedgehog, who, as we discussed earlier, has been near the top of this list all year.
Here's info from the description page about the experience...
Leave a like 👍 and favorite 🤩 for TMNT Battle Tycoon updates!
Unleash your inner mutant in the official TMNT game on Roblox! Build, battle, and control the streets of NYC as you hone your ninja skills and shell out justice to enemy mutants
🏗️ Build your own Ninja Turtles base with an armory, dojo, arcade, and more!
🐢 Battle as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello (with more characters to come)!
⚔️ Unlock and equip an arsenal of unique weapons!
🛹 Build out the chop shop and collect the Turtles' vehicles!
🦏 Boss fights coming soon!
Available for PC, Tablet, and Mobile
🍕 EAT PIZZA! COWABUNGA!
©2023 Paramount Pictures. ©2023 Viacom International Inc.Roblox Live Ops Updates Coming Soon
The description teases more characters that players will be able to unlock and play as. Since the story universe for the TMNT IP is so expansive, there's a huge collection of characters for the brand to offer players in the future.
A new gameplay mode "Boss fights" is also teased in the description.
All of these upcoming live ops changes to the game signal to the players that there's more fun on the way and that they should come back.
Keeping a branded experience fresh and new through live ops updates is a key tactic to maintaining success over a long term. That's exactly what Miraculous, Hello Kitty, and Sonic have been doing to remain relevant for months and months.
Having regular live ops updates can be costly and require additional work post-launch, but it can have a major impact on a game's long term success when done effectively.
That's not to say all updates will work and drive additional visits. Updates must be compelling and really resonate with players. But when they do work, they can be very powerful.
Brands Ranked 11-20
Here are the remaining top-performing brands from this past month:
11. NHL Blast - 2.7 million visits
12. NERF Strike - 2.4 million visits
13. Sunsilk Hair Care Lab Tycoon 2.1 million visits
14. House of Blueberry - 1.65 million visits
15. FIFA World - 1.54 million visits
16. Tommy Play - 1.53 million visits
17. iHeart Land Music Tycoon - 1.5 million visits
18. Vans World - 1.38 million visits
19. Hamilton Simulator - 1.36 million visits
20. Vita Coco Coconut Grove - 1.2 million visits
Interested in exploring Roblox as a pathway for marketing and monetization for your brand? Need help developing updated marketing plans that drive not only traffic to your Roblox experience, but also monetization opportunities? If so, email us at hello@metaversemarcom.io
Stephen Dypiangco is the CEO of Metaverse Marcom, a strategy and consulting firm helping entertainment and sports brands enter Roblox.
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