As of press time, 59.55 million players have played this game on September 16, and the number of customs clearance is only 597,000. The topic of "A sheep got a sheep" in Weibo was posted on Weibo Hot Search 1 1 times, and the reading volume of the topic reached 2.64 billion. Baidu index jumped from 0 in September 12 to 79894 15 in September.
What kind of game is this? Why is it suddenly popular? What profit does it have? The reporter launched an investigation.
Eliminate the fission popularity of the game.
"Sheep and sheep" came down again? It won't open again! "On the morning of September 16, Teacher Zhou asked in the WeChat group. This little game is not the first downtime. Since the sudden popularity of 13 in September, the game server has been "crowded" by a large number of visitors and shut down many times.
According to the official introduction, Sheep Got Sheep is essentially a small game, but "the clearance rate is less than 0.0 1%, which is the most difficult game in history." The reporter noticed that its rules are very simple. The game is to find three identical patterns in the overlapping squares and put them in the card slot below to eliminate them. Up to 7 cards can be stored in the card slot. There is also a player ranking table on the home page of the game to rank players in different regions. After the game is cleared, you can enter the regional list to help regional ranking.
Why does this seemingly ordinary "three-in-one elimination" game cause so much heat? "Look at the rules is very simple. As soon as you play, you know that the first level has been closed, and no one has passed the second level. " "This game is poisonous and really top-notch. The feeling of almost passing is fascinating. " "When it was solved smoothly, I thought that this one would definitely pass, and the next one might be fine." ... many players told reporters that with unconvinced psychology, they constantly challenged, and even some people from.
The reporter noticed that because the second level is too difficult, most players need props to help them pass the game. There are only two ways to get props. You can share the game link with friends or groups a few times before, and you can only watch video advertisements if you want to get props later. The former helps the game to achieve rapid spread and fission, while the latter allows game makers to realize traffic realization.
At the same time, many stores on Taobao have opened the game of "sheep making sheep", and the highest sales volume has exceeded 10000 people, becoming the latest "traffic password".
"The rise of casual games is often inseparable from the promotion of buying traffic, but' sheep have sheep' is more dependent on community communication and social media public opinion fermentation." Wang Leyan, product manager of a game manufacturer, said that WeChat forwarding is more efficient and cheaper than purchasing. "When the fun and difficulty of the game form * * * knowledge in a certain group, it will spread through social media lists and KOL (opinion leaders) on multiple platforms, and finally get through the acquaintance socialization and group socialization, detonating the game fever."
The game producer denied that the daily income was 4.68 million yuan.
"This game is a powerful advertising player. The huge' fishing' users on WeChat have no brainless brushes and unlimited business opportunities. " Mr. Wang, a citizen, said with emotion.
The reporter noted that at present, the income of "sheep get sheep" mainly depends on advertising. Players who fail to break through can get props by watching advertisements. Extremely difficult games mean that players will fail frequently and the number of times they watch advertisements will surge. On September 15, a screenshot of "Daily Traffic Master Data" was circulated on the Internet. The picture shows that "the sheep got a sheep" earned 4.68 million yuan in just half a day and 25.64 million yuan in half a month.
According to China Entrepreneur magazine, the production team behind "The Sheep Made a Sheep" denied this.
According to the China Fund, Tencent founder Ma also said after seeing this picture, "It was verified that it was forged by PS." However, Tencent has not confirmed this statement to reporters.
Insiders told reporters that this game has no version number at present, and it has not been realized through in-house purchase, so it can only rely on video advertising. "According to the use of three props in one game, it takes about 75 minutes to play 50 games." Weibo blogger @ Bidao THU estimates.
How much revenue can watching advertisements bring to small program game operators? Official website, a reporter who consulted WeChat advertisements found that small program operators who meet certain conditions can voluntarily share the designated positions in small programs with advertisers for advertising display, and then become the main advertising traffic of small programs, earning advertising revenue on a monthly basis. The scheme of dividing the main advertising space of applet traffic is: according to every thousand effective advertising exposures, the platform collects advertising fees and shares them with the mainstream traffic. There is no upper limit according to the proportion of 50% of daily advertising revenue.
"At present, the CPM (advertising exposure cost per thousand people) of Apple system is around 200 yuan to 500 yuan, and the Android system is around 50 yuan to 150 yuan." Hu Weiwei, a senior game marketing manager, estimated to reporters that if 6,543,800 players watch an advertisement on Apple's system once, the advertising expenditure will be about 20,000 to 50,000 yuan, and developers can get 50% of it, that is, 6,543,800 to 25,000 yuan.
What does the explosive game rely on to retain users?
The reporter noticed that Beijing Jianyou Technology, the team behind "A Sheep", is one of the "elders" in the field of WeChat applet games. According to public information, Beijing Jianyou Technology Co., Ltd. was established on 202 1 1, with a registered capital of about1.7 million RMB, which is jointly held by Zhang, Xiamen thunder network Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Leshan Technology Co., Ltd., in addition to "One Sheep Has One Sheep" and "Home for Stray Pets".
Relying on the point-and-play characteristics and the powerful social attributes of WeChat, the WeChat mini-games that have already broken out, such as jumping bar, synthetic watermelon and animal restaurant, have now become a strategic highland for mobile game manufacturers to compete for the next traffic.
The White Paper on WeChat Games in 2022 shows that the number of WeChat game developers has reached 654.38+ million+,and the number of games per month is+50% year-on-year; In 20021year, Tencent's advertising game optimization plan has more than 50 casual game products and 7 over 100 million products.
A large number of game practitioners are digging for gold on this cusp, but many popular WeChat applet games can't get rid of the fate of "short life".
It is worth noting that with the explosion of the game, "Sheep Got Sheep" was also involved in the plagiarism storm, and some netizens questioned that it was suspected of copying another supporting game "3tiles".
"This also exposes the shortcomings that the small program game ecology is still unstable. At present, most small program games are seriously homogenized, and the way to break through development is single. " Wang Leyan said that small program games are easy to produce explosive products and have obvious import value. However, an explosion can also cause multiple models to appear at the same time. At the same time, the communication channels are insufficient, and the explosion still needs word of mouth. "If you don't want to be a flash in the pan and retain users, you still have to optimize the gameplay and take the boutique route. At the same time, the industry needs to ensure sound development through policy supervision such as copyright protection and avoid the diversion of' cottage'. "
Image source: A sheep has a sheep, Weibo, Taobao.