What Are Role-Playing Games?

What Types of RPG Games Are There?

There are numerous types of RPG games for each committed user in this hardcore gaming category; these are the most popular and common types:

• Traditional RPGs: These follow a linear storyline, and players engage in combat with their characters and make decisions that influence the outcome of the game.
• Action RPGs: These combine elements of traditional RPGs with faster-paced battles – players often have more control over their movement and attacks.
• MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games): These allow large numbers of RPG gamers to interact in gameplay. These players complete missions, engage in PvP gameplay, and explore their characters’ virtual world.
• Idle RPG: These are designed for more casual gaming experiences. Players can progress through the game with minimal input, and their characters often automatically engage in battles.

What Are the Best Mobile RPG Games?

According to the Mobile Games Index, the top mobile RPG games worldwide on Android in terms of average session duration are the following:

1. Diablo Immortal – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
2. Gangstar New Orleans – Gameloft SE
3. Shadow Fight 3 – RPG fighting – NEKKI 
4. Dislyte – Farlight
5. Bloodline: Heroes of Lithas – GOAT Games
6. LifeAfter – NetEase Games
7. Call of Antia: Match 3 RPG – FunPlus International AG
8. Puzzles & Conquest – 37GAMES
9. AFK Arena – LilithGames
10. Hero Wars – Fantasy Battles – NEXTERS GLOBAL LTD

Who Plays Mobile RPG Games?

RPG gamers are known as highly engaged mobile gamers, spending a large amount of time in gameplay. It is estimated that, globally, these gamers spend between 14 and 19 minutes per day in gameplay – with men typically engaging longer in RPG titles than women. 

The gaming vertical is particularly popular among under 20s, who tend to spend the longest in gameplay, at over 18 minutes per day. Users from Europe, the US, and Asia show the most impressive engagement times worldwide at between 17 and 18 minutes.

RPG gamers are difficult to acquire because titles in this genre create specific worlds that very often resonate only with niche audiences and are not as mainstream as casual games. Once developers target the right user, however, they can be almost certain they will convert and be highly engaged.

Why Are RPG Games So Popular?

Why are RPG gamers so committed? Besides being highly engaged gamers, these users also bring apps high retention rates, lifetime value, and session durations because of the mechanisms incorporated into RPG titles. These typical gameplay mechanics include the following:

• Competitive co-op gameplay with leaderboards
• High-resolution immersive graphics that evolve with game progression
• Storytelling elements with new characters, weapons, and skills
• Real-time connections with other gamers – such as live chats
• Worldwide tournaments, often with prize money to win
• Stunning soundtracks
• External chatrooms or threads to talk tactics and progression strategies – for example, Reddit or Discord

With the arrival of game hybridization strategies in the mobile gaming space, RPG games are now drawing on the strengths of other gaming verticals – such as hypercasual games – so that RPG developers can attract a wider user base.

How Do You Monetize RPG Gamers?

The largest revenue sums for RPG games typically come from Asia, where revenue is expected to reach around 80 billion US dollars by 2027. In the US, the number is much lower, at 15 billion. 

RPG gamers demonstrate a high level of engagement; for this reason, they are highly monetizable – either as nonpaying users or as paying users. According to data from the Mobile Games Index, the RPG gaming market will be worth just under 100 billion US dollars by 2027. The biggest share of this valuation belongs to in-app purchases, at 60 billion US dollars, with in-app ads bringing in 38 billion.

This indicates that while IAPs have been a dominant source of revenue for RPG games for the last few years, ads are becoming more important for RPG monetization strategies. Reasons for this development is that player spending budgets have decreased with the market recession. Game developers therefore have to adjust correspondingly and focus their monetization strategy on in-app advertising.

Conclusion

Mobile role-playing games offer players across the globe immersive experiences that drive high engagement rates and revenue. They are able to do this so successfully as a result of their mechanics – from competitive gameplay to immersive gameplay graphics. 

Due to this high engagement, RPG gamers are high-quality users to user acquisition teams because they often deliver higher ROAS – and for gaming publishers, they are highly monetizable players, both in the IAP and IAA space.

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