Supercell Tries Something New with mo.co - Is It a Success By the Numbers?

Supercell has a new game out and it's doing a few things differently. We've been following every Supercell release and I was very curious to see if this new approach will improve downloads, revenue, and revenue per download - the important things.

The new game is called mo.co, and the story behind it is the first "new" thing. The game revolves around a startup that hunts monsters. A business. In a game. Strange for a massive multiplayer game about hunting monsters.

I doubt that will impact revenue. What's more likely to impact it is how it's monetizing and how it's acquiring users.

Let's start with user acquisition. Unlike previous titles, mo.co is an invite-only game, following recent trends in social apps. Anyone can sign up to play - or "hunt" as Supercell refers to it - but you'll have to wait on a waiting list unless you can get someone who's already in and played enough to invite you.

Invite-only acquisition is tricky. On the one hand, a waiting list is a great way to generate excitement and create a community. People go gaga for things they can't have. But on the other, it could limit downloads., preventing the app from reaching the top charts.

Mo.co peaked at #4 in the Games top chart on the App Store (US) about a day after its release but has since dropped significantly. Right now it's #343.

Its icon isn't very game-like either. I wonder how much that's impacting downloads.

Next, revenue. You can't pay to win in mo.co. Instead, the in-app purchases the game provides are for customization. Many users love and praise this approach for being more fair and making the game more enjoyable. But, this approach gives less incentive to spend money. At least to the very casual users.

Did it work? I compared the first 11 days of data, which is what we have right now, to the same period for Supercell's Squad Busters and Brawl Stars and if we only look at the numbers the answer is absolutely not.

Mo.co so fewer downloads and earned less revenue than both other titles. And when you look at the revenue per download, it's also the lowest of the three. We estimate that so far, every download generated just $0.48 in player spending for mo.co vs. $0.64 and a whopping $1.45 for Brawl Stars and Squad Busters during their first 11 days on the App Store and Google Play, respectively.

My conclusion: Supercell is focused on building a community of casual gamers and not on squeezing every penny with a new title.

Reading reviews (because I don't have an invite...), it looks like mo.co combines several things that work in mobile, even if not necessarily just for games, and the result is a weird mix of a hybrid-casual game that easy to play initially but progresses, and that's focused on building up players and not just monetizing them.

The real question here is whether it work in the long term. I think so, but it's too early to tell.