With millions of monthly downloads and sales, and multiple products on the overall list, is it a substantial and profitable presence in the United States?

Hunting is a game theme with a long history, which can be traced back to the red-and-white machine light gun shooting game "Duck Hunt" in the 1980s. In the years since, many manufacturers have also been involved. However, the routine of hunting games basically revolves around the basic cycle of "finding prey at points – aiming and shooting – collecting prey after killing", and they follow a simulation route that restores the real hunting experience as much as possible.

Under this idea, the time to find prey is very long and the time to kill is very short, which results in a slow pace of the game and makes it difficult for this type of game to "break the circle" in the increasingly fast-paced mobile game market. Even in the United States, where hunting is very popular, it is difficult for mobile games with this theme to enter the top 200 downloads and best-selling lists.

But recently, a product named " " began to climb the list rapidly from August 12. This game, which is only available in the iOS version, ranked among the top 5 in the U.S. iOS mobile game download list on August 18 (DianDian data). As of the 29th, it was still firmly in the top 5 and among the top 100 in the overall list. It can be said to be a small victory that is quite rare in hunting-themed mobile games in recent years.

As of September 6, " " is still among the top 5 iOS mobile game downloads in the United States | Image source: Diandian Data

Transform hunting into a 1v1 sniper game, earning millions of dollars per month

In previous games, in order to restore the hunting scene, "spotting" to find prey accounted for a large part, even the most important part of the game.

Take "Call of the Wild", which has been online for 6 years and has earned US$52.3 million in net revenue () as an example. A large part of the game is to use telescopes and other equipment to observe and track prey. The game even has a map. Let players explore and use it as a selling point. (ps, map is the key word, the second half is more exciting)

Traditional hunting-themed games such as ": Call of the Wild" often have huge maps, and finding prey is the focus of the game experience | Image source:: Call of the Wild

This more hard-core and slow-paced approach is often very popular on PC and consoles, but in the mobile game market, it is difficult to replicate the same experience and does not meet the needs of most users.

The first major change made by " " is to delete the tracking prey part and only retain the shooting operation. Players stand in a fixed position and only need to click on the screen, slide to aim at the prey, and then release their fingers to shoot. In other words, " " is essentially a shooting or even sniper game. Hunting becomes the theme and background, and what is important is the user base.

" " directly removed the tracking part of the prey, only retaining the shooting gameplay | Image source:

In order to enhance the sense of immersion in the shooting part, " " also draws on a common mechanism in sniper-themed games such as "Sniper Elite" – ballistic recovery to enhance the sense of accomplishment in killing prey. Prey in the game will have two vital organs – heart and brain. The closer the shot is to these two organs, the higher the accuracy rating and the more points you score. In order to more vividly demonstrate the degree of accuracy, the game will use 3D modeling to show the bullet path when the player fires when calculating scores, telling the player how far away from the "target" it is, and assisting the player in improving their performance.

However, deleting the search for prey and restoring the ballistics can only be said to be some operations that are adapted to mobile games and increase the appeal, which can allow " " to maintain good download results for a long time. It has become very popular in casual games recently. PvP battles are indispensable.

The battle mode of " " is very simple. Players are paired up in pairs and "hunt" separately in at least three rounds of duel. The more accurate you play, the more points you get. After the duel, the points from all rounds are added up, and the one with the highest total points wins.

Players must perform stably or even abnormally in every round in order to win the battle | Image source:

In order to increase the excitement of the PvP part, " " also designed a "winner-takes-all" reward calculation mechanism. Players must hand over a certain amount of in-game currency "Coins" as entry fees for each duel, and the winner of the duel can take away all the coins. After accumulating a certain number of wins, players can start new leagues with higher entrance fees. The higher the league level, the higher the entry threshold, and the greater the potential rewards and risks. Winning a high-level event is likely to reverse the player's "economic situation" and make the already intense PvP mode even more exciting.

The "winner takes all" calculation rule makes the " " PvP mode full of suspense and excitement | Image source:

The economic cycle of " " | Drawing of Beluga Whale Going to Sea

In terms of the economic system, " " has two types of resources: gems "GEM" and coins "Coin". Gems are the only items that can be purchased in-app and can be exchanged for coins.

Coin consumption scenarios include the competition betting mentioned above. The particularity of gems as a resource is that they speed up unboxing (you can get them if you win the game) to get cards that unlock guns. After players get the cards, they use coins to upgrade their guns. Guns can improve attributes such as aiming stability and power.

Although in-app purchases are linked to upgrading guns, " " still tests the player's gaming level | Image source:

But to be honest, as a competitive game, too many additional attributes may affect the game experience. Therefore, in the early stage, the author basically did not experience the impact of guns. But guns, as a "growth line", do add some depth to games that only rely on skills to play the game.

After the game has undergone a fast-paced, game-oriented transformation, players are obviously more popular. It has not been launched for a long time. It already has a daily turnover of 40,000 US dollars in the US market, and a million US dollars a month should not be a problem.

The PVP mechanism also gives the game the possibility of longer-term operation, and the larger the user pool, the more fun it is. Take the PVP match-3 game "Match" as an example. Since its launch in 2018, the game's in-app purchase revenue has exceeded US$200 million, and its in-app purchase revenue in a single month has reached US$7-8 million. The game developer also recently received a US$100 million investment from an American investment company.

In addition to the adaptation of the mechanism, in terms of themes, finding a hunting theme that is suitable and has a wide audience is a very critical part of the success of the game.

It’s not as niche as imagined. There is a hunting map product that earns 5 million US dollars a month.

Before understanding the modern hunting culture in the United States, the author's imagination of hunting in the United States was that the audience was about 40+ white men, and the scale was small.

In fact, hunting is indeed a project with thresholds. Hunters need to hold a hunting license and receive shooting and hunting training. In terms of external environment, hunting conditions are not available all year round. Each state in the United States will determine the number of animals according to the number of different types of animals. and survival conditions specify annual hunting quotas. However, despite this, the audience for hunting is much wider and wider than imagined, and even teenagers can participate in accompanied hunting.

Data shows that the number of certification materials such as hunting licenses in the United States in 2023 will be nearly 40 million (there are cases where one person holds multiple licenses, and the actual number of hunters may be less), and these 40 million certification materials are expected to increase the number of hunting licenses in the United States in 2023. and trap equipment market size reached USD 869 million.

Under such a high threshold, hunting activities still have tens of millions of users, which shows that there is a considerable audience beyond the threshold. This also proves that the " " theme is an important prerequisite for obtaining high downloads.