Parody is the future of casino art. Kevin Dale looks at the December charts and Christmas winners, as well as some recent advertising decisions.
Our review of popular casino games in 2023 is here, plus our top-rated Christmas game.
The tree this year is decorated with eleven Pragmatic play baubles. They “only” had 9 last year. Four lucky fish, 3 sweet treats, 2 wolves or dog and the best Gates of Olympus. Games Global gives them festive bangs for Rudolf, as two Gold Blitz Games are added to the Top 20.
The Top 20 Games by Distribution
In a few short weeks, we will publish our casino 2023 review. This includes more information on those big players and shakers who dominated the industry last year. Keep an eye out for our big casino review of 2023, which will be published in a few weeks. It will include a look at game production, studio performances, changes to market share and the newest game features.
Let’s now unwrap some Christmas themed bangers, before we have a tacit rant about the recent state of compliance rulings ….
Christmas Chart for 2023
As per our charts for Halloween/Easter and last year, we have ranked the 20 best new casino games with a Christmas theme. Each studio is represented by the highest rated title. The games are ranked based on their distribution in all pages from 3,000 global operators.
We considered 523 titles for Christmas, of which only 141 have been released this year. The festival is back to its usual bumper release, with 141 titles in 2022 compared to 98 releases the previous year. The top two slots are 2021 Big Bass Christmas from Pragmatic Play and Invading Vegas, released by Play’n GO this year. It’s not only the usual suspects, as Booming Games Relax Gaming and Endorphina make the list.
As last year, a third of the Christmas acts were brand new. The second graph below focuses exclusively on the brand new games for Christmas, and includes the six above as well as some additional gifts.
Alongside old favorites such as Greentube, Inspired Entertainment and SpinPlay Games are some of the newer names.
Spinomenal is the most prolific Christmas slot developer. The product lines are in line with the seasonal calendar. They launch both new titles for Christmas and variants of current games. Games Global and Wazdan are also represented well, with Wazdan doubling down on their Christmas Editions, putting it in third place.
The Christmas theme is diverse, ranging from Rock Stars and Aliens. Nolimit City deserves special recognition this year for their Jingle Balls, which takes a twist on the traditional Christmas theme. This studio’s title is atypically irreverent and upbeat. It doesn’t deviate too much from its dark side.
Grinch with a cigar and stoned Elf watch as granny witch’s fingernails rip the pervy Santa balls apart. For good measure, a border of Gulag-style barbed wire has been added.
We won’t be subject to some strange rulings that prohibit images “that may appeal to minors”. If these rules were strictly applied, our Christmas promotions and games would look pretty barren. It’s not necessary to rant about this subject, as it is the season of giving and a photo can say a thousand things.
Before Christmas, the dealmaking activity was very low. Many companies were preparing for ICE 2024 in February. Pateplay is still the most active studio, and EveryMatrix the most popular aggregator.
Don’t miss the Casino Review for 2023.
Biggest aggregator dealmakers
Biggest studio dealmakers
Please note that these charts are updated every month, so make sure you select December 2023 in the drop-down menus.
The interactive chart on top does not include live games or table games. The number of games that appear on casino homepages for more than 3,000 sites determines the game rankings. Please contact our partner Egamingmonitor.com to access other charts, including rankings of games, table and live games, subpage positions, or filtering game performance based on game features, theme, market or operator. Egamingmonitor includes 59,000 games from 1,600 providers and over 3,000 operators.
The rolling chart shows >***the current performance in terms of dealmaking. How many agreements were made in the past six months? Only deals that are a) published on the company website, b) featured in gaming publications or c), reported by studios or aggregators to us will be included. Egamingmonitor.com has all the deals between studios and aggregators, as well as aggregators and operators.
