To buy, not to buy, or to surcharge, that is the bonus feature this month. Kevin Dale takes a look at feature-buy games, price hikes, plus of course the top 20 games globally.
An interstellar shuttle back to July 2023 reminds us that Starburst topped the eGaming Monitor charts, although Pragmatic Play was invading its space with seven titles.
What a difference a year makes. A parsec or two later and Starburst is down to number five while Pragmatic has a whopping 12 hits in the top 20, yet Gates Of Olympus is the star that has beaten their own sweet or fishy titles.
Play’n GO remain the biggest challenger to Pragmatic Play in the charts. Their ‘Of Dead’ family is still performing nicely. But ahoy, it’s ELK Studios’ latest release, Pirots 3, that is the only new title this month to break into the charts.
Top 20 games by distribution
It’s worth mentioning again that were we to include live games in our charts, Crazy Time and Lightning Roulette by Evolution Gaming plus Sweet Bonanza Candyland from Pragmatic Play would all feature in the top 20.
A year ago, too, the crash game Aviator first made it into the top 20 and, true to predictions, has levelled out there since. No surprise that its success has prompted a raft of new entrants for the genre: another 30 studios have launched crash games since and total crash numbers have doubled. For more stats on game production and distribution by operator, studio and game type, check out our annual review.
To buy or not to buy, that is the question
To buy or not to buy – the feature – is a question we turn to this month. With the growing influence of streamers, whose content performs better on bells and whistles versions, these games appear to be trending. They have also been dismissed by others, who argue that chasing after the feature is the dopamine hit itself, or that customer burn-out is more likely at this stake or volatility level.
The ‘to buy or not’ question is not dissimilar to a player choosing either 1×2 football bets or longer shot accumulators. Or red/black versus single numbers in roulette. It’s also similar to cashing out early, or late, in crash games. Or staking higher or lower amounts on any of these products. It’s a little odd then, that these bonus-buy games are under compliance threat, or even banned in some jurisdictions.
Bonus buy: Trendy, overhyped or under threat?
So are they trendy and trending, overhyped or under threat? Perhaps a look at bonus buy game production can settle the matter.
Fully expecting the production of feature-buy versions to have boomed, the percentage of new games that include bonus buys has been stubbornly static instead. It hovers around 0.6% of all new releases over the last three years. It just goes to show that when you run reports, you don’t always get the answer you’re expecting.
On a related and topical note, higher-priced versions of existing products are in the news this week. DraftKings has backed down from its surcharge plans, aimed at offsetting tax hikes.
Why any operator would wish to announce a price increase to the financial press, instead of trialling it quietly, is a mystery. Placating investors, while dropping bad news to their main audience – the customer – sounds like a communications mix-up.
Better still, as the Regulus guys noted, why not fatten up the overrounds instead, in those markets where taxes are higher? This would mirror how slot games in Germany all run to a higher RTP – just as effective, not as blatant and avoiding reputational damage.
On the deals front, EveryMatrix continues to plug in yet more new studios, adding both AFB Gaming and Coin Machine Gaming in recent weeks.
Biggest aggregator dealmakers
Gaming Corps meanwhile is the busiest studio dealmaker, adding Softland and IGP as distribution partners recently.
Biggest studio dealmakers
* Please note these are live charts so please ensure the month of July 2024 is selected in the dropdowns to match the analysis.
** The interactive games chart at the top excludes live games and table games. Game rankings are determined by the number of game appearances on the casino homepages of more than 3,500 casino sites. To access many other charts including game rankings, live and table games, positions on subpages or to filter game performance by game theme, game feature, market, or operator, please get in touch with our partner, Egamingmonitor.com. Egamingmonitor covers 67,000 games, 1,600 suppliers and 3,500+ operators.
*** Data on deals by month was collected from April 2020 onwards and the rolling chart reflects current dealmaking performance, i.e. how many deals were signed over the last six months. Note that only deals either a) on company websites or b) in the gaming press or c) reported to us by studios and aggregators, are collated. Deals between studios & aggregators (and aggregators & operators) from all time are available via Egamingmonitor.com.
