Brawl Stars In Japan

Supercell recently launched Brawl Stars in Japan and the rest of the world after nearly a year in soft-launch. We at Yengage predicted that several non-Japanese games will break into the top 50 grossing in 2019 and stay there consistently. Will Brawl Stars be the first mobile game to do so?

Brawl Stars Grossing Rank iOS in Japan

Even at its worst rank back on January 1st, Brawl Stars has performed exceptionally well for a new game in Japan. Supercell is no slouch in the Japanese market with several successful titles. One interesting point though about all of Supercell’s games including Brawl Stars in Japan–Supercell does not culturalize its games.

What do I mean by that? Well, instead of changing the artwork or gameplay to fit Japanese tastes (like what Netease did for Knives Out vs. Rules of Survival), Supercell focuses on making a high-quality game that everyone could enjoy (with high-quality localization of course!).

Why did this work?

TLDR; Hype and Credibility.

This strategy worked for a couple of reasons. First, Supercell has brand recognition due to its Clash series. Clash of Clans and later, Clash Royale, were both quite popular in Japan. Given that, Supercell benefited greatly from people knowing about them. This gives whatever game they launch instant credibility.

Second, Supercell was able to build hype for the game. Brawl Stars was probably the most famous game in soft launch in the world. By taking the time to perfect the game, they also were able to build organic hype for the game.

Last, the game itself is great. You can market a game until you’re blue in the face, but without a quality product to begin with, you’re sunk. The monetization is solid. The gameplay itself is fun. Matchmaking is seamless. It’s truly a AAA experience on mobile.

Combine this with a killer user acquisition strategy in Japan and Supercell was able to immediately get into the top 100 grossing. While it dropped to 80 overall at its worst point, I expect them to continue their strong UA campaigns in Japan to keep it in the top 100.

I mean, their user acquisition strategy worked on me! I pre-registered from a Facebook ad.

We have publicly stated last year that the Japanese mobile games market is continuing to become more and more open to non-Japanese games. Brawl Stars has the name recognition and backing of a major studio and will likely stay in the top grossing.

So the real question is: who’s next?

Do you have a mobile game to launch in Japan? Or have you launched but need help scaling users? Want to get into the top 100 grossing charts? Let’s chat! Email us at info[at]yengage.net or click below!

By: Justin Endo. First Published: January 23, 2019.

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