PROBLEM: PikPok needed a way to efficiently identify market opportunities to scale

STRATEGY: Using Apptopia's app intelligence, the PikPok team discovered white space in the market, evaluated potential opportunities, and tracked their competition 

RESULTS: With complete market visibility, PikPok is steering away from risky decisions, and toward those with higher ROI

PikPok is a leading games publisher known for high quality and compelling releases, like Clusterduck, Into the Dead, and Rival Stars Horse Racing. With hundreds of millions of mobile downloads under its belt already, the company is hungry to advance to the next level and expand its reach. To achieve this, the PikPok team sought out an intelligence solution in 2020. They quickly landed on Apptopia, which they’ve been using to discover new opportunities and outmaneuver their competition ever since. 

Twice a year, PikPok hosts a game jam, where employees separate into teams to cook up new game prototypes. Teams present market and audience insights to give themselves an edge, proving that their concept presents an opportunity. One year, word spread that a team had access to Apptopia, and it wasn’t long before every jam team wanted in on the platform. Soon after, live game teams began integrating competitive intelligence into their daily work.

Behind any successful game is a strong proof of concept. Each time the PikPok team generates a new idea, they test their hypothesis in Apptopia. First, they use keywords to search for similar games. Then, they use those search results to build out a market in Apptopia’s Market Explorer tool. 

From there, they conduct a market potential analysis, in which they determine the current worth of the market, its geocomposition, and user type. Specifically, the team looks at Apptopia’s estimates for app downloads, total revenue, in-app purchase (IAP) revenue, average revenue per users (ARPU), and regional market share. 

After having determined the market's viability, the team further refines their research to include only apps with the most lucrative mechanic or feature. PikPok then determines if it's worth it to join the niche group, or enter the market using a different gameplay strategy altogether. Apptopia’s advertisement insights combined with ARPU data proved to be the most influential in this decision-making process.

Any game developer knows that the work does not end after launch. The team maintains and updates their markets in Market Explorer to keep tabs on their competitors and remain aware of any emerging user trends. If the team notices a competitor is faring better (or worse) than usual, they dive into the app’s recent updates, and implement any findings into their growth strategy. 

PikPok also leverages the data to better understand their own market positioning. With Apptopia’s insights, the team can easily tell which markets they are growing the fastest in or need to give more attention to. This streamlines their internal processes, from product roadmapping to budget allocation.

The PikPok team managed to remove a ton of guesswork from game development using Apptopia. The intelligence allows them to go to market faster and with higher quality products. As PikPok continues to build and scale, we expect to see more of its titles at the top of the charts. Click here to learn how other teams are using Apptopia.