Website Closers® presents a unique opportunity to acquire a wildly successful Mobile Gaming App Developer & Operator with enormous brand presence and longevity. The top source of revenue comes from In App purchases and Advertising of the flagship game. It is a ‘freemium’ mobile card game that gives away free play to users in exchange for ad views. Ads are shown during games, at the end, and in exchange for free in-game currency. It is played with cards, of which players get a ‘base set’ containing around 500 for free. Players often enhance their experience by purchasing more cards to play with. The game offers about 5,000 cards for purchase between 100 different decks of various subjects.
The main game is generally free-to-play with friends but requires in-game currency to play with ‘strangers’ or other players in the community that a gamer doesn’t already know. In-game currency can be earned by playing, winning, purchasing, or watching ‘reward video’ ads.
This business model has consistently been successful, and over 9 years, the company has enjoyed 25 million downloads and $5 million in revenue. Industry experts suggest that with Ad Optimization, which the company hasn’t yet focused on, it should be making five times or more than what they do in ad revenue today, suggesting there is a lot of headroom for improvement just on this one element for the current apps.
Additional scale opportunities include adding more decks. Making new content motivates players and drives traffic when paired with a good Push Notification. Furthermore, refactoring subscriptions to be simpler and focusing on the most prolific players with tournaments, customs decks, and daily rewards would all likely drive sales.
However, the most significant and straightforward opportunity may lie in international expansion. 67% of customers are based in the US and given that last year China had 35% of the market share and Japan 10%, international expansion via simple translation could boost revenues into the stratosphere.
More physical box sets with readily available additional cards for Amazon and potentially minting NFTs of their industry-famous classics could be the ideal route for a buyer with that expertise. The full suite of this brand’s mobile games is thus an ideal acquisition target for a variety of potential acquirers.
Those looking for a suite of Mobile Games with a healthy, steady state of users and revenue and major upside during holidays and times when people are stuck together inside. It takes minimal effort to keep the app running as-is and recoup the investment over the next several years.
Additionally, a team looking to start with a proven, scalable, viral concept–then attach their rocket boosters to it and take it to the moon. The game has a rabid fan base that has shown stages of hypergrowth in the past. In 2014, for example, it ranked as high as the #50 Overall App in the USA. People love the game. It boasts 4.8 stars on iOS, where 69% of users operate from.
App store optimization is the primary marketing area of focus for the company. The title, subtitle, keywords, and preview screenshots have all been well-tested and produce strong results. Based on data from Google Play, the company knows that 90% of users discover them through ‘app store search.’ About 35% of those users search directly for the flagship game, and another 25% come from competitor search queries that the company recognizes and optimizes for. The remaining 40% is a mishmash of other terms. The company does not optimize for SEO outside of the App Stores.
The game is well-positioned to handle scale factors at least ten times its current state. This was proven because the company did not miss a beat when usage spiked overnight during the pandemic in 2020. The core API utilizes auto-scaling, and the database uses a mix of auto-scaling for storage and “scale with the click of a button” for compute.
The two owners have systemized this business incredibly well, having full-time jobs outside the company. They work just 3,5 hours weekly, with three additional employees involved in customer service and game development.
They perform the following duties:
- Customer support for existing players who write in with questions and comments
- Develop and test minor gameplay and revenue optimizations
- Update the code base to support the latest iOS and Android operating systems
- Respond to AWS/MongoDB cost-savings opportunities as they arise
- Send Push Notifications to the user base on prominent or fun holidays to drive engagement
- Monitor Amazon emails about physical box set stock levels, and email the warehouse to ship more copies to Amazon when needed
- Back-office business operations such as payroll and taxes
The company is in touch with players who have been playing since their earliest days–for 8 to 9 years. People make friends on the game and keep those friendships running in continuous game sessions for years. At least two couples who met on the game are now married.
Such is the arresting experience of playing this game, and such is the brand that’s up for grabs here. Contact Website Closers today to find out more about this rare acquisition opportunity.
