Hello, this is the Realworld Experience Trend Letter. While we mostly consume news articles on mobile devices these days, it used to be common for every household to subscribe to newspapers. While adults were curious about what was happening in the world, children would flip through the newspaper looking for puzzle games like crosswords rather than reading news articles.
Puzzle games, which were a delightful feature of newspapers, are no longer just memories of the past. They now exist as mini-games in various app services, and the mini-game craze has become so intense that even major startups like unicorns are jumping in. In this edition, we'll explore the various forms of mini-games and the reasons behind their popularity.
The New York Times: Captivating Subscribers with Mini-Games
We mentioned newspapers at the beginning. It was common to pay a subscription fee for physical newspapers. But what about articles distributed online? If you still think news should be free, The New York Times' transformation might surprise you. The New York Times was the first major American daily newspaper to introduce paid online articles in March 2011, and by the end of 2023, it had achieved 10 million digital subscribers. This is truly a success story of Digital Transformation.
So how are The New York Times' paywall and mini-games related? Many of you will remember that The New York Times acquired the word puzzle game 'Wordle' in 2022. Wordle is a game created by Josh Wardle in 2021 that became hugely popular due to its simple rules and strong addictive nature. While the exact amount wasn't disclosed, The New York Times reportedly invested millions of dollars to acquire Wordle.
The New York Times offers not just Wordle but over 10 different mini-games. It might seem a bit odd that a media company like The New York Times is providing game services. Why is The New York Times, a news organization, putting effort into mini-game services? Perhaps they're trying to make games a new growth driver.
Looking at The New York Times' digital subscriber numbers, while subscribers to news-only products continue to decline, the overall number of digital subscribers is increasing due to growth in subscribers to non-news products or multi-service bundles. In other words, the increase in game product subscriptions is contributing to the overall growth in paid subscribers.
While games like Wordle are offered for free, they seem to play a significant role in acquiring potential customers. The New York Times revealed that games were played 8 billion times in 2023, with Wordle accounting for 4.8 billion of those plays. Many people visit The New York Times daily to play games that are updated every day, which helps maintain a steady number of regular visitors.
Reward-Based Mini-Games Are Trending in Korea
Various app services in Korea are also introducing mini-games. Looking at the characteristics of these games, we can see they're reward-based mini-games - literally providing rewards to players for playing games. You can easily find themes where players raise and grow virtual pets or plants, usually in the format of 'Raising 000'.
In an interesting format, Naver Webtoon's 'Cookies I Made' allows players to obtain recipes by baking cookies with various ingredient combinations. Special recipes provide 'cookies,' which are the payment method for content, making it even more popular. Perhaps that's why you can often find people sharing recipes online.
Since the value of app services is determined by the number of users, the purpose of these mini-games appears to be maintaining retention through repeat visits.
What Effects Do Mini-Games Have?
What effects does introducing mini-games to app services have? We've already seen how The New York Times maintains subscribers through game services. Let's also look at a more familiar example - Realworld operates a mini-game called 'Daily Dagu.' It's essentially a fortune-telling draw, and many people visit Realworld daily to draw these fortune charms.
While I can't reveal detailed figures, let's look at the cumulative participant graph for 'Daily Dagu.' The game showed somewhat sluggish performance in its early stages, but participants increased dramatically from the end of last year, and as of May 2024, it shows a somewhat stabilized pattern. If we can retain our service users with just a simple mechanic like drawing, isn't it worth trying?
Amy Gallo, a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, said that 'acquiring new customers costs 5-25 times more than retaining existing customers.' This means that while acquiring new users is important, we must also retain existing users. Mini-games provide fun and rewards to players while providing retention to app services. If you're contemplating app services, please pay attention to the mini-game trend.