Robin Guo, General Partner at a16z, explains why anime mobile games generate higher monetization per player than other gaming genres.
Assertion Supported
Anime games achieve $30-$50 ARPU, up to 3x higher than standard games
“And so that's why you see like art proves as high as like, 3040, 50 dollars, whereas, like, some other games, ARPU might be more in the, like, 10 to 20 dollar range, so it's like, you know, three acts for, you know, potentially two to three acts what, like, a …”
Assertion Partly supported
Guo: miHoYo generated over $3.8B in 2022 from Genshin and Honkai
“For instance, Mahoyo generated over 3.8 billion dollars from releases like Genshin Impact and Hawkeye Star Rail in twenty-twenty-two.”
Assertion Supported
Guo: 50% of millennials and 70% of Gen Z watch anime
“If you look at the stats, I think something like 50% of millennials, and now, like, 70% of Gen Z watch anime, and so, like, more and more young people are watching, converting to the medium”
Prediction Held up
Guo: Generative AI will lower anime game production costs
“Many people will be generating both like Mods and fan art, but also people will be using this in the production setting to get anime games out for cheaper and getting them out at, like, very high quality. So I think that will definitely happen for sure.”
Insight
Anime is defined by its fanbase, not country of origin
“There's no real, like, hard and fast lines for, like, what defines anime, right? So some people consider Avatar The Last Airbender, which is, like, a American cartoon, or RWBY, which is another American cartoon anime too. And so, like, I think the genre is, li…”
Assertion Supported
Guo: Genshin Impact cost several hundred million dollars to build
“And eventually they built up the Tekken capabilities to build Genshin, Which is now a billion dollar scale, but took, like, several hundred million dollars to make”