A hyper-casual game is a

mobile video game A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to h ...

which is easy-to-play, and usually

free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

; they also feature very minimalistic

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

s. Popularized in 2017 by game makers such as Kwalee,

Ketchapp Ketchapp SARL is a French video game publisher based in Paris, specializing in the mobile games market. Founded in 2014 by brothers Antoine and Michel Morcos, the company first came into the public eye later that year, through its port of the ...

and Voodoo, these games can be quickly played after downloading, usually without any tutorial or instructions. They also often use a 2D design with a simple color scheme, easy mechanics adding to their simplicity. Usually featuring infinite looped mechanics, hyper-casual games are playable for an infinite amount of time, leading to their addictive nature. Some argue hyper-casuals are a business model, rather than a genre. These games are often played while multitasking, which is why their simple user interface is essential. Because of the lack of a robust in-game economy and free download cost of most hyper-causal games, revenue is mostly generated from ads. Most of these ads come in the form of: * Rewarded videos (when these ad videos are watched, the player is rewarded with extra time, extra lives, or other in-game rewards) *

Banner ads A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking ...

(ads that appear at the bottom of the user's screen) * Interstitial ads (advertisements that show between sessions)

History

Hyper-casual games gained traction in 2017 in mobile gaming, but are often seen as a genre similar to the 1970s video games that lacked detailed design and gameplay. The first hyper-casual game that gained wide popularity was ''

Flappy Bird ''Flappy Bird'' is a mobile game developed by the Vietnamese video game artist and programmer Dong Nguyen ( vi, Nguyễn Hà Đông), under his game development company .Gears. The game is a side-scroller where the player controls a bird, attemp ...

'', which saw over 50 million downloads and generated around $50,000 a day in its prime. Since then, hyper-casual games have dominated top-charts in multiple mobile game stores such as the

Google Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating syst ...

and the App Store (iOS). According to the EEDAR, the majority of mobile video-game users play while multitasking, and because of their simplicity, hyper-casual games have become increasingly popular among these users. In 2016, popular gaming company,

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', ...

, bought Ketchapp (one of the hyper-casual gaming company pioneers). In 2017, Goldman Sachs invested $200 million in hyper-casual gaming company Voodoo. According to

ironSource ironSource Ltd. is an Israeli software company that focuses on developing technologies for app monetization and distribution, with its core products focused on the app economy. Among others, ironSource was chosen as one of the '20 hottest star ...

, hyper-casual games occupy 10 of the 15 top most downloaded games. Compare this to a year ago, when there were only 3 hyper-casual games in the top 15. In an interview with ironSource, founder of Destruction of Fun Mishka Katkoff explains their appeal: :“As casual games implement deeper, mid-core features they become more engaging, but also more complicated. This, in turn, opens up a segment for hyper-casual games to dominate – games that are easy to start and fun to play.”

References

{{reflist Gaming Video game genres