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Mobile Monday: Harry Potter: Wizards Unite’s Debut, APAC’s App Install Fraud

Posted Jul 1, 2019

Ad fraud has presented continuous challenges for the industry and it is exceptionally prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region. A new report touches on the developing mobile app market in APAC and why it is susceptible to fraud. Meanwhile, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite’s launch did not quite live up to the hype. Read all about it in this week’s Mobile Monday!

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Debuts with 400K Downloads
After much anticipation, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a new mobile game based on the popular book series and movie franchise, was released in June by Pokémon Go! developer Niantic. According to Sensor Tower, within the first 24 hours of its launch, the game achieved 400,000 downloads and earned $300,000 in revenue. While this is an impressive debut, it cannot live up to the high expectations set by the game publisher’s other hit, Pokemon Go, which generated $2 million with 7.5 million installs in the same time period. Wizards Unite was able to reach 3 million installs and $1.1 million in revenue by the end of launch weekend but cannot compare to Pokemon Go’s 24 million downloads and $28 million in revenue during its first weekend.

While not the success it was expected to be, Wizards Unite is an example of how mobile games have fully entered the mainstream. Bolstered by Pokemon Go’s extraordinary popularity, the Harry Potter game’s debut was highly scrutinized not just among the media but also the public who were looking for the next big game. While the franchise has dominated the movie and book industries, Wizards Unite will continue to be watched if it can make major waves in the ever-expanding gaming market.

APAC’s Challenges with App Install Fraud
A report by mobile app measurement and attribution company, Appsflyer reveals that app install fraud in APAC is 60% higher than the global average. Furthermore, the company measured that in a six-month period financial exposure to fraud reached $650 million. This amount represents how much money marketers would have paid had there been no protection. Southeast Asia holds most of the burden with $260 million, followed by India with $188 million, and Japan and Korea with just under $100 million exposed.  

There are many factors that contribute to the fraud trend in APAC.  These include higher user volumes and high marketer demand for volume. While marketers primarily focused on growth, they are not well-informed on risk awareness and anti-fraud technology, and are, at times, turning a blind eye to fraud to maintain high install numbers. Additionally, there are fewer resources in APAC for app publishers as the industry is still in development. They are then forced to buy from low-priced media sources where fraud is prevalent and risk is high. Advertisers and developers need to consider while there are many opportunities available in the burgeoning APAC market, there are also major fraud risks that need to be addressed.

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Mobile Monday examines the latest news, trends, and developments in mobile apps, tech, and advertising. Do you have a story to share for the next Mobile Monday?

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