The recently launched game Chhota Bheem Race by Nazara Games secured the number 1 position on the leaderboard among Top free games on Google Play Store. But this feat was only sustained for a few days as it has now dropped to number 6 as of today’s Top Free Games. Although the game has seen a drop in the rankings, it is commendable that there was a game from India that managed to break away and suppress the might of a Candy Crush and Subway Surfer.
The rise of Chhota Bheem Race to number 1 spot in Top free games in Google Play is a very strong validation of the rising demand of locally relevant & high quality games by the rapidly exploding Indian mobile gamer user base.
Commenting on this achievement, Nazara Games, CEO, Manish Agrawal said, “These are early signs suggesting that local content and local IPs will make waves in the coming days for India in mobile gaming, just like what has been seen on Indian TV and the movie screens. I would like to congratulate the team at Nazara & the extended team of Green Gold Animation (IP licensor for Chhota Bheem) and June Software (Developer of CB race). We, at Nazara, will continue to keep the flag of local content flying in the Indian mobile gaming space and for us ‘Yeh to sirf trailer hain, Picture to abhi baki hain’.”
Being a very popular game on the App Store, the game still lags in terms of the grossing numbers and is nowhere near the Top 100 Grossing Games on the app stores.
Manish mentions, “We are not focusing on the in-app-purchases, but on retaining users. We are currently implementing a strategy where we are developing quality games and getting user feedback on improving the games. When it reached number 1, it saw a spike in downloads and quickly showed a lakh of downloads daily, which tremendously helped on the discoverability of the game.”
June Software founder, Roby John, also shared his joy on the same, “The game was not exactly built for grossing numbers. The game had become number 1 not because of marketing or something else but because of the polish. Since last year, Candy Crush slipped from the number 1 position only twice which says a lot of about our game. We wanted the user to have a great experience with a byte sized game and focused on that.”
Nazara Games and June Software recently signed a definitive agreement to collaborate on a series of games based on the popular Chhota Bheem IP. Chhota Bheem Race is the first game of this series post the collaboration.