Digital Pay2Play entertainment is proving that heritage brands can move seamlessly into online. Adopting board games for mobile and tablets is a mainstream trend now because the games themselves are classic and they never grow old. These board games are becoming increasingly popular in their mobile and tablet variants, as more and more users pay to play Scrabble, Monopoly or other classic board games.
Recent data reveals that Scrabble, owned by Hasbro Inc., is the 14th best-selling app ever for Apple. However, even this achievement is dwarfed by another classic, Zynga’s “Words With Friends,” which currently ranks at number eight. Other board games that have enjoyed a surge in digital popularity include TheCodingMonkeys’ Carcassonne, Hasbro’s Monopoly and Settlers of Catan by United Soft Media Verlag.
Alongside the growing sales of online board games, many experts agree that there is a trend for crossover of sales. For example, between 30% and 40% of the people who buy the Ticket To Ride app will end up purchasing the physical board game, Eric Hautemont, chief executive at Days of Wonder Inc., told the Wall Street Journal. The company owns and manufactures the multiple-award-winning game.
Meanwhile, Thorsten Suckow, who leads the project overseeing the Settlers of Catan board game on mobile devices, commented the game has sold more than 750,000 units for iPhones and iPads since the versions were rolled out in 2009 and 2010 respectively. However, buying the app is just the beginning, as many people also purchase expansion maps.