Ludo King

Ludo King is a mobile game application which was introduced by Vikash Jaiswal, founder of
Gametion Technologies Pvt Ltd. The game was introduced in the year 20 February 2016. It is
the first Indian game to cross 100 downloads and was ranked No.1 free gaming app. In
September 2017, there were around 57 million users and each player spend 15 minutes on
an average. Ludo King makes money through advertisement and in-app purchases.

What has made Ludo King so successful?

But, Ludo King was looking at the bright side as people were quarantined, especially the
middle aged working population tend to have fun with their family and they are old-
fashioned so, they started to bring back the good old days with the help of Ludo King
although, there are world’s top rated games such as PUBG and Free Fire, middle and old age
population are not very interested in these games and they are hard for them to play.
Jaiswal said that, it was the first-mover advantage that helped him gain success in just
months of its launch. In May 2020, the company made a revenue of $922k worldwide.

According to Statista, there were only 76 million smartphone users in India in 2013, which
has increased by 915% in just 7 years to 696 million in 2020 and Ludo King is expected to
grow at the same pace in the future.

But, during COVID-19 lockdown there was a 50-75% increase for Ludo King with around 400
million downloads.
As there were no competitors for Ludo King at the start and they improved the features by
the time others could develop Ludo.

by May 2017, the game had been downloaded 50 million times on Android phones. The game is
played "mostly by 18-35-year olds but also retirees. And on average, a player spends 15-16
minutes a day on the game."[1][14] In 2016, Ludo King recorded four million installs and went up to
57 million in 2017, crossing 118 million in 2018.

The game has a DAU (Daily Active Users) of 10 million and 70 million monthly users. [1][3][23][24]
[25]
 Since May 2017, Ludo King has topped the Google Play download charts. [3] By September
2017, the game had been downloaded 120 million times, [2] about 70% of which, i.e. around 100
million, are in India, followed by Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Brazil. [4]
By January 2020, Ludo King has been downloaded 300 million times, with 6 million daily active
users and 75 million playing a month.[28] Users spend about 45 minutes on average playing Ludo
King.

Ludo King's daily download figures changed from 150,000 in early February to over 450,000 in
India by April 13, 2020.[31] It saw a 142% jump in downloads between February and April 2020.

Ludo King saw a 100% surge in gaming during the Lockdown. [32] The daily average time spent on
the game increased from 32 minutes to 49 minutes.[33][34] News18 reported that Ludo King had a
"five-fold increase in traffic during the lockdown. It has more than 330 million downloads, with
about 50 million daily active users."[35][9] In May 2020, it was the sixth most downloaded game
worldwide and its revenue was about $922,000 worldwide. [7][8][10] In the beginning of May 2020,
Ludo King had 251 million daily active users; the number averaged 40 to 45 million by June
2020. [34] Gametion had to increase the server base from 8 to 200 servers to keep up with
demand.[36][9][37]

Ludo King saw 48.3 million downloads between April and June 2020, beating other popular
games like PUBG Mobile, which ranked 3rd with 30.8 million downloads. [37][38][39] According to Craig
Chapple, Mobile Insights Strategist, Sensor Tower, “In February, the title generated 10.8 million
downloads, while in April it accumulated 26 million downloads, an increase of 140.7%.” [37]

Ludo King originally had 80%-20% proportion for Advertising and In-App Purchase (IAP)
revenue, which changed to 60%-40% for Advertising and IAP revenues, respectively by June
2020. [36] About 50% of the revenue comes from India and 50% from outside of India like
Indonesia, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Germany, the US and UK. [36] The app gets
'maximum traffic between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. during the day, and 8:00-11:00 p.m. in the
evening'.[9] 75% of the audience is from India. [40][36]
Ludo King crossed 400 million downloads on 16 June 2020. [36]
It was reported that while shooting for his film, Zero, Indian actor, Shah Rukh Khan enjoyed
playing Ludo King with director, Aanand L. Rai, and co-star, Anushka Sharma.[41][42][43]
Ludo King was one of the featured games at India's first ever mobile eSports event held at the
CII's India Gaming Show in January 2018.[44]
On 9 September 2018, Indian singer Mika Singh announced via Instagram that he was working
on a video song titled "Ludo King." [45] The song was launched on October 23, 2018. [46][47][48][49] It is
the 'Official Ludo Song'.[9]
Ludo King has also tied up with The Souled Store to launch official merchandise. [50][51]
During the Lockdown in 2020, Anushka Sharma said that she played Ludo King with
husband Virat Kohli and family.[52][53] Urvashi Rautela has also been seen playing the game. [54]
On 8 August 2020, Ludo King released a patriotic song titled, HINDUSTAN by LUDO KING by
MEET BROS feat. SHANKAR MAHADEVAN.[55]