Yalla's Q2 financial report showed that the gaming business generated $26.2 million in revenue, accounting for about 32% of the total revenue, making it an important source of income for the group. Combining the data, "Yalla Ludo" likely contributed the majority of this revenue.
Unfortunately, after Ludo, few card and board games have made a significant splash.
However, a recent interesting change is that in the Middle East iOS mobile game download charts, the card game "Jackaroo | جاكارو (hereinafter referred to as Jackaroo)" topped the list. After experiencing it, we found that "Jackaroo" shares quite a few similarities with "Yalla Ludo".
Gameplay derived from "Yalla Ludo"
Research shows that "Jackaroo" was launched earlier than "Yalla Ludo" (September 2018), having been online since January 2017, and is not a new product.
In the last 30 days, its revenue was around $21,000, which is far less than "Yalla Ludo's" $7.78 million, and also significantly lower than another top Middle Eastern "table game box" "Jawaker," which includes "Jackaroo" gameplay and made $1.58 million.
After looking at the product, we found that its popularity is because "Jackaroo" and "Ludo" have the same origin.
According to Wikipedia, whether it's "Jackaroo" or "Ludo," or even the well-known "Flying Chess," they all originate from the ancient Indian board game "Pachisi," which dates back to 1100 BC.
Both "Jackaroo" (left image) and "Ludo" (middle image) are based on "Pachisi" (right image).
The typical features of these games include a cross-shaped board, using "dice" or similar items to determine the number of steps to move, 2-4 players, each holding 1-4 flags, etc.
The general rule of the game is that players start from the four "branches" of the board, move their pieces by rolling dice, throwing shells, or drawing cards, and the first player to move all their pieces to the central endpoint of the board wins. In "Ludo," dice determine the number of steps, while in "Jackaroo," it is cards (details on how cards determine the movement of pieces will be mentioned below).
"Jawaker," mentioned above as a "table game box," was acquired by Swedish game company Stillfront for $210 million in 2021. This product also includes both "Ludo" and "Jackaroo" gameplay, generating $1.5 million in revenue per month.
Since "Jackaroo" was launched early, why has it only recently become popular, and why is its revenue still only tens of thousands of dollars?
"Yalla Ludo" includes various skins for pieces, dice, and boards, most of which need to be purchased with the in-game currency "gems," which can be bought directly.
The reason "Jackaroo" has become popular, similar to "Ludo," is due to its highly social gameplay. "Ludo" requires players to roll dice to decide their next move.
"Jackaroo" allows each player to draw 4 cards from a deck, each card representing actions like "move forward/backward X steps." Players choose the most suitable card, place it in the middle of the board, and move their pieces accordingly. This continues until all 4 cards are played, then another 4 cards are drawn and the process repeats.
From these rules, it's clear that the key to winning in both games lies in the instructions given by the dice/cards drawn by the players, hence there is less skill involved and more randomness. However, "Jackaroo's" 4-card gameplay still provides more strategic thinking and operational space, enhancing the experience.
Real-time language chat has always been a major feature of "Yalla Ludo." However, the success of "Yalla Ludo" is also significantly due to the randomness of "Ludo" itself combined with the PvP mechanism, allowing Yalla to seamlessly integrate its expertise in chat rooms directly into the game.
Various unexpected reversals can occur after rolling the dice, creating a strong demand for communication among players. "Yalla Ludo," which started with chat room services, knows how to meet this demand, which was heavily promoted at the game's launch. Coupled with various paid emoticons and the habit of users in the Middle East to send gifts to each other, there is a strong incentive for players to purchase gems.
Additionally, based on the Middle Eastern users' concern for appearance, various item appearances are also a key point for monetization. For example, "Yalla Ludo" has designed various skins for pieces, dice, and boards, all of which must be purchased with the internal currency "gems," which can be directly bought. "Jackaroo" has a similar design.
Compared to this, "Jackaroo's" chat room feature came later, with data showing it was not launched until March 2021.
In fact, "Jackaroo" not only launched its social features late, but also lagged in monetization actions. Data shows that the game did not introduce in-app currency until March 2022, and the "Jackaroo Pass" battle pass mechanism was not introduced until March 2024.
Strong monetization features were updated only 3 years after the main competitors launched, indicating that the manufacturer is still operating this product with a game-focused approach. Data shows that "Jackaroo's" global dual-end DAU is around 56,000, far below "Yalla Ludo's" 1.82 million, and also significantly lower than "Jawaker's" 490,000.
However, a closer look at "Jackaroo's" DAU distribution reveals that most of the game's DAU is concentrated on the iOS platform, accounting for 65.08%. In contrast, the vast majority of "Yalla Ludo's" DAU is on Google Play, accounting for 89.48%;
"Jawaker's" DAU is also concentrated on Google Play, nearly 70%. Therefore, if "Jackaroo" can further exert effort on Google Play and find an audience for its niche gameplay, there might still be some room for growth.
It is worth noting that "Jackaroo" itself is quite popular on TikTok, and its popularity has been gradually increasing. As early as 2022, a short video explaining the rules of "Jackaroo" received 430,000 views, followed by several videos with over 400,000 views each.
By June 18 this year, a short video promoting the "Jackaroo" physical board game broke through 1 million views, showing that the game still has a strong audience base both offline and online.
Especially, a Middle Eastern creator "xvnrs" uploaded a short video of himself and a friend playing "Jackaroo" on "Jawaker," but the friend apparently lost his temper due to losing and cursed at him using the chat feature. The video was described as "Jackaroo is a friendship-ending game."
This video also received over 400,000 views and attracted many users in the comments discussing the rules of "Jackaroo" and looking for the most suitable "Jackaroo" mobile game.
"Jackaroo" has a long history, and occasionally becoming popular on social media proves this point. With gameplay and PvP mechanisms similar to "Ludo," "Jackaroo" also has some monetization potential.
However, the current top product "Jackaroo," backed by a company mainly focused on hyper-casual games, seems to operate in a very laid-back manner. In the past 3 years, when the most materials were available, there were only about 40 pieces. Perhaps due to the lack of a significant increase in downloads, the manufacturer has not attempted further actions, and for a long time, it focused on monetizing the game mode without positive cash flow feedback.
But with gameplay too similar to "Ludo," whether it can truly find an audience different from "Ludo" to pay for it remains to be seen, waiting for a manufacturer with stronger operational capabilities to implement it.
