Toca Boca Tops 1 Billion Downloads Of Its Games
Kid-oriented games from Toca Boca Studios have topped 1 billion downloads in its 13th year, said the Stockholm-based developer’s owner, toymaker Spin Master.
“This milestone is a huge achievement for our studio and reflects our commitment to listening to kids and developing virtual experiences that spark their imaginations and create opportunities for open-ended play and self-expression,” said Toca Boca founder Emil Ovemar in a release.
The company has released 46 titles since 2011, including Toca Boca World, Toca Boca Jr and Toca Boca Hair Salon, and has 60 million monthly active users, the company said.
One of those titles, the virtual playground app Toca Boca World, won Apple’s 2021 iPhone App of the Year, and since has inspired a lively off-app universe of player-created content. The company said views of the user-generated Toca Boca World content have topped 3 billion views across social media.
Earlier this year, the company released Toca Boca Days, with multi-player capabilities that haven’t traditionally been part of traditional single-player mobile titles, but are a key part of hugely popular titles such as Epic Games’ Fortnite.
The game business has had a number of massive franchises, such as Call of Duty from Microsoft-owned Activision. At the recent Future of Television conference, PwC’s Games Lead David Reitman said Call of Duty has generated some $30 billion in total revenues since its first iteration launched in 2003.
Nintendo’s Mario, Pokemon, and Wii franchises have each sold hundreds of millions of copies of their various titles. EA’s FIFA and The Sims, and Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto have each collectively sold hundreds of millions of units across their existence.
That said, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison between online free-to-play apps such as Toca Boca’s many titles and those more-traditional game franchises with their high development costs and up-front unit sales at premium prices. The revenue in free-to-play comes from advertising and selling in-game assets, and typically is sustained by a steady drip of new content, items and experiences.