SLG has gone through the process of tradition to casualization, and although it is constantly evolving, it has always been recognized as the strongest and most efficient track for Chinese game developers to go global. However, in the past two years, domestic manufacturers have dominated another track and led them to break through globally, becoming one of the main tracks for overseas revenue, which is Merge-2.

The Merge-2 track will experience explosive growth from 2024 to 2025. Last year, the global download volume of this category increased by 32% year-on-year, demonstrating extremely high customer acquisition efficiency. The mature "short drama narrative+high-frequency operation" methodology is also continuously increasing ARPU (average annual increase of 12-15% for top products), while helping the product achieve long-term goals.

Currently, Lemon Micro Fun and DianDian Interactive are the absolute leaders of Merge-2.

The former's' Gossip Harbor ' ®: Merge&Story "is currently the most profitable Merge-2 product in the world, with continuous growth in revenue since its launch in June 2022. In March of this year, it even reached a peak monthly revenue of $80.2 million (approximately RMB 550 million); Another version of Seaside Escape ®: Merge&Story "(launched in October 2022) has maintained a stable monthly revenue of over 12 million US dollars (approximately 70 million RMB) for the past 20 months; Flamb é: Merge and Cook, which will be released in November 2024, may not perform as well as the previous two, but its revenue trend has been consistently upward, with a current monthly revenue of around $11 million.

The latter seems to have been showcasing its skills in simulating business and leisure SLG, but in fact, it has been paying attention to the Merge-2 track for a long time. However, the first truly large-scale investment product was "Tasty Travels: Merge Game", which started testing in 2024 and was officially launched in May 2025. The game is currently experiencing sustained growth and is the second highest performing Merge-2 game globally, with a March revenue of approximately $20.5 million (approximately RMB 140 million).

As mentioned above, the commercial potential of Merge-2 is extremely huge, but the cruel thing is that it does not mean that Merge-2 is easy to make. The top 10 products in this track consume about 80% of the revenue, and data shows that the success rate of new games in Merge's big track last year was only 2.7%.

However, the bleak reality seems to be unable to prevent more and more manufacturers from joining the "gold mining" team, especially those who have accumulated deep experience in leisure and SLG. The latter seems to regard opening up Merge-2 to find a second growth curve as a routine strategy.

Recently, the first Merge-2 game under the veteran SLG overseas manufacturer Yotta Games, "Hollywood Merge", has launched expansion testing and started climbing the global charts.

At present, it is in the top 100 of the free list of iOS games in 13 countries and regions (29 in Taiwan, China, 80 in Germany), and in the top 100 of the best-selling list of iOS games in 28 regional markets (59 in Indonesia, 65 in Britain, 74 in Australia, and 98 in France). At the same time, the data growth is also extremely strong, with nearly 1 million downloads in the past month and a turnover of over 1.95 million US dollars (about 13.4 million yuan), which seems to have the potential to become the next Merge-2 blockbuster.

01

Launched in August last year, expanded in February this year

March revenue of 1.41 million US dollars, a month on month increase of 245.5%

According to DianDian data, "Hollywood Merge" will be available for testing on Google Play in some countries and regions (mainly Europe and America) as early as mid August 2025. At the same time, the game will begin to release materials and update official accounts on major overseas social media platforms. During this period, although the testing scale was small, due to various operational activities, the attention and interaction of the official social platform have significantly increased.

In early January 2026, the game gradually opened up pre registration in major regional markets around the world. At the end of the month, the game generated market data that could be counted. At that time, its daily downloads fluctuated between 15000 and 25000, and its daily revenue gradually increased from about 6000 US dollars (about 40000 yuan).

In February, the advertising volume significantly increased, and in the middle and late of the month, the game gradually went online on the APP Store, which caused the monthly downloads of the game to soar to 603000 and the monthly revenue to increase to 410000 US dollars (about 2.8 million RMB).

In March, the game did not significantly increase its testing volume again, but chose to gradually increase its creative output (after the dual platform deduplication in the past 30 days, the creative output was above 2500). Under this strategy, the game's monthly downloads reached 842000, which was not a high growth rate compared to the previous period. However, the monthly revenue was not constrained and surged to 1.41 million US dollars (about 9.6 million yuan), with a month on month growth rate of 245.5%.

As of March 31st, "Hollywood Merge" has been launched in 104 countries and regions worldwide, with over two months of expansion testing and a cumulative download volume of 2.1 million. Among them, the United States, Indonesia, and the Philippines are the top three, accounting for 15.52%, 8.92%, and 8.33% respectively;

The total revenue is estimated to be around 3.03 million US dollars (approximately 20.7 million RMB), with the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada accounting for 45.82%, 9.82%, and 5.3% respectively, ranking in the top three contributors. In terms of RPD, it is about $1.46, which is average.

02

Regular gameplay, using Hollywood fashion dressing up to differentiate

With market expansion and explosive volume, data will take the next level

Returning to the game itself, with the intensification of competition, the trend of vertical innovation in the Merge-2 theme has become increasingly evident. The plot has evolved from early home decoration and melodramatic love to today's cuisine, Chinese horror, prison decryption, and even adult oriented elements.

Hollywood Merge "chose Hollywood fashion dressing up and suspense decryption to combat alienation, incorporating a lot of Hollywood style dramatic conflicts such as" paparazzi tracking "," wealthy family background "and" triangular relationships ", enhancing long-term retention through plot suspense, and combining with the" Disney "art style. This combination naturally targets the preferences of European and American female players.

In the game, the player takes on the role of the female lead, who was originally working in Los Angeles to make a living and auditioning everywhere. Unexpectedly, one day her background is revealed. It turns out that the female lead is the daughter of a film superstar who has been stranded outside. After that, her life is turned upside down, and the media relentlessly pursues her. Her half sister, who is from the same father but different mothers, is full of hostility towards the female lead, and her boyfriend seems to be hiding something. Various challenges come one after another, and the female lead needs to overcome all obstacles to become a dazzling Hollywood superstar.

In terms of gameplay, Hollywood Merge is a typical "task driven" product, with the main storyline unfolding in the form of a "series", and each level presenting specific fashion needs, such as preparing exclusive outfits for red carpet events, premieres, or auditions. The composite chessboard is defined as the female lead's "studio".

The overall game still follows the principle of consuming physical energy to synthesize designated items (this step of synthesis will be visualized and logical according to the needs of the plot, making players feel more immersed. For example, if the female lead's dress is torn and needs to be repaired, the generator on the chessboard will become a "sewing box", and the synthesis chain will be "fabric → sewing → high-end dress"), earning coins, diamonds or specific plot props, and then using these resources to complete the gameplay cycle of changing costumes/unlocking new plots. However, it reduces the difficulty of space management and allows players to focus more on collecting rare design drawings, experiencing star life, and plot direction.

In addition, the game also incorporates an asynchronous social competition system called PK (with the underlying logic of "synthesis efficiency=points=ranking"), which connects players together through limited time events and leaderboards, comparing synthesis efficiency and fashion taste to determine the winner. The main gameplay forms are limited time championship, points competition, and fashion charm value showdown. The official also frequently launches limited time events with competitive nature.

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time that Youta has chosen such a theme. In June 2024, Youta released a three game game called "Hollywood Crush", which is identical to "Hollywood Merge" in terms of background setting and art style. However, after its launch (in more than 150 regional markets), the former has not been widely promoted, so its data performance is average, but its advantage lies in the continuous growth of revenue. Currently, its monthly revenue is about $760000 (about RMB 5.2 million).

Overall, "Hollywood Crush" has verified the feasibility of combining Hollywood's comeback superstar theme with Disney's art style. Based on this, Youta has chosen to bet on Merge-2, a gameplay that expands the boundaries, deepens commercialization, and develops more emerging categories. From the current results, "Hollywood Merge" has achieved phased success. If the game is launched in more regional markets (such as Japan and South Korea) and fully opens up advertising, the data will reach a higher level.

03

Youta continues to promote new SLG and card RPG games

But the leisure track may carry a new round of growth

Finally, let's briefly talk about Youta Network. Its predecessor was Shanghai Xunmeng Information, which was the first to do game agency business and released web games such as "Fengliu Three Kingdoms" and "Goddess Sword". Xunmeng Information was also the main body that incubated Pinduoduo. In 2016, Xunmeng was separated from Pinduoduo, and in 2018, Shanghai Youta was established to further differentiate from e-commerce business.

From 2017 to 2018, Youta successively released the gangster themed SLG "Mafia City" and the prehistoric civilization SLG "Chief Might". The former was Youta's first hit, helping it secure its position in the core team of domestic overseas manufacturers. As of now, the game has been in operation for nearly 9 years, and its monthly revenue is still above 3.4 million US dollars (about 23.3 million yuan). Although the latter is not as strong as the former, its monthly revenue did not slip below 1.5 million US dollars until mid-2022.

The growth stagnation at the company level occurred in 2021, when the data of "Mafia City" began to decline. Youta's response to this was to accelerate innovation on the SLG track. During this period, they successively launched or tested products such as "The Grand Mafia", "Nexus War", "Savage Survival: Jurassic Isle", "Dinosaur Isle: Survival", etc., but the overall effect was not satisfactory.

The card RPG category was also a category that Youta entered early on. In 2015, they released "My Teenage Girl Can't Be That Cute", and later released products such as "Girls X Battle 2", "Ever Legion", "Ace Alliance", "War Spell: Team Tactics RPG", "Dragonfall&Puzzles", etc., but the market response was also poor.

The lack of results in the above two tracks has led Yuta, like many other senior SLG manufacturers, to turn its attention to the leisure track.

In 2020, it launched the triple play and home decoration game "Bella Villa", tested similar products "Mansion Delights" and "Pirate Adventure", and finally confirmed the feasibility of fashion themes in the triple play category in 2024, namely "Hollywood Crush". At the same time, the Merge-2 explosion, which found the best balance in terms of gameplay threshold, emotional feedback, commercialization efficiency, and content integration ability, led Yuta to decide to bet on a new direction, ultimately giving birth to Hollywood Merge.

Looking at the entire product history of Youta, the success or failure of 'Hollywood Merge' is still relatively important. If the game can be operated in the long term, it can not only help the company alleviate the dilemma of declining revenue from a single popular product, but also find new category directions for deep cultivation and develop along the path of Dian Dian Interactive.