As I’ve said before, I believe that Facebook Messenger’s Instant Games platform has the potential to disrupt the App Store distribution model of mobile games, at least pertaining to casual games.
Playing a snackable, casual game inside a messenger chat feed is far more seamless, in my opinion, then going to the App Store, hunting for a title, downloading, installing, etc. Moreover, I suspect that the inherent social context of the platform should naturally foster casual games which are more interactive among friends.
Today, Facebook Messenger counts over 50 games from 30 game publishers. The game publishers who are currently on the Instant Games platform are the lucky ones. For now, this remains an exclusive club because Facebook has closed the gates to the party. Below is an infographic of the current games on the platform (note that some of these games may not be yet be available in all countries). Special thanks to my intern for helping me compile this matrix.
As investors in one of the publishers on this platform (CoolGames), we are monitoring closely the adoption and engagement metrics of the various games. For example, although it is still early days, we are already seeing viral adoption metrics which are orders of magnitude higher than conventional metrics prior to launch on Instant Games.
