It’s time for our review of the most popular casino games at the end of 2023 plus, of course, our much-coveted top Christmas title.
This year the tree is adorned with 11 Pragmatic Play baubles – they ‘only’ had 9 this time last year: four lucky fish, three sweet treats, two wolves or dogs and the best Gates of Olympus. Games Global is giving them a festive bang for their Rudolf as 9 Pots are joined by two Gold Blitz games in the top 20.
Top 20 games by distribution
More on the big movers and shakers that sleighed it last year in our big casino review of 2023, which will be published in a few weeks. Stay tuned as it will also delve into game production, studio performance, market share changes and the latest game feature trends.
Now let’s unwrap those Christmas themed bangers before our tacit rant on the state of some recent compliance rulings…
The Christmas Chart 2023
Here are the top 20 new Christmas-themed casino games, limited as per last year (and our Halloween/Easter charts) to the top title per studio. Games are ranked by distribution across all pages of 3,000 operators globally.
Overall, we considered 523 Christmas titles, of which 141 were launched this year. A bumper festival again, compared with the 111 releases in 2022 and 98 the year before. For Pragmatic Play, it’s their 2021 Big Bass Christmas that tops the chart and Invading Vegas released this year from Play’n GO. But it’s not just the usual suspects as Booming Games, Relax Gaming and Endorphina also make the cut.
A third of our Christmas performers were new releases, thus back catalogues made up the majority as per last year. Our second chart below looks exclusively at the new Christmas-themed games, where the 6 from above are joined by some fresh gifts.
It’s heartening to see some new names such as SpinPlay Games and Max Win Gaming alongside old favourites such as Greentube and Inspired Entertainment.
The most prolific developer of Christmas slots is still Spinomenal. Their product pipelines are well aligned with the calendar, launching both new seasonal titles and variations of existing games. Games Global is also well represented, whilst Wazdan doubled down on its Christmas Editions strategy, taking it into third spot.
There’s plenty of diversity within the Christmas theme itself, from Rock Stars to Aliens. This year’s special mention goes to Nolimit City for treating us to a twisted take on traditions with their Jingle Balls. For this studio, it’s an unusually upbeat, yet irreverent title and one that doesn’t stray too far from their dark side.
A cigar-toting grinch and stoned elf look on as pervy Santa’s jingle balls are at the mercy of granny witch’s sharp fingernails. A border of Gulag barbed wire is, of course, added for good measure.
It certainly won’t fall foul of some bizarre rulings against images that ‘may appeal to minors’, which, if rigorously applied to all Christmas games and promotions, would leave our gaming and offers pages pretty bare. No need for a rant on this topic as ‘tis the season of goodwill, so perhaps a picture can tell a thousand words.
Dealmaking was extremely quiet before Christmas with many companies keeping their powder dry for ICE in February 2024. Pateplay remains the busiest studio and EveryMatrix is the busiest aggregator.
Wishing you a belated Happy New Year and don’t forget to look out for the Casino Review 2023.
Biggest aggregator dealmakers
Biggest studio dealmakers
* Please note these are live charts that update every month so please ensure the month of December 2023 is selected in the dropdowns to match the analysis.
**The interactive games chart at the top excludes live games and table games. Game rankings are determined by the number of game appearances on the casino homepages of more than 3,000 casino sites. To access many other charts including game rankings, live and table games, positions on subpages or to filter game performance by game theme, game feature, market, or operator, please get in touch with our partner, egamingmonitor.com. Egamingmonitor covers 59,000 games, 1,600 suppliers and 3,000+ operators.
***Data on deals by month was collected from April 2020 onwards and the rolling chart reflects current dealmaking performance, i.e. how many deals were signed over the last 6 months. Note that only deals either a) on company websites or b) in the gaming press or c) reported to us by studios and aggregators, are collated. Deals between studios & aggregators (and aggregators & operators) from all time are available via egamingmonitor.com.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/casino-games/casino-dashboard-january-2024/
