Space Ape Games’ Beatstar hits 38M installs and $73M in revenue

Space Ape Games said its Beatstar mobile rhythm game has been downloaded 38 million times in its first year. It has also generated $73 million in revenue and 2.5 billion song plays.

London-based Space Ape said that it has shared $16 million of the revenue with music labels and publishers.

And the game has quickly become a major marketing rollout platform for new songs by some of the world’s most popular artists, including recent collaborations with Eminem, Camilla Cabello & Ed Sheeran, The Chainsmokers, Charlie Puth, Jung Kook of BTS, The Black Eyed Peas, Shakira, David Guetta and more.

It has more than 300 songs and artists featured in the game to date.

Beatstar’s music label partners include Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, BMG, Beggars Music Group and Domino, while music publisher partners include Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, BMG, Kobalt Music Publishing, Concord, Peermusic, Downtown Music Publishing, Reservoir Media and Bucks Music Group.

“Beatstar became our most successful title almost as soon as it launched, and one year on, its momentum hasn’t slowed a beat,” said Simon Hade, COO of Space Ape Games, in a statement. “Our incredible partners across the music industry are doing innovative things in gaming, tapping into a passionate new audience of players that love discovering new music in the game.”

Upon its worldwide release on August 31, 2021, Beatstar reached No. 1 on the overall charts in 24 countries, the top 10 in 70, and became the top-grossing music game globally.

The game’s recent multiplayer event with Eminem was its most successful campaign to date, with a total of 3.7 million song plays over the campaign and 1.3 million players adding Eminem songs to their collections.

Beatstar has several new partnerships coming soon, including an event next month with Imagine Dragons to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Night Visions. A high-performing new song in Beatstar can achieve up to 1.1 million plays in a day, making the game an essential new marketing tool for the music industry.

“Music discovery and engagement is core to the Beatstar experience and has helped the game become an amazing new music discovery platform,” said Paul Thackwray, music and marketing lead at Space Ape, in a statement. “Our music industry partners are on the lookout for interesting ways of reaching new audiences, and allowing existing fans to experience their music in a new way. When you consider how engaged a player is with a song while they’re playing, you can understand why we think you’ll see more and more artists releasing their songs in this way.”

As part of Beatstar’s one-year anniversary celebrations, MK xyz — a development artist signed to Epic Records and managed by Tricky Stewart — will release her new single Baddie for free to all players during a 7-day exclusive running from August 26 until September 2. Beatstar will also host a dedicated multiplayer event on August 31 and launch a gem incentivized pre-save campaign to push Baddie on Spotify and Apple Music for release day.

In Beatstar, players tap and swipe to the instruments, vocals or beats to master their favorite songs. Players feel the beat pulsing through their fingers as they discover new songs from their favorite artists on a playlist that rivals the ultimate festival lineup.

Artists on Beatstar include Billie Eilish, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, Lil Nas X, Post Malone, Ariana Grande, Coldplay, Tones and I, Muse, Lady Gaga, Marshmello, Mabel, Kygo, Wiz Khalifa, Sia, Pharell Williams, Soulja Boy, Rae Sremmurd, Bastille, Royal Blood, Demi Lovato, Disclosure, Erykah Badu, Leikeli47, Babymetal, Bruno Mars, The Kid Laroi, Nicki Minaj and many others.

Beatstar is free to play and available on all iOS and Android devices. Supercell recently increased its ownership stake in Space Ape to 75% with a $37 million investment.