IGT’s Blackjack title has fallen off its perch in the US online casino space’s top games by gross gaming revenue as Anaxi’s Buffalo slot title took top place in the latest Eilers-Fantini report for November.
While IGT’s Blackjack remained towards the top of the pile in a close second place, the shift marked the end of Blackjack’s multi-year reign as head of the pack. The table game’s percentage of total GGR dropped from last month’s 3.7 per cent to 3.49.
Spearheading the surprising shift was Anaxi’s Buffalo slot, which in just its third month of appearing in Eilers-Fantini reports has jumped straight into the top ten, and straight to the very top of the pile at that. Buffalo’s GGR percentage came in at 4.55 per cent.
This therefore dropped IGT’s top-performing slot title, Cash Eruption, from silver to bronze, coming in at 2.19 per cent, which was actually a slight increase on the previous month’s 2.15 per cent.
Meanwhile, Digital Gaming Corporation’s Gold Blitz slot witnessed a significant drop, failing to make it into the top three for a third month in a row by falling to seventh place with a GGR percentage of 1.18 per cent.
Of the top 25 titles that are dominating the GGR charts, online slots remained dominant with 18 games. Live casino, all courtesy of Evolution, has five entrants, while table games comprise the remaining two.
For the top game ranks overall, IGT’s Blackjack title lost its lead once again as it slid down to fourth place due to a pair of strong performances from Digital Gaming Corporation, including September’s new entry Pile Em Up and Fire and Roses Joker, which held on to second place.
For the slots breakdown, Buffalo sits ahead of Fire and Roses Joker and Pile Em Up to gain advantage on last month’s top spot, AGS’ Mega Diamond, which dropped to fourth. AGS’ Capital Gains also fell from fourth place to round off the top five.
A total of seven unique suppliers are represented in the top 10, representing continued variety in the sector. These include Light & Wonder, DGC, AGS, Evolution, IGT, Anaxi and Greentube. The top 25 also features the likes of Reel Play, Everi, Bragg and White Hat Studios.
Within the new game rankings, the aforementioned Buffalo leads the way, with last month’s number two, Fire and Roses Joker, keeping second place for DGC ahead of its Pile Em Up title in third place as a totally new release.
While AGS’ Mega Diamond came in fourth, Evolution’s VIP Blackjack game rose from 91st to 5th to clinch a top five position.
Another six new releases made the top 25, including Greentube’s Thunder Cash Senor Muerte (6th), Legion Gold from Play’n GO (9th), Ultimate Fire Link Cash Falls China Street by L&W (10th), Thunder Cash Senorita Suerte from Greentube (12th), Konami’s All Aboard Piggy Pennies (14th) and Quick Hit Blitz Blue from L&W (17th).
Due to VIP Blackjack’s rise in the new game rankings, the top five new slots were not identical to the new game rankings for the first time in three months. While the top four remained identical, Greentube’s Thunder Cash Senor Muerte came in at fifth place.
In the supplier tables, Evolution continues to sit atop of the pile, avoiding three straight months of share decline as its percentage of GGR rose from 21.2 per cent to 21.3.
The group’s supplier mix by game category represented by slots also rose slightly, increasing from 85.7 per cent to 85.8.
IGT remained in second place, holding its slight recovery of 17.4 per cent from September’s 16.7 per cent. For the group’s portfolio, 85.9 per cent (October: 85.9 per cent) of its games were tracked as slots.
However in the past year the top two have lost a significant portion of revenue share, with Evolution dropping seven per cent and IGT losing three per cent.
While Light & Wonder also remained in its third place, the group witnessed a drop in revenue share, falling to 13.4 per cent from October’s 15.8 per cent.
Although DGC and Everi kept their respective fourth and fifth places, Anaxi presents a threat to that security, coming in at sixth place with 5.2 per cent after just a few months since announcing its US entry.
However, Rick Eckert, Managing Director of Slot Performance and Analytics at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, did add some caveats to Anaxi’s lead, suggesting that “it’s early” with only 14 unique themes tracked compared to Evolution and L&Ws portfolios of nearly 400 each.
Slots remained the dominant segment when looking at the total games tracked with a total percentage of 91.3 (October: 91.2 per cent), ahead of table games which remained at 3.8 per cent.
Live casino was next up with 1.8 per cent, ahead of instant win’s 1.6 per cent, video poker’s 1.1 per cent and the 0.2 per cent shared by lottery and bingo/keno. Each remained consistent month-on-month once again.
Mobile retains its frontrunning status with the highest percentage of theo win generated at 70.8 per cent, matching September’s figures to reverse October’s drop to 69.9 per cent.
The vertical leads across most segments, with desktop’s percentage of theo win dropping to 28.2 per cent (October: 29 per cent), soaring ahead in virtual sports titles. Tablet continues to bring up the rear with a drop to 0.9 per cent (October:1.2 per cent).
This latest analysis examined data from Michigan, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut across 33 online casino sites, tracking 52,968 games to represent around 64 per cent of the market.
If interested in learning more, subscribing, or participating in the Eilers-Fantini Online Game Performance Database reach out to Rick Eckert at [email protected].
