I spent over eight hours on TikTok last weekend.
Why? I’ve been busy playing dozens of TikTok’s new mini games — popping pimples, running an oil company, and giving very hairy women makeovers.
If I open TikTok now, within a few flicks of the thumb through the main feed, I’m getting ads for “TikTok Minis,” one of the platform’s recent additions that includes both micro dramas and mini games. Micro dramas, bite-sized soap operas (sometimes made using AI), have become a popular format on TikTok.
One selling point of the games: They can be played without ever leaving the TikTok app.
I got hooked.
What exactly are these games? They range from simulation games (like building a house) to ASMR-themed puzzles, though many are carbon copies of each other.
In one game, a grandma character is on a stripper pole, and the player has to “tidy up before grandpa’s back.” Another riffs on online dating themes of getting catfished, while others are more mundane cleaning tropes. I must have cleaned a dozen feet, ears, and bathtubs in my TikTok gaming bender.
The games — all of which are rated 18+ on TikTok — are made by third-party content companies (similar to TikTok’s growing army of third-party micro-drama suppliers).
These games are part of TikTok’s expansion into a super app. TikTok is now a shopping platform, a purveyor of soapy micro dramas, and even a travel agent that helps you book hotels.
The super app strategy is popular in China, where TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is based. Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has had gaming on its app since 2019.
TikTok isn’t the only social media or entertainment company getting into gaming. LinkedIn, Netflix, The New York Times, and many more media companies have embraced games. (Business Insider also recently launched our own games.)
Companies are “adding games as a component to help increase engagement,” Scott Purdy, a lead partner covering media at KPMG US, told Business Insider.
“A lot of it is now just part of the battle for attention,” Purdy said.
Games are for fun — and ad revenue
These games could become an ad bonanza for TikTok.
Most of the time, I start playing a TikTok game after being served an in-feed ad for it. Then, while playing the games, there are ads in between rounds (which you can easily skip) and ads that unlock in-game perks like hints.
Game developers can earn some of the ad revenue from in-game ads, while TikTok keeps the rest. They can also boost their games using TikTok’s Growth Max ads program. Some of the ads are shoppable, too, and leverage TikTok’s native shopping tools.
Business Insider sister company EMARKETER estimated that US mobile game ad spending will hit $8.28 billion this year. The firm predicts that by 2030, the market will grow to $9.66 billion.
“The ecosystem for video game ads has been a little bit fragmented,” said Frank Albarella, KPMG US’s media sector leader. “Traditionally, there’s an ad, you have to go to the App Store, you have to install the game, and then you play it.”
TikTok is keeping that all in the family with its own market of third-party apps and ads.
“That really gets into a better experience for the user, more engagement,” Albarella said, which can result in “better advertising performance.”
Here’s an idea for what could make it an even better, more engaging experience: a split-screen!
Imagine you’re scrolling through TikTok, you hit a gaming ad, start playing the game, and can still scroll through the videos you came there for.
I’d play even more games if this were possible.
“It’s probably coming,” Albarella said.
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