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Author|Xia Xia

Disclaimer|The title picture comes from the Internet.

Original article of the Institute of Shock, if you need to reprint, please leave a message to apply for an open confession.

Following "Black Myth: Wukong", another popular game quickly came out of the circle in October. However, this time it is not a well-made triple-A masterpiece with a grand world view, but just a simulation game "The Legend of Shawarma" that simulates a restaurant owner and makes Turkish kebab burritos for customers.

The Surprise Research Institute observed that this casual game, which is only about 100M in size, was removed from the shelves of major mobile game platforms on September 10 because of violations, but the popularity of the Internet has not diminished at all.

According to data from Baidu's index platform, the search index of "The Legend of Shawarma" continued to rise during the National Day holiday and peaked on October 3. After returning to the App Store in China on October 12, "The Legend of Shawarma" quickly topped the free-to-play game charts, interrupting Tencent's blockbuster new work "Operation Delta" for a week.

On social platforms, many players laugh at themselves as "the company is a social animal during the day, and the company works to sell shawarma at night", and behind this popular game, there may be new opportunities in the game industry.

Young people compete to be "cyber cows and horses"

Judging from the actual experience of the game, the explosion of "The Legend of Shawarma" is really unexpected: when you open the game, you will be greeted by the simple painting style of the American comic, which makes people feel like they are back in time to the "4399 mini-game" 10 years ago; In terms of specific gameplay, the operation of preparing various ingredients first and then making Turkish kebab step by step is not much different from many existing food management games.

In fact, when reviewing the process of "The Legend of Shawarma", you will find that the "fire" of this game is not the result of the rapid spread within the gamer circle. Instead, it became popular outside the circle at the beginning and attracted the attention of a large number of passers-by and players.

As early as September, a game recorded by a player caught the attention of netizens.

In the video, when the blogger enters the language selection interface of "The Legend of Shawarma", he finds that when he selects the Chinese, a sentence like a human-machine fusion of Tangshan and Xinjiang dialect accents will be played, "Let's say Chinese". And every time you switch a language, except that the language will become the corresponding language, the same voice will still be used, which gives people the abstract feeling that one person can barely match 14 languages.

Similar to the magical accent, "The Legend of Shawarma" also comes with a magical theme song. Not only is the rhythm brisk and the melody brainwashing, "Shawarma oh Shawarma, there is no trouble in living a good life with you" "If it doesn't matter, it's not right." No tomatoes tonight, or I'll roar" is an abstract lyric that makes people unpredictable and curious at the same time.

As a result, some netizens began to imitate and read 14 Chinese dialects against the game's magical accent, or used the theme song of "The Legend of Shawarma" as the video soundtrack, and the meme of "Let's Speak Chinese" began to spread rapidly on content platforms such as Douyin and Station B.

So far, the Douyin topic "The Legend of Shawarma" has been viewed more than 2.99 billion times. Station B has given birth to a large number of second-generation works related to "The Legend of Shawarma", with three or four million views, and has long occupied the recommended position on the homepage.

With the help of the wide range of social media and the National Day holiday, the content related to "The Legend of Shawarma" has dominated the screen on major social platforms on the one hand, and on the other hand, it has continuously attracted college students to start their "cattle and horse careers" in Turkish restaurants.

Players who have already entered the pit began to share their game experience, and presented the upgrade order of the game levels and the strategy of getting rich to the new students. Some people also posted photos of themselves suffering from tenosynovitis, expressing their inspirational feelings of being addicted to getting rich and "injured in the line of duty". Even the "Liuzi" who are far away abroad have made a special trip to the local restaurant to shoot and check in the live-action version of Sawarma.

Interestingly, due to the removal of mobile game platforms, it was difficult for many players to find a way to download the genuine "Legend of Shawarma" during the National Day, but this did not stop their enthusiasm to enter the pit.

In order to play this top-notch game, some netizens posted online for genuine download channels, and some netizens spontaneously shared the game installation package after seeing the popularity of "Shawarma". On some game platforms, copycat games with the "Legend of Shawarma" signboard have achieved accurate porcelain encounters and received this wave of network traffic.

Accidental "legend"?

Before "The Legend of Shawarma", there were also many well-known games in the simulation management category, such as the classic works of simulated city planning "SimCity: I Am the Mayor" and "Dream Town", as well as the ancient style simulation mobile game "Jiangnan Hundred Scenes" released in 2020. But compared to these classics, "The Legend of Shawarma" is obviously not as good as them.

For example, in terms of visuals, SimCity: I Am the Mayor gives players a 3D panoramic "God Perspective", which allows players to accurately click on buildings to complete game operations such as production, upgrades, and placements, and can also adjust their perspective to enjoy the city skyline they have created by themselves.

In "Hundred Views of Jiangnan", the unique Chinese style ink painting style not only makes players shine, but also creates a small adventure mode based on Tang Xianzu's "Peony Pavilion" in the "Ying Tianfu" scene of the plot mode. For players who love traditional culture and national style content, bring a different game experience.

Looking at "The Legend of Shawarma", the background of the game is a traditional Turkish snack that Chinese players are not familiar with; In terms of production, it is not only small in size and rough in style; The overall gameplay is also just about making burritos day after day to make money, upgrade various props, and then continue to make money.

After all the items are upgraded, if you can complete a turnover of 50,000 in one day, you will be considered a successful level. And the "settlement screen" that players care about the most is only a "You are a legend of Shawarma" in Songti subtitles, as well as a five-pointed star and round fireworks blooming all over the screen - not even a celebratory music.

Strictly speaking, "The Legend of Shawarma" represents a "management mini-game" - more precisely, a cooking game in which a chef cooks dishes for guests, but it is precisely this kind of mini-game that is becoming more and more popular among young people.

For example, "Chef of the Airplane: Cooking in the Air", which puts players in the role of a flight attendant on a plane and delivers meals to passengers. Five months after its launch in April last year, it won the top 5 of the free list of iOS casual games and the top 30 of the free list of iOS games. On the Douban platform, the rating of this game reached 8.1 points. At the hottest, a group of game anchors also appeared on the live broadcast platform for online show operations, and fans in the live broadcast room lined up to wait for the anchors to help clear the customs on the spot.

As you can also see from "Chef Plane: Cooking in the Air" and "The Legend of Shawarma", these mini-games have three major commonalities.

First of all, the threshold for the game is low enough, and only one finger is needed to tap and swipe in terms of operation.

Secondly, the attributes of stand-alone games determine that the game can be stopped at any time in the middle of the game, which meets the fragmented needs of users to play a game anytime and anywhere and kill time in scenarios such as daily commuting and waiting for the bus.

Third, this kind of mini-game does not increase the game time through the sense of achievement brought by building, producing, and upgrading, but sets a certain difficulty level, so that players can take the initiative to clear the level by watching advertisements and buying props when they are stuck in the level.

In fact, aside from the appearance of accidentally being out of the circle because of the magic voice, one of the inevitable reasons why "The Legend of Shawarma" can continue to attract young players to experience the game after attracting the attention of a large number of young players is that mini games are more and more in line with the preference of young users for the use of fragmented time.

Big market in a mini-game

In recent years, the gaming industry has been walking on thin ice. On the one hand, the restriction of the game version greatly increases the risk of launching a new game. On the other hand, the ceiling for the growth of Internet users is getting closer and closer.

According to the "China Game Industry Report from January to June 2024" released during ChinaJoy this year, the actual sales revenue of the domestic game market in the first half of 2024 will be 147.267 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.08%, and the scale of game users will reach 674 million, but the year-on-year growth rate will only be 0.88%.

The shift from the incremental market to the stock market is in progress, and the competition situation of the entire industry has also shifted from competition between game companies to more fierce competition between works.

Not long ago, CICC released a 2Q24 research report on the Internet industry, which showed that the total time spent by Internet users on games fell by 2.2%. Among them, the total game time of "Honor of Kings" and "Peace Elite", two strong products that have dominated the list for a long time, decreased by 9% and 21% respectively.

According to the research report, the reason for the decline in game consumption time is mainly because of the obvious decline in the duration of head games in the context of intensified competition for new games. Why are the top games declining? The question is not complicated.

Take "Honor of Kings" as an example, this classic national mobile game released in 2015 is in its 9th year this year. Players who were in the third grade of elementary school when the game was first launched are now in college. It's common sense that booms and wanes, and even if the scenery of the canyon is charming, who can insist on playing the same game for 9 years in a row?

From another point of view, the fact that a game has been able to occupy the top position in the industry for 9 consecutive years also reflects the lack of innovation in the industry to some extent.

In "Aside from the oligarchy's one-man show, what's left in the game market?" As mentioned in the article, a healthy game industry market should be "top-heavy" - that is, the feet are built by light games, which becomes the entrance to diversion and cultivation of new game users; Moderate games are used as a support area to cultivate users' gaming habits and organize users' fragmented time to invest in games. Hardcore games should bring users the ultimate gaming experience, and they are also the growth point of the industry market scale.

But this benign market no longer exists.

The reality is that a large number of top games continue to occupy the mainstream position in the market, and game manufacturers are trying to extend the life cycle of games, demanding that the old hens that have been online for nearly ten years continue to lay golden eggs. Some of them are self-contained, and some of them are confused and can't find their way.

Interestingly, when manufacturers are reluctant to take the initiative to innovate, players have already made their own choices. Including the current "Legend of Shawarma", as well as the previous sheep and catching big geese, the successive outings of these small games are providing a reference for the game market with insufficient creativity and user loss: perhaps what users need is no longer the same boutique, just a "little fun" that can meet the needs of daily leisure.

It can also be seen from the decline in the total time spent by Internet users that with more and more ways to spend daily pastime, users no longer have to indulge in games, what they really need is more flexible play time, and they can instantly satisfy the gaming experience and get a relaxing way of playing.

Making Turkish burritos and earning 50,000 in-game coins may not be more exciting than getting five kills in the canyon. But players may just want to kill the time when they don't know what to do while waiting for the bus or subway.

The fragmented gaming market is not without value.

For example, although it is easy to get started, it is difficult to clear the level, and players will choose to buy props or watch advertisements to get help when they can't clear the level. Although the price is much lower than that of "648 recharge gacha", it is better than the short path of consumption decision-making.

In addition, the size limit of Mini Games determines that their production costs are more controllable, and some Mini Games can also be reached and converted through Mini Programs, which not only reduces the burden of buying volume, but also finds a certain growth path among the user groups of short videos and live broadcasts.

The emergence of "Shawarma" is of course accidental, but the "legend" of small and broad is born more and more frequently in the market of small games that have not been overnoticed.

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