Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) top-up rebate (mlbb Top Up) is periodic, the nature comes from the union of user action cycle and marketing competition strategy. Taking data for 2023 as an example, Moonton designed a 30% diamond back for the “515 Glory Festival”, which drove a 42% month-to-month increase of recharge flow (according to Sensor Tower report), meanwhile the weekday rebate rate is as low as 5%-10%. This peak exactly matches the cycle of player behavior: The Southeast Asian market recorded 32 million daily active users (DAU) over the summer vacation (June-August), a 55% increase from the off-season, when the “Summer Fun” top-up promotion (200 for 1,000 diamonds) was launched, and the conversion rate (CVR) increased from 12% to 28%.
Local consumption habits and holiday economy drive discount strategy. For example, in Indonesia’s “Ramadan” period (March-April 2023), MLBB and Codashop promoted the “Top Up Extra 15%” campaign, and local top-up volume increased by 63% year-over-year, and the average user consumption per pay-user (ARPPU) grew from $8.50 to $14.2. In Brazil’s “Black Five” (November), Moonton issued 20% discount coupons through the local payment platform Pix, such that the income of the Brazilian region in the month increased from the normal 15% to 27%. Seasonal events are usually accompanied by version update (e.g., new hero addition), and popularity of content is also considered in the recharge margin growth, whereas the promotional offer raised the diamond sales in the first week of the 2022 “Light Revelation Temple” version by 180%.
Cooperation platform and payment channel subsidy is where the money for the discounts originates. For example, during Double 11 in 2023, Alipay discounted the fee by 10% for MLBB, so players’ top up 100 yuan actually received 110 yuan, and the platform reduced 35% of cost of customer acquisition (CAC). For Southeast Asia “Game of the Year Celebration” in Google Play, a one-off rate reduction of 5%-8% on mlbb top up was enforced, bringing Google channel recharge ratio to 40% up from 58%. Third parties such as SEAGM, offering an additional 12% off during festival times through Prepaid Stock model, still hold 15%-18% gross margin since scale mitigates operational cost.
Player lifecycle financial management and financial targets also affect discount cycle. Q4 (Oct – Dec) revenue accounted for 38% of the year according to Moonton quarter-end financial statement, therefore year-end concerted deployment of “double twelve”, “Christmas gift box” and other recharge activities pushing ARPPU quarter-on-quarter growth of 22%. For low-active players (players who hadn’t played in 30 days), the system automatically triggered a “return exclusive discount” (e.g., 50% discount), which increased recall rates by 18%, and their subsequent 30-day retention rate was 45%, 27 percentage points higher than that of the no-discount group. Data models show that seasonal promotions increase player LTV (life cycle value) by 6-9 months and reduce marginal cost of acquisition (marginal CAC) by 40%.
Market competition and industry trend force dynamic readjustment of discount strategy. According to App Annie, Southeast Asia MOBA mobile game market revenue grew 19 percent year on year in 2023, but MLBB’s market share fell from 62 percent to 58 percent due to the introduction of 25 percent cashback within Endless Duel’s “esports season”. Later on, Moonton added a “Champion support” event for the 2023 M3 World Championship (December) with up to full capacity and giving skin to the team, resulting in a 75% increase in year-over-year production during the tournament. Seasonal product discounts have become standard practice in the market, and cross-over products such as “Original God” and “Free Fire” also provide mlbb top up discounts of ** 10%-30% ** for a given cycle, forcing producers to optimize the ROI of discount delivery through exact algorithms (such as user clustering and price elasticity models) in order to get a win-win effect on revenue and market share.