[Digital Today reporter Ho-jung Lee (이호정)] Sensor Tower said on Tuesday that the 4X strategy genre has climbed to No. 1 in revenue in South Korea's mobile game market, beating massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).

In January, the 4X strategy genre posted monthly revenue of more than $70 million, surpassing MMORPGs for the first time. MMORPGs had held the top-grossing sub-genre position in South Korea for the past 9 years. Sensor Tower said the 4X strategy genre grew quickly on the back of payment structures and operating methods similar to those of MMORPGs, reshaping the market landscape.

The key drivers were Whiteout Survival and Last War: Survival. The two games ranked in the top five for domestic mobile game revenue from January last year to January this year. For Whiteout Survival, 14.5 percent of its $4 billion in cumulative global revenue came from the South Korean market. Last War: Survival also had a South Korea share of 15.8 percent, making it its second-largest market after the United States.

Momentum from new titles also stood out. Last Z and Kingshot, released in December last year, joined the growth trend and expanded the overall size of the genre.

An aggressive marketing strategy supported the results. Sensor Tower data showed the 4X strategy genre accounted for about 19 percent of total mobile game ad impressions, the highest share. Within the genre, Kingshot had a 21 percent share and Whiteout Survival had 18 percent.

Ongoing live-ops operations also drove the revenue rise. Whiteout Survival arranged events tightly on a monthly basis to encourage user participation. In August last year, when it recorded its highest-ever monthly revenue, it ran consecutive in-app events throughout the month and delivered results. A battle pass offering tiered rewards and step-based offers leading to high-priced packages were also assessed as factors that drew spending from high-paying users.