Kabam crosses 1M downloads for its first mobile game

Kabam said today that its first hardcore game for mobile devices has been downloaded more than a million times. Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North has been available on the Apple App Store on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch as a free-to-play mobile title since March 1.

Kingdoms of Camelot is part of a multi-platform expansion that Kabam is undertaking as it searches for hardcore gamers, who are the high rollers of the gaming industry and are willing to spend a lot of money in social games. Kabam is adding a second city to the game as it expands on the App Store.

As it moves beyond its start on Facebook, Kabam has expanded to CNET’s Download.com, Google+, and the Kongregate indie gaming portal owned by GameStop. Kabam could spend a lot of money on ads on Facebook, but it instead makes more sense for Kabam to move beyond the social network to target hardcore gamers because such players are a minority on Facebook. Kabam is seeking out the hardcore gamers on other platforms where they are present.

That has led to a decline in Facebook users. In August, Kabam had more than 12.9 million monthly active users on Facebook, but that number has shrunk to 2.0 million, according to AppData. Meanwhile, the cost of advertising on Facebook is rising. The strategy is in marked contrast to that of rival Kixeye, which remains focused on hardcore social games on Facebook.

Kingdoms of Camelot has attracted more than 15 million registered users worldwide; although, its active population has fallen to 470,000 monthly active users on Facebook. On mobile, Camelot players have built more than 750,000 kingdoms with more than 3 billion residents. The average daily active user logs in more than three times a day.

The action focuses on an Arthurian-style game of strategy and empire building in the north of medieval Britain. Users can play for free and pay real money for in-game virtual goods. More free-to-play mobile games are on the way. Kabam has around 20 people working on mobile games.

The new second city gives players the chance to double their power and resource production.

It includes the Round Tower to store crests gained from attacking Pict camps and wilds and the Relief Station that speeds player transport between allied cities or cities of the same player. Other additions to the game are a new daily might leaderboard that shows how players stack up in troop strength, wall defense changes to discourage players from “turtling” in their cities, new chance games, and an additional instant build queue available to players of level 10 or higher.

“Battle for the North players are not your average users who log in once a day to do routine activities,” said Matt Ricchetti, vice president of mobile for Kabam. “Our players form a highly engaged community who actively participate in the game throughout the day. Most users play multiple times each day, and the top 10 percent of our most engaged players log in more than nine times each day.”