Now we’ve got six months of 2024 data, we’ve been digging through Appmagic to see how the mobile games business looked during the first half of the year.
Remember, these numbers are estimates, but still can be considered broadly indicative of the shape and size of mobile game installs.
For a breakdown of the top grossing games, top downloads and top earning publishers of 2024 so far, head through the links.
As we noted in the individual game rankings earlier this week, hyper and hybridcasual games are not making their mark as aggressively any more, but the publishers making them are still dominating these charts when you peek through the lens of their overall portfolio.
But: the top three here, Azur, SayGames and Supersonic, are each either gently in decline or pretty flat in terms of downloads over a years-long timeframe, as are BabyBus, Outfit7 and Voodoo.
Why? The hypercasual publishers have simply stopped releasing new games at the rate they did in previous years, and instead are focusing on pivoting their proven titles into hybridcasual or longer-tail games.
On a brighter note, ABI Games and Zego Studio seem to have weathered that storm. ABI saw big spikes in early 2024 with Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle and to a lesser extent Left or Right: Magic Dress Up and Tick Tock Challenge, which have boosted the firm’s baseline install rate above what it usually gets from its three retro shooters Galaxy Attack, 1945 Air Force and Space Shooter.
And after a fairly flat 2023 Zego Studios is back to some of its best ever monthly download totals, numbers not seen since the middle of 2022. This is thanks to its top four titles Car Race 3D, Moto Rider, Wood Screw Puzzle and more recently Manage Supermarket Simulator. The latter, in particular, took June’s top downloads chart by storm.
Homa and Miniclip also also gently on the up. Homa was once mostly known for Weapon Master and Attack Hole, but recently it’s been games like Agent Hunt and Frontline Heroes racking up the biggest downloads – both are quickfire cover shooters, a subgenre that seems to be gathering pace.
Miniclip’s numbers are of course driven mostly by 8 Ball Pool but it also now has some very popular new releases targeted at players in India, Cricket League and Carrom Pool. Football Strike and Pure Sniper are also solid contributors to that download total of 266m.
2024’s top publishers by downloads (so far): 11-20
11. Supercent (South Korea): 265m
12. CrazyLabs (Israel): 240m
13. Bravestars Publishing (Vietnam): 216m
14. Tencent (China): 206m
15. EA (USA): 193m
16. Garena International (Singapore): 176m
17. Supercell (Finland): 157m
18. Freeplay (USA): 156m
19. Ivy Games (Hong Kong): 141m
20. Wildlife Studios (Brazil): 138m
New contender Supercent is unlucky to miss out on a top 10 slot in 11th, with 265m downloads in the first half of 2024. That was mostly driven by Pizza Ready, which is now its premier title following the very similar Outlets Rush and Burger Please.
Embracer-owned CrazyLabs‘ download decline started in August 2022 as has pretty much continued ever since, while Bravestars, responsible for quickfire titles like Hair Salon and Draw Bridge Puzzle, has gone the other way, rising rapily in terms of download volume ever since the end of 2023.
Tencent and EA downloads are steady, but Garena‘s Free Fire games are broadly up after a bit of a lull at the end of 2023.
Supercell’s games were getting 10-15m downloads per month throughout 2023, but the big Brawl Stars comeback plus the Squad Busters launch have seen the Finnish firm generating 35m+ installs per month in June and May.
Downloads for hypercasual firm Freeplay, maker of Count Masters and Twerk Race 3D, have been very spiky throughout 2023 and the first half of 2024, while Ivy Games has really been gathering pace with games like Bubble Shooter and Subway Princess Runner dong big numbers in India.
Finally Wildlife installs have remained pretty steady ever since early 2022, though installs are broadly down from the firm’s peak in 2020-21.
