Here are last month’s top grossing mobile games worldwide based on in-app purchase earnings, according to Appmagic data.
These IAP estimates do not include ad revenue, web shop spend or Apple and Google’s 30% cut.
There’s commentary on which way the biggest earners are trending and other interesting tidbits from the top 20 and beyond below.
Honor of Kings posted its lowest revenue haul since November 2023 in April, but still beat its closest rival PUBG Mobile to the top spot by almost $20m. It is continuing to slowly roll out worldwide, but its arrival in markets like the Middle East, North Africa, Türkiye, CIS and South Asia have not changed the composition of its spending profile: 98% of its earnings in the last month were from China.
PUBG Mobile and Monopoly Go swap places this month, with Tencent’s battle royale up to second place despite a month-on-month drop of around $10m. Monopoly Go’s IAP earnings are also down compared to March, dropping from ~$117m to $102.5m in April, just behind PUBG Mobile.
It should be noted, though, that this isn’t the full story with Monopoly Go – industry rumblings suggest Scopely is doing good business from the game’s web shop, whose revenue is obviously impossible to track through traditional means. So it’s likely closer to Honor of Kings than these IAP earning estimates might suggest.
As noted in our analysis of April’s top downloads, Royal Match has dropped out of the top 20 charts on installs, but has maintained fourth spot in the rankings this month. It too has seen a drop in IAP earnings month-on-month, with April’s ~$79m at the lower end of the $80-87m it has been consistently earning since July 2023.
Honkai: Star Rail also holds onto the same position as last month having earned ~$75m, though is slightly down on March, which itself saw a big leap up from ~$52m in February to hit $83m. Mihoyo’s other big action-RPG Genshin Impact is up significantly this month too, rising seven places with an April total of just over $65m, up from March’s $41m, the worst month on record for the title.
Where previously we’ve seen one title gain at the expense of the other, the link is less clear for April – perhaps Mihoyo has figured out how not to cannibalise spend on its own titles.
In between the Mihoyo games there’s FirstFun’s LastWar, one of very few games still rising through the ranks. April’s $74m+ is a record month for the game, notably up on March’s $66m, though its spectacular growth in the last few months is slowing. It also earns a good chunk of ad revenue, too, which is not estimated here.
It’s the same story for both Roblox and Candy Crush Saga in seventh and eighth respectively – each title is down one spot for April having posted roughly the same in IAP revenue as March. Interesting to note that there doesn’t seem to be any noticeable uplift in downloads or revenue for King’s puzzler from its high profile Candy Crush All Stars tournament, though.
In tenth, Brawl Stars hits its best ever monthly total of ~$59m, a healthy rise on March’s previous best of ~$47m. Supercell’s retooling of the game is well-known by this point, but in case you haven’t read it yet the full details on how Supercell engineered Brawl Stars’ comeback is here.
April’s top grossing mobile games 11-20:
11. Legend of Mushroom (Joy Net Games): $54m
12. Whiteout Survival (Century Games): $52.7m
13. Coin Master (Moon Active): $50.8m
14. Gardenscapes (Playrix): $39.1m
15. Monster Strike (Xflag): $32.6m
16. Pokémon Go (Niantic): $30.6m
17. League of Legends: Golden Spatula (Tencent): $30.1m
18. Clash of Clans (Supercell): $28.7m
19. Fantasy Westward Journey (NetEase): $28.1m
20. Township (Playrix): $27.9m
A month-on-month dip in IAP revenue of around $6m sees Legends of Mushroom drop out of the top ten after gatecrashing it last month. It will have earned a big chunk of ad revenue too, so it’ll likely be higher overall but that’s obviously difficult to measure.
Whiteout Survival posted nearly identical IAP revenue two months in a row at ~$53m, and Coin Master dropped a little bit, but really there are few notable spikes or declines in the 11-20 bracket, besides China-only phenonmena LoL: Golden Spatula and Fantasy Westward Journey each rising nine places month-on-month.
Outside the top 20, Goddess Of Victory: Nikke (30th) added around $7m to its IAP revenue month-on-month to rise 22 places, while Clash Royale appears to be gently rising through the ranks, up 10 places for April into 36th.
It’s early days for Farlight’s AFK Journey, but after its first full month on the market it posted just over $18m in IAP revenue to reach 38th spot. Finally, NetEase’s Eggy Party is having a difficult time after a promising start (in China, at least). Its IAP earnings for April were a little over $9m, having earned ~$17m in March, and is down 38 places.
