Here are last month’s top grossing mobile games based on in-app purchase earnings, according to Appmagic data.
These IAP estimates do not include ad revenue, web shop spend, Apple and Google’s 30% cut or revenue from China’s fragmented Android ecosystem.
There’s commentary on which way the biggest earners are trending, and other interesting tidbits from the top 20 and beyond below.
Normal service resumes for August as Honor of Kings reclaims the top spot after two months in the shadow of new launch DNF Mobile.
This is both due to a softening of DNF’s numbers post-launch and a recovery from a big blip in HoK’s earnings. Honor of Kings’ revenue plummeted from ~$152m in May to $93m in June and ~$115m in July; August’s $172m is a more typical figure.
Royal Match is rising again after posting monthly earnings around the $100m mark for all of 2024. Its August earnings were a new high, with nearly $110m earned, up year-on-year by about $20m.
Like Dream Games’ puzzler, Roblox also hit an all-time high in August, having passed $100m in monthly earnings for the first time in July. August’s total comes in even higher: $106m, a fourth consecutive month-on-month rise.
Whiteout Survival is another title on the ascent, posting its highest ever numbers in this chart with over $91m earned in August. It’s also been trending upwards pretty much since launch, and at an increasing rate in the last few months. There’s also ad revenue on top, don’t forget.
Monopoly Go has halted a four-month run of monthly IAP revenue decline by bouncing back up to nearly $90m earned in August. It peaked in March 2024 with a whopping $132m, but there’s likely a good chunk of money missing from this data thanks to the game’s ‘Tycoon Club’ web shop, the launch of which may well coincide with the decline in App Store and Google Play revenue.
August was another steady month for King’s Candy Crush Saga, which is slightly up on July’s total IAP earnings, while PUBG Mobile is practically flat month-on-month following a spike in earnings in spring of this year.
In ninth, there’s a huge drop down from PUBG’s $88m to LastWar’s $56m. There’s also a possible quirk in a the data here – or perhaps a deliberate strategy from FirstFun: Appmagic has split out the iOS and Android editions of LastWar this month, which now appear to have fractionally different names.
The iOS edition is in ninth spot with $56.3m, while the Android edition is 12th with $46.1m. Combined they’d be in fifth spot with ~$102.4m, ahead of Whiteout Survival. Again, might be just a data quirk but if deliberate this might be a way to more effective target players on the different platforms…?
Rounding out the top ten is Coin Master with another solid month earning around $54m, though over the long-term it is in a long, slow decline.
August’s top grossing mobile games: 11-20
11. Brawl Stars (Supercell): $46.9m
12. LastWar: Survival Game (First Fun): $46.1m
13. AFK Journey (Lilith Games): $43.4m
14. Pokémon Go (Niantic): $41.2m
15. Fate/Grand Order (Aniplex): $40.9m
16. Gardenscapes (Playrix): $39m
17. Township (Playrix): $33.9m
18. Call of Duty: Mobile (Activision): $33m
19. Monster Strike (Xflag): $32.1m
20. DBZ Dokkan Battle (Bandai Namco): $30.1m
Another big month-on-month drop for Brawl Stars sees it drop out of the top ten. It’s down to just under $47m in IAP earnings for August, having peaked in May with over $67m.
A launch in China means an absolutely bananas rise for AFK Journey: Lilith’s RPG is up 161 places month-on-month, according to Appmagic. The game registered just under $4.7m in IAP earnings for July; last month it was over $43m.
Pokémon Go’s spiky earnings continue with a huge drop from July’s over $71m in IAPs. With no major event to speak of in August, earnings are back down to just over $41m, though Niantic has been keen in the past to stress it is earning good money from its web store.
Fate/Grand Order returns to the top charts for the first time in months, posting over $40m for the first time since August 2023, we assume thanks to a live op; similarly spiky game DBZ Dokkan Battle is also down four spots month-on-month, and by around $6m in IAPs.
Outside the top 20, there are notable rises for Riot’s LoL Golden Spatula spin-off, NetEase’s Identity V and a new Three Kingdoms game from Shanghai Hode Information Technology, AKA Bilibili. Clash of Clans is also up a little, and Bandai Namco’s One Piece game has leapt up 88 places.
Dropping a little month-on-month are Hoyoverse trio Honkai: Star Rail, Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero. Star Rail and Genshin are in 23rd and 25th respectively, each having earned over $28m in August, while newest release ZZZ is down a mighty 25 spots, landing in 35th place with ~$22m earned for August.
And yes, let’s play ‘where’s Squad Busters’ again, shall we? It’s down 29 places month-on-month to 108th spot, with nearly $8m earned in August. For context, that’s down on July’s estimated earnings of ~$11m, and also below Clash Royale in 60th (~$14m) and Hay Day in 80th (~$10.5m).
