Every Wednesday we break down the latest data, research and financial results into digestible chunks.
Read on for the numbers you need to know about without the fluff.
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Playtika is up for sale (again)
Playtika is effectively up for sale again, as part of “a comprehensive review and evaluation of strategic alternatives across its portfolio” announced yesterday. It has appointed Morgan Stanley to act as financial advisor for any potential strategic transaction.
At the time of writing Playtika’s market cap stands at around $1bn, with an estimated enterprise value of $2.7-2.9bn, according to Stockanalysis.com. The same website says that since January 15 2021, Playtika’s market cap has decreased from $12.95bn to $1.17bn, a 90.93% drop.
It’s the second time Playtika has announced a strategic review (and therefore potential sale), having done the same back in February 2022. It did not find a buyer, but has since bought several other fellow Israeli studios, including Dice Dreams maker SuperPlay and InnPlay Labs, maker of Animals & Coins.
Honor of Kings leads top 10 games by revenue in Q1
Honor of Kings was the top earning mobile game worldwide in Q1 2026, according to Appmagic data.
Tencent’s title generated $471m in IAP revenue in the first three months of the year, including an all-time monthly revenue high of $188m in January. It also has the highest cumulative revenue per download ($32.34) of any title in the top 10.
Last War Survival slipped to second place in Q1 with $381m in revenue, ahead of PUBG Mobile, which recorded the biggest QoQ earnings increase of any top 10 entry, growing 128% to reach $353m.
Whiteout Survival and Royal Match took the next two spots, with earnings of $326m and $312m respectively. Monopoly Go and Roblox, which were separated by just $1m in earnings in Q1, slipped out of the top five.
Next up was Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story, which hit new highs in monthly downloads in January (8.9m) and monthly earnings in March ($101m). Candy Crush Saga and Kingshot rounded off the top 10, with earnings of $263m for King’s game and $233m for Century’s title.
IAP earnings flat at $20.5bn in Q1 2026
A new report from M&A advisory firm Aream says mobile gaming IAP spending plateaued at $20.5bn in Q1 2026.
Based on Sensor Tower data, that compared to $20.4bn of gross IAP revenue in Q1 2025, and $20.2bn, $21bn, and $20.6bn in the intervening quarters.
Downloads in Q1 2026 came in at 11.8bn, down 12% from the 13.4bn recorded in the same quarter of the previous year. Installs had fallen throughout 2025, dropping to 12.8bn in Q2, 12.3bn in Q3, and 11.7bn in Q4.
Last War Survival was the top-grossing game by IAP revenue in the 12 months ended in March, earning $2.4bn. It came in ahead of Whiteout Survival, Honor of Kings and Monopoly Go, which each generated around $2bn, and Royal Match with $1.9bn.
Publishers headquartered in China accounted for the greatest share of IAP revenue during the 12-month tracking period, bringing in $26.5bn (+0.6% YoY).
US-based publishers followed with $10.9bn (-14% YoY), ahead of those headquartered in Japan with $8.1bn (-0.1% YoY), Singapore with $4.5bn (+22% YoY) and Türkiye with $4.4bn (+28% YoY).
According to InvestGame data, gaming M&A activity hit $7.7bn in Q1 2026, led by Savvy’s $6bn acquisition of Moonton and Scopely’s purchase of Loom Games for $1bn.
It marked the highest quarterly deal value in the post-pandemic period, excluding those when Activision and Electronic Arts were acquired.
Elsewhere, the report estimates that public offerings generated $1bn in Q1, which was down 68% from $3.3bn a year earlier, while private investments rose 42% YoY, from $500m to $800m.
Easybrain tops 2.5bn downloads
Ahead of its tenth anniversary in mid-2026, casual puzzle game maker Easybrain says its portfolio of titles has surpassed 2.5bn downloads.
The studio behind the likes of Sudoku.com, Jigsaw Puzzles, Number Match, Blockudoku and Art Puzzle reached 1bn installs in 2021, the same year it was acquired by Embracer in a deal worth up to $765m.
The company’s more recent releases include Crossword Master and Brick Blast, and in November 2024, Easybrain was purchased by Tencent-owned Miniclip for $1.2bn.
Mistplay completes $5.3m Connected Rewards buy
Mistplay has completed its acquisition of fellow mobile gaming rewards platform Connected Rewards from Mobivity. When the deal was announced in January, Mistplay said the consideration included $5.3m in cash subject to working capital adjustments, 6,328,991 Class B common shares of Reward Holdings, and potential earn-out equity.
UA startup Sett raises $30m
UA creative performance platform Sett has raised $30m in a Series B funding round led by Greenfield Partners, with participation from F2 Ventures, TIRTA, and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Founded in 2022, Sett builds AI systems that automate the UA creative loop by generating ad concepts, deploying them to networks, and analysing performance data.
The Tel Aviv-based company announced last May that it had secured $27m across seed and Series A funding rounds from investors including Bessemer, F2, Arcadia Gaming Partners, Vgames, and Saga Ventures.
Mag Interactive net sales fell 4% in Q2
Mag Interactive’s Q2 net sales fell 4.1% YoY, totalling SEK 64.27m (≈$6.8m) between December 2025 and February 2026, while its adjusted EBITDA was SEK 16.485m (≈$1.75m), marking a 9% drop.
The QuizDuel, Wordzee and Crozzle maker’s ARPDAU for the quarter increased 35% YoY to 8.8 US cents, while monthly unique payers grew by 5%. Meanwhile, DAU fell 14% to 0.9m and MAU decreased 14% to 2.3m.
Last Asylum: Plague nears $7.5m revenue in first month
Last Asylum: Plague has made the “strongest start” of any title in 37Games’ 4X strategy portfolio, based on Appmagic estimates. Released on February 28, the game has earned $7.4m and racked up 6.5m downloads, giving it a revenue per download of $1.13.
It peaked at $323k in daily revenue and is now down to $260k, with most of its earnings coming from the US, followed by South Korea and Japan.
It’s currently in second place in the publisher’s 4X strategy portfolio by daily revenue, behind Puzzle & Survival by 2.3x. The top five 4X strategy games by revenue in March 2026 were Last War Survival ($117m), Whiteout Survival ($109m), Kingshot ($78m), Last Z: Survival Shooter ($35m) and Evony: The King’s Return ($17m).
MapleStory earns $160m, is top-grossing RPG of 2026
Maplestory: Idle RPG game is off to a strong start, earning $164m in IAP revenue following its worldwide launch in November.
Appmagic says it has also reached almost 7.7m installs, giving it a revenue per download of $21.35 and an ARPDAU of $1.02.
It’s already the second best performing MapleStory mobile game behind 2016 release MapleStory M: Fantasy MMORPG, which has lifetime earnings of $493m and has been downloaded 19.34m times.
The newer game peaked at $44m in revenue its fourth month after launch, while MapleStory M: Fantasy MMORPG peaked at $11.4m in January 2021.
Maplestory: Idle RPG is also the top-grossing RPG game in 2026 with $108.2m in revenue, ahead of Genshin Impact with $91.3m and Dragon Ball Z Dokkan with $63.6m.
