There’s a deluge of new data and research to wade through in the mobile games business. Our regular data digest column breaks it all down into digestible chunks.
Read on for the numbers you need to know about minus the fluff.
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Asia launch supercharges AFK Journey revenue
Squad RPG AFK Journey saw its revenue rise by 779% following its launch in Asia, according to Sensor Tower. In July, the title made $7m in gross revenue; the following month, this shot up to $61.5m. 70% of this revenue came from the regions where the game had just launched.
Despite this massive increase in revenue, AFK Journey did not take the number one in the worldwide revenue growth charts for August – that title goes to Tencent’s Honor of Kings. Tencent’s MOBA which saw a huge spike in income thanks to a collaboration with Chinese media brand Fox Spirit Matchmaker.
In the number one spot for download growth in August was My Supermarket Simulator 3D. The title has been downloaded over 16m times to date, while fellow store-themed title Supermarket Master 3D shot to number four with 8m downloads.
52 Entertainment swoops for Blackout
Parisian game publisher 52 Entertainment has acquired Barcelona-based casual studio Blackout, maker of Bubble Shooter Rainbow, Word Search Quest and Spades.
Blackout’s portfolio will now join 52 Entertainment’s roster, which includes two Virtual Regatta games and other casual card games like Bridge Base Online.
Stillfront splits in three
Swedish rollup firm Stillfront is splitting itself into three business areas in an effort to save SEK 200m-250m ($19m-24m) per year, according to a note issued to shareholders.
As of January 1 2025, Stillfront’s operations and reporting will be split into three business areas: Europe, North America and MENA/APAC. The company is looking to ‘optimise’ and ‘concentrate’ its games portfolio by ‘addressing’ underperforming titles to focus on its leading franchises, which sounds like closures and layoffs are imminent.
Roblox targets 10% of all global games revenue
Roblox boss David Baszucki said in a blog post that the company has the potential to be behind 10% of all games revenue worldwide.
When does the company believe this will happen? He does not say, but the exec also thinks Roblox will have 300m daily active users in the future and 1bn daily active users even further in the future. At the moment, Roblox boasts 79.5m daily active users. Of those players, 58% are aged 13 or older.
Trivia Crack hits 800m downloads
Etermax’s Trivia Crack has been downloaded more than 800m times since its 2013 release, according to VentureBeat. Word Crack, meanwhile, boasts over 150m active users each year.
The Korean RPG market is in decline
Sensor Tower data shows that the market share of RPG titles in South Korea has fallen dramatically. Game Dev Reports writes that in 2020 this sector made up 78.8% of games revenue in the country; in July 2024, it was just north of 50%. In fact, in May it fell below 50% for the first time in its history.
There is reason to be hopeful though; new subgenres, such as idle RPG, squad RPG and turn-based RPGs are showing growth; in 2024, they boast 16%, 11-15% and 4.6% share of revenue, respectively.
Audio ad firm Odeeo secures $5m investment
VentureBeat reports that audio ad firm Odeeo has landed $5m in funding. The investment round was led by Korean early-stage outfit Atinum Investments, with existing investors Play Ventures and Anton Gauffin also taking part.
Mother Games raises $5m
US developer Mother Games has scored $5m in funding. The studio has exited stealth mode and is currently working on a mobile title called Le Zoo, which Mother describes as an emergent open world game “with mature themes and adult humour”.
41% of European games revenue came from mobile in 2023
Research from VideoGamesEurope shows that 41% of games revenue made in Europe was generated by mobile titles. That clocks in at €10.5bn ($11.6bn) of the total €25.7bn ($28.4bn) that the market made during 2023.
68% of European gamers play on mobile devices, a 1% drop year-on-year. That represents around 84.6m of the total 124.4m people who play games on the continent.
Looking at just women, 45% of the around 55m female gamers use mobile devices.
