Our data digest column breaks down the latest numbers, research and financial results into digestible chunks. Read on for the numbers you need to know about minus the fluff.
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Call of Duty: Mobile hits $3bn
Appmagic data suggests COD: Mobile has now passed $3bn in lifetime player spend. In an infographic it published on LinkedIn, the data firm also claimed it has 407m downloads to date, and a global revenue per download average of $4.43.
Monthly revenue reportedly peaked in December 2023, when COD: Mobile earned $40m.
Unity spent $214m cutting 1,750 staff in 2024
Mass layoffs at Unity last year cost the engine maker $214m in employee separation costs, according to data in the company’s annual report spotted by pocketgamer.biz.
In 2024, Unity cut its full-time workforce from 6,748 employees to 4,987 as part of restructuring that also saw it shut 23 of its 57 offices. The company said these reductions resulted in a further $53m of non-employee charges.
In its earnings results published last week, Unity announced its new AI ad platform Vector and said Q4 revenue fell by 25% year-over-year to $457m. It also reported a net loss of $123m. Full-year revenue declined by 17% to $1.813bn, and it posted a loss of $664m.
Surpass Games raises $1.5m
Turkish hybridcasual studio Surpass Games has raised $1.5m in pre-seed funding from Laton Ventures, Mobidictum reports.
Surpass founder Ensar Kelez is a former data scientist at Masomo and head of product at Fomo Games. The wider team includes ex-Zynga, Alictus and Imaginite talent.
Marketers to spend $29bn on UA in 2025
Mobile gaming marketers are forecast to spend $29bn on user acquisition this year, according to Moloco’s Mobile Gaming Insights for Global Growth report.
Based on several data points, including install data sourced from Data.ai, it expects 71% of UA spend to be concentrated in just 10 countries.
The US is forecast to lead the way with a 39.9% share of UA spend, ahead of the UK (5.5%), Germany (5.4%), Japan (4%) and South Korea (3.7%).
The report goes on to break down estimated UA spend by market and genre in 2025. 40.8% of UA budgets for RPGs are expected to be invested in the East Asian markets of South Korea (24.9%), Japan (9.8%) and Taiwan (6.1%), although the US will command the highest share (25.1%).
The US is forecast to lead in every game genre in terms of UA investment, but most notably in casino (65.5% share) and party (61.2%). There’s expected to be a higher spend on hypercasual games in developing markets, with Brazil, India and Indonesia accounting for a 14% share compared to 4.5% in other genres.
Hong Kong is projected to lead average revenue per paying user across all genres and operating systems this year with $37.5 Day 7 ARPPU, followed by Qatar ($28), Iceland ($27.4), Singapore ($26.5) and Kuwait ($26.4).
East Asia Pacific markets like Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan will invariably lead ARPPU in higher-spending genres like RPG and strategy, according to Moloco.
Elsewhere, the report estimates that 70% to 85% of IAP revenue comes from the top 10% of paying users across countries and genres, while roughly 35% to 45% of IAP revenue is generated by the top 2% of payers.
Candy Crush Solitaire reaches 1m downloads in “record speed”
Candy Crush Solitaire has become ‘the fastest TriPeaks solitaire game to reach 1m downloads in the last decade’, according to Data.ai numbers shared by King.
The first new game Candy Crush title in over six years was released on February 6. Franchise general manager Todd Green explained to us why King is taking on the solitaire subgenre as the game launched; we also recently looked at how Candy Crush Solitaire compares to category leader, Playtika’s Solitaire Grand Harvest.
Skillz announces $75m accelerator
Rewards platform Skillz has launched a $75m developer accelerator programme. The Las Vegas-based company is planning to support the creation and marketing of at least 25 new skill-based games over the next three years. Developers interested in receiving funding can apply for the programme here.
War Robots hits $1bn
War Robots has reached $1bn in lifetime revenue across mobile and PC, with the lion’s share of its earnings split across Android ($455m) and iOS ($442m).
The PvP tactical shooter, which is developed by My.Games in-house studio Pixonic, has been downloaded some 300m times since 2014, including 212m installs on Android and 70m on iOS.
Last year it had up to 4.7m monthly players and a daily user count of up to 690k, according to its publisher.
Dawn of Ages tops 1m downloads on Google Play
Dawn of Ages has surpassed 1m downloads on Android, according to publisher BoomBit. The medieval strategy title, which is developed by Stratosphere Games, was released in May 2024. It’s also available for iOS and is coming to PC too.
