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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Destiny Rising hits 5m pre-registrations
NetEase’s Destiny Rising has surpassed 5m pre-registrations across iOS and Android. The sci-fi RPG shooter, which is the first mobile game in the franchise, takes place in an alternate timeline to Bungie’s console and PC games. It’s set to launch globally on August 28.
Apple appeals €500m fine for DMA breach
Apple has filed an appeal against the €500m (~$587m) fine it received from the European Commission in April for failing to comply with the Digital Markets Act, 9to5Mac reports.
The fine was issued due to the iPhone maker’s anti-steering policies, which were deemed to be restricting game developers and customers from benefitting from alternative distribution and payment channels.
Apple subsequently loosened its grip on App Store payments in order to avoid incurring another, even larger fine, although the complex changes it made have been heavily criticised by a number of developers and pundits.
“As our appeal will show, the EC is mandating how we run our store and forcing business terms which are confusing for developers and bad for users,” Apple said in a statement. “We implemented this to avoid punitive daily fines and will share the facts with the Court.”
Block Blast approaches 600m downloads
As easily the top download of 2025 so far, we thought it’d be interesting to take a closer look at Hungry Studio’s puzzler.
According to Appmagic, Block Blast has claimed over 593m downloads to date, with Indonesia its biggest market with 13% of that total (86m installs). The next biggest market is the US with 13% of lifetime downloads (76m) and India is third with 9% of installs, around 51m. The next biggest markets are Philippines (6%), Russia (5%) and Brazil (5%).
Combined Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt market to hit $2.8bn by 2029
The MENA-3 market (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt) will generate $2.78bn in games revenue in 2029, according to Niko Partners’ latest five-year forecast for the region.
It estimates the market size for 2024 as $2bn, which was up 5.4% YoY. That’s expected to rise to $2.2bn in 2025. There were 72m gamers in the region as of the end of 2024, which is projected to grow to 84.3m by 2029.
Female gamers are expected to account for 37% of total players in 2025, up from 34.6% in 2024 and 32.6% in 2023.
Gaming’s share of quarterly App Store revenue drops to 45%
Gaming accounted for 45% of App Store revenue during Apple’s fiscal third quarter, which was down from over 50% in previous years.
That’s according to Sensor Tower data cited in a Bank of America research note, which was reported on by Investing.com.
Total App Store revenue increased by 11.5% year-over-year to $8.4bn in Apple’s Q3, which ran from April to June. Quarterly downloads were up 4.3% YoY to 8.6bn, while revenue per download increased by 6.9% to $0.98.
German government adds €125m in games funding
The German government has announced plans for a major games industry funding boost. Its draft budget allocates €88m for federal games funding in 2025, rising to €125m annually from 2026 onwards.
“This decision is an important and encouraging sign that Germany is creating internationally comparable conditions and wants to catch up quickly in the competition between games locations,” said Felix Falk, managing director of Game, the German games industry association.
23% of developers have adopted D2C, says Xsolla
Almost a quarter of 115 respondents to a recent EU-based developer survey said they have implemented a direct-to-customer (D2C) strategy in their games.
The survey was conducted by 80 Level and featured in a new report from game commerce firm Xsolla.
It found that 23% of respondents have adopted D2C models, 12% were in the process of establishing one, and 63% didn’t have a D2C strategy.
A fifth of survey respondents said they received under 25% of total sales from D2C.
10% of respondents said 25-50% of their total sales came from D2C, and another 10% said 51-75% of sales were from D2C.
Respondents identified four top challenges in implementing a D2C strategy. These were customer acquisition (75% of respondents), payment processing (44%), legal regulations (25%), and developing the app or tool (19%).
Playable ads can drive 16x higher conversion rates, says Liftoff
Playable ads can deliver conversion rates up to 16 times higher than non-playable ones, according to Liftoff’s latest mobile ad creative index.
Last year, top games (by spend) averaged a 35% higher share of spend on playable ads than other games. But playable creatives generated returns across ad budgets.
For top spenders, average impression-to-install (ITI) rates for playables were eight times greater than they were for non-playable formats.
And for other advertisers, playables delivered average ITI rates that were 16 times that of non-playable creatives.
In 2024, Liftoff also recorded a significant year-over-year increase in share of spend on interactive ads for consumer apps.
The share of spend on interactive ads for its highest-spending advertisers grew by 20% last year. For those outside the top spenders, the share of spend increased by 2%.
