Data digest: EA mobile down, Liftoff’s $5bn IPO, Big Fish sold, Hero Wars, Fumb, Mamboo, GDC, more

 

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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EA mobile revenue declines as Saudi sale looms

Electronic Arts reiterated that it expects its $55bn sale to Saudi Arabia’s Public investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners to close in between April and June this year as part of its Q326 reporting.

There was no earnings call as a result of that looming mega deal, but EA did report net bookings for the quarter ended December 31 2025 of $3.046bn, up 38% year-over-year. The growth was driven by Battlefield 6, EA Sports FC, FC Mobile and Apex Legends, the company said.

EA also broke out net revenue by platform, showing a year-on-year decline in mobile from $276m in Q325 to $254m in Q3 25.

Liftoff Mobile aims for $5.2bn valuation in IPO

Liftoff Mobile is aiming for a valuation of up to $5.17bn in its initial public offering in the US, Reuters reports.

The mobile ad firm, which is backed by investment giant Blackstone, is seeking to raise as much as $762m by selling 25.4m shares for between $26 and $30 each per share.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2025 Liftoff generated year-over-year core advertising revenue growth of 43%. It works with over 1,000 advertisers globally and its platform reaches approximately 1.4bn daily active users.

Aristocrat completes Big Fish sale

Aristocrat has divested certain Big Fish Games assets in three transactions that were not material for the casino firm, PocketGamer reports.

A new company called BFG Entertainment was established in October 2025 after acquiring the BigFishGames.com platform, as well as a number of its PC/Mac and mobile games. It also brought in over 30 employees as part of the deal.

Meanwhile, App Store and Google Play listings for Big Fish’s puzzle title EverMerge now come under Indian digital entertainment and tech company JetSynthesys, and 7 Hits Games is now listed as the publisher of match-3 title Gummy Drop.

An Aristocrat spokesperson said the divestments were “in line with the outcomes” of a strategic review it began in May 2024, when it announced its retreat from the casual and midcore games business.

It subsequently sold Raid: Shadow Legends maker Plarium to MTG for $620m, and last February Big Fish said it had stopped new game development and restructured around evergreen titles.

Hero Wars: Alliance hits $1bn

Mobile battler RPG Hero Wars: Alliance has surpassed $1bn in lifetime IAP revenue, Appmagic reports.

First released in 2017, Nexters’s game now ranks among the top nine team battlers by global lifetime IAP revenue.

Hero Wars has been downloaded 204.8m times, and in 2025 it ranked first in installs within the team battler category.

Fumb Games hits 21m downloads

Fumb Games’ portfolio of titles has surpassed 21m downloads, according to founder Paul West. The figure is up from 18m reported by the company in July 2025.

Founded in 2016, London, UK-based Fumb specialises in casual Bitcoin-themed games like Bitcoin Miner, Idle Mine and Blocks of Bitcoin.

“What’s great is that the games are not even live globally…yet,” West said, “Super excited for 2026 and beyond!”

Last September, Fumb Games secured $12m in UA funding from PvX Partners.

Mamboo tops $55m in lifetime revenue

Hybridcasual and casual games publisher Mamboo Entertainment claims to have surpassed $55m in lifetime revenue.

Established in 2020, the Abu Dhabi, UAE-based company says it has been profitable for the past three years, “demonstrating consistent YoY growth of 20–35% across key metrics such as revenue, profit, and user base”.

Mamboo, which has a main development hub in Warsaw, Poland, claims every six months it launches a game that earns over $10m in lifetime net profit.

My.Games acquired Mamboo for $2m in 2021, before selling it to its founding team for an undisclosed sum in 2024.

23% of developers are currently making mobile games, says GDC survey

Almost a quarter of game developers are currently making mobile titles, according to GDC’s annual State of the Game Industry survey. Having surveyed over 2,300 industry professionals, it found that 23% of respondents are developing a game for iOS and 23% are making a game for Android. That compares to 28% (iOS) and 29% (Android) of developers GDC surveyed last year, and 23% (iOS) and 24% (Android) surveyed the year before that.

PC was comfortably the top platform, with 83% of surveyed developers currently making games for it, ahead of PS5 (47%), Xbox Series X/S (40%), and Steam Deck (28%). When it comes to which platforms developers are currently most interested in, 80% of respondents said PC, followed by PS5 (40%), Steam Deck (40%), Nintendo Switch 2 (39%) and Xbox Series X/S (20%). 16% said iOS and 16% also said Android.

169 mobile game workers were also asked where they offer users the ability to purchase in-app goods. Almost three quarters (72%) said in-app platform marketplaces, over half (55%) said third party marketplaces like the App Store, and more than one third (37%) said they offered an outside website or storefront.

M7 World Championship breaks mobile esports viewership record

The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M7 World Championship has become the most-watched mobile esports event in history. That’s according to data from esports analytics and viewership platform Esports Charts reported by Esports Insider (via Niko).

Last month’s M7 World Championship, which took place in Jakarta, Indonesia, reached 5.68m peak viewers, which was 265,000 more than the 2021 Free Fire World Series, which peaked at 5.4m viewers.

The most-watched esports event ever is the 2024 League of Legends World Championship, which drew a peak of 6.8m viewers during its Grand Final.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is owned and operated by Bytedance’s Moonton. It ranked at number 16 on Appmagic’s chart of the top mobile game downloads of 2025, with 101m.

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