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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Fortnite maker Epic lays off 1,000 staff
Epic is laying off a thousand staff because it is ‘spending significantly more than it is making’, according to a note from Tim Sweeney sent to all Epic staff this week. Epic will also be making $500m in cost savings from ending some contracting and marketing arrangements and closing open staff roles, said Sweeney.
The layoffs aren’t related to AI, Sweeney added, and he also seemed to reference the expensive court battles Epic has engaged in with Apple and Google in the six years since Fortnite was kicked off the app stores:
“We’re only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the industry’s vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.”
February’s top grossing games in the US
According to Sensor Tower data shared by research firm Circana, the top 10 mobile games by US consumer spend in February (plus their rank change compared to January) were:
1. Monopoly Go (-)
2. Last War: Survival (+1)
3. Royal Match (-1)
4. Candy Crush Saga (-)
5. Gossip Harbor (-)
6. Kingshot (-)
7. Whiteout Survival (-)
8. Township (+1)
9. Pokémon Go (+8)
10. Royal Kingdom (-2)
While much was unchanged from January, Pokémon Go broke back into the top ten with 61% revenue growth month-over-month, while Free Fire slipped out of it.
Sensor Tower insights analyst Bryan Isagholian said the Pokémon Go spike “is likely due to the Road to Kalos event being launched late February”, and he expects an increase in daily revenue into early March.
US consumer spending on video game content across all platforms in February was flat year-over-year at $4bn. Non-mobile subscription content revenue was up 27% compared to a year earlier, offsetting declines across other segments.
Kingshot hits $1bn
Century Games’ Kingshot has reached $1bn in user spending since its release last February, Appmagic reports.
According to its data, the game has earned Century Games $605m in lifetime revenue, with the rest of the $1bn spend going on taxes and app store fees. The game also has 82m lifetime downloads and a global RPD of $7.35, says Appmagic.
The 4X strategy title now accounts for 13% of Century’s total portfolio revenue, behind only Whiteout Survival.
Appfigures recently reported that Kingshot reached $500m in net revenue (after fees) in its first 11 months, three months faster than Whiteout Survival hit the milestone.
Appmagic ranks the top five 4X strategy games by lifetime revenue as Last War: Survival ($3bn), Whiteout Survival ($2.8bn), Three Kingdoms Tactics ($2.7bn), Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade ($2.5bn), and Lords Mobile: Kingdom Wars ($2.4bn).
Playstack pre-tax profit jumps 59%
UK indie publisher Playstack says its full-year profit before tax increased 59% YoY to reach £12.2m (≈$16.28m) in 2025.
Among its operational highlights, Playstack noted the “ongoing popularity” of Balatro’s mobile version, which it called “one of the highest performing premium mobile titles of 2025”.
The London-based publisher of titles including Abiotic Factor, Mortal Shell, The Case of the Golden Idol and Balatro said its games recorded 20m new installs and over 150m hours played last year.
Match 3 dominates list of top-earning puzzle subgenres
Match 3 accounted for 53% of IAP revenue generated by puzzle games between last February and February 2026, according to Appmagic data.
Puzzle games earned $9.5bn during this timeframe, and racked up 12bn downloads, with match 3 titles contributing $5.1bn and 885m.
The merge subgenre was a distant second place with $1.9bn in IAP revenue (+58% YoY) and 641m downloads (+7%), with earnings “largely driven” by Microfun’s Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story.
Match 2 blast games followed with $506m in earnings (+2% YoY) and 66m downloads (-28%). Almost two thirds of the subgenre’s revenue comes from Peak’s Toon Blast.
Appmagic previously reported that puzzle was the third highest grossing genre of 2025, trailing RPG and the overall leader strategy.
Farm Heroes Saga surpasses $2bn
Farm Heroes Saga VP Trevor Burrows told PocketGamer the game has topped $2bn in lifetime revenue. The match 3 title was conceived by King’s London studio and launched in 2014.
“It was the first UK-developed game to reach $1bn in lifetime revenue, and it continues to do really well,” Burrows said. “In fact, now we’re over $2bn in lifetime revenue and we have around 50 million players around the world playing the game.”
Last year, we reported that practically half of the Farm Heroes Saga team were being made redundant, with the cuts affecting around 50 people.
Glow Fashion Idol hits 20m downloads
Glow Fashion Idol has attracted 20m players, according to developer and publisher CrazyLabs. Players take on the role of a fashion stylist in the simulation game, which officially launched worldwide in December 2024. It has ranked among the top five revenue generating mobile games in each of Embracer’s last four financial quarters.
