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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February’s top mobile games, according to Sensor Tower
Valentine’s day live ops boosted LastWar to the summit of the top grossing charts in February, says Sensor Tower.
Tencent’s Game for Peace – China’s version of PUBG Mobile – also has a good month after lunar new year and valentine’s day events plus a major Ferrari collab. Pokémon Go grew significantly month-on-month too, thanks to the success of its latest Go Tour event and Go pass.
“Global consumer spending on mobile games across the App Store and Google Play reached $6.55 billion in February, down 8% month-over-month,” Sensor Tower added. “The United States led with 30% of total revenue, followed by China (iOS only) at 17.2% and Japan at 12.1%.”
Peak, Fugo and Zynga alumni Vento Games raise $4m
Makers Fund and Arcadia Gaming Partners have co-led a $4m round of funding for Turkish studio Vento Games. Based in Istanbul, Vento is working on the newly-released word puzzler Blossom Word Search and other “charming, brain-building mobile puzzle games”.
Vento was founded in June 2024 by former Peak, Fugo and Zynga execs who have previously worked on hits like Words of Wonders and Okey Plus. The founding team includes CEO Mustafa Dağlı, CTO Onur Aydınay, development lead Emir Bilgin and art director Murat Turan.
Vita Mahjong tops January’s ad charts
Vita Mahjong was the most heavily advertised game on both iOS and Android for the seventh month running in January, according to ad intelligence platform SocialPeta.
Vita Studio’s tile matching puzzle game led the iOS chart ahead of Oakever Games’ Zen Word, Nexon’s MapleStory: Idle RPG, Oakever’s Tile Explorer, and GameTree’s Dragon Traveler.
On Android, Tile Explorer and Nebula’s Mahjong Blast: Wonders took the number two and number three spots respectively, while Hungry’s Block Blast and Zen Word rounded off the top five.
SocialPeta said Arknights: Endfield boosted its user acquisition efforts with over 16,000 ad creatives across iOS and Android in January, at a cost of more than $174m.
Jest lands $7m to build message games marketplace
Jest Games has announced plans to build a new marketplace for messaging games, backed by $7m in seed funding led by Innovation Endeavors.
Promising “frictionless, no-download gameplay designed for high retention and scale”, it has also revealed the Jest Games Fund, which will provide up to $1m per game published on its platform.
“As millions of mobile apps and games compete for new users amid a decline in app store downloads and soaring acquisition costs, it’s increasingly clear that the app store business model is outdated,” said Jest CEO and co-founder Deyan Vitanov.
“Messaging is the first open, global distribution channel to offer developers a fundamentally new distribution and engagement model. Messaging fundamentally reshapes the retention curve by meeting players where they already are – in their text threads.”
Grow a Garden was Roblox’s top grossing game in 2025
Grow a Garden reportedly made over $150m on Roblox last year to top a list of the platform’s highest-earning games of 2025. That’s based on data from Roblox analytics and insights platform Creator Games.
Steal a Brainrot was Grow a Garden’s closest competitor with over $90m in earnings, followed by Blox Fruits with $68.4m, Rivals with $67.7m, and 99 Nights in the Forest with $48.5m.
Creator Games says half of all earnings on Roblox last year went to games released in 2025, although 63 of the highest earners were also in the top 100 in 2024.
Peacekeeper Elite tops 90m DAU during Chinese New Year
Tencent’s Peacekeeper Elite – China’s version of PUBG Mobile – hit 90m DAU on Chinese New Year’s Eve, reports Nadianshi via Niko Partners.
The mobile battle royale game’s UGC-focused mode, World of Wonder, also attracted a record 58m DAU, significantly higher than the 33m recorded during the 2025 National Day holiday last October.
The spike in user numbers coincided with the launch of the game’s 2026 Spring Festival update, which featured traditional Chinese New Year elements and Silk Road motifs.
Sega Football Club Champions 2026 hits 2m downloads
Sega Football Club Champions 2026 has reached 2m downloads since its release on January 22, according to its publisher.
Available on mobile, PlayStation and PC, it is a new, westernised edition of the long-running Japanese football management series Let’s Make A Soccer Team.
