There’s a deluge of new data and research to wade through in the mobile games business. Our regular data drop column breaks it all down into digestible chunks.
Read on for the numbers you need to know about minus the fluff.
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Roblox Q4 bookings hit $1bn, shares surge
Roblox just reported a strong set of Q4 financials, with Q4 net bookings of $1.13bn, a new record that beat city expectations. Its shares were up 15% before the bell as a result.
Adjusted EBITDA for the period was $259.6m, beating analysts’ expectations of $191.2m, and average DAU rose 22% to 71.5m.
Monopoly Go tops Q3 iPhone spend in the US
Data.ai published the top 20 earning iPhone games of Q3 in the US within its recent look at ‘fail-state ads’:
Monopoly Go, Royal Match and Candy Crush Saga led a familiar-looking top ten, with data.ai noting that half of the top 20 above used ‘fail ads’ in their UA.
Honkai: Star Rail hits 100m downloads, adds Vision Pro support
Mihoyo says Honkai: Star Rail has passed 100m downloads across PC, PS5, iOS and Android. Appmagic says ~40m of that is mobile.
The announcement was made just as v2.0 of the game dropped, adding a host of new content and even Apple Vision Pro compatibility.
Free Fire maker Garena passes $6bn
Appmagic ran the numbers on Free Fire maker Garena International and estimated that the Free Fire maker has now passed $6bn in lifetime user spend.
That figure is mostly Free Fire, of course, though Garena’s version of Honor of Kings/Arena of Valor, Garena RoV: RoV Day, has also contributed a decent amount to the total, despite only being released in 10 Asian markets (Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam generating the most revenue). Free Fire MAX (~$345m lifetime) and its Asia-only edition of COD: Mobile (~$163m lifetime) also contributed to the $6bn total.
Apple services earnings under the spotlight
The App Economy Insights X feed had a nice visualisation of just how much Apple is earning from its services division, which raked in $23bn in Q4. It’s more than Netflix, Mastercard, Spotify, EA, Peloton, The New York Times and Dropbox combined:
Apple’s services revenue is driven mostly by iCloud storage subscriptions and, of course, the 30% cut Apple gets from App Store IAPs.
Stillfront profits and revenue down, DTC bookings now 29%
Swedish roll-up group Stillfront posted its Q4 financials yesterday, noting that 29% of its bookings were direct to consumer – payments made outside of Apple and Google’s IAP ecosystem, in other words.
Net revenue was down YOY by 2% to 1742m SEK (~$166m) and profitability as measured by EBITDA declined 19% to 531m SEK (~$51m).
It also said profit before tax was down YOY from 214m SEK (~$20m) to 35m SEK (~$3m), and it had cut staff from 1589 to 1401 YOY.
The launch of Goodgame’s Sunshine Island as a bright spot, however.
Nitro Games gets €3.5m boost for Warframe Mobile
Finnish studio Nitro Games has had a cash injection of €3.5m to continue development on Warframe Mobile, which is expected to launch sometime this year.
Digital Turbine invests $10m in Korean One Store
Marketing and distribution firm Digital Turbine is investing $10m in Korea’s second-largest app marketplace, One Store.
The deal means Digital Turbine’s optimised app install tech is available on the over 40m devices in Korea that have the One Store installed.
The two companies are also now looking at expanding into new markets “in the near future”.
Combined Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt market to hit $2.65bn by 2027
Niko Partners estimates that the ‘MENA-3’ market (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt) will be worth $2.65bn by 2027. It estimates the market size for 2023 as $1.92bn, which was up 7.8% YOY.
Mobile dominates in the region, with 87.2% of gamers playing on iOS and Android.
Runescape maker Jagex set for £900m sale
As spotted by gamesindustry.biz, Sky News reports that private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is in advanced talks to buy Runescape maker Jagex in a deal worth about £900m.
CVC has notable stakes in various sports properties, so a move for a gaming firm represents an expansion of its remit.
