Our data digest column breaks down the latest data, research and financial results into digestible chunks.
Read on for the numbers you need to know about minus the fluff.
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Hill Climb Racing hits 2.5bn
Fingersoft’s Hill Climb Racing games have a combined 2.5bn installs, “making it the world’s most downloaded racing game series”, according to the Finnish developer.
The physicsy arcade racing franchise launched in September 2012 with Hill Climb Racing, which was followed by Hill Climb Racing 2 in November 2016. Currently played by over 50m people every month, the series reached 1bn downloads in April 2018 and 2bn in April 2022. Spin-off Lego Hill Climb Adventures was released in May, while Hill Climb Racing 3 is “well into development”.
November’s ad charts
Matchington’s Braindom: Brain Games Test was the most advertised game on iOS in November, ahead of Scopely’s Monopoly Go and Habby’s Archero 2, according to marketing data firm SocialPeta.
The top three advertised titles on Android were Vita Studio’s Vita Mahjong, Braindom: Brain Games Test, and Oakever’s Jigsawscapes.
Apple reveals its most downloaded games of 2024
Apple has published its annual iOS download charts, revealing the top free and paid games of 2024 across iPhone and iPad in the US:
Top Free Games
- Block Blast
- Monopoly Go
- Roblox
- Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile
- Township
- Last War:Survival
- Royal Match
- Brawl Stars
- Subway Surfers
- My Perfect Hotel
Top Paid Games
- Minecraft: Play with Friends
- Heads Up
- Geometry Dash
- Papa’s Freezeria To Go
- Bloons TD 6
- Five Nights at Freddy’s
- Plague Inc.
- Monopoly: The Board Game
- Stardew Valley
- Red’s First Flight
Hybridcasual launch costs and retention stats revealed
Meta and Deconstructor of Fun have released a new report digging into the costs of launching and operating hybridcasual games, and how their player retention rates stack up against hypercasual games.
Between $610k and $1.83m is required to launch a hybridcasual game, the report says. These costs cover a proof of concept phase lasting 1-3 months, and 3-6 months in both pre-production and production.
In terms of post-launch support, the cost of live service operations starts at $100k per month and a typical game requires a monthly marketing spend of between $50k and $3m.
Successful hybridcasual games should be aiming for 40% retention on day one, 20% retention at day 15 and 10% at day 30.
According to Sensor Tower data, hybridcasual games generated 5.9bn downloads and $1.5bn in revenue from in-app purchases in 2023.
Mini Games: Calm and Relax nears 60m downloads
Galaxy Top Games’ Android hit Mini Games: Calm and Relax has reached 59.5m downloads since its release in August, according to data from Appmagic. The hypercasual game’s biggest markets have been Brazil, which accounts for 11% of downloads, followed by the USA (9%), Indonesia (9%) and India (8%).
Its top competitors by monthly installs are Tik Tap Challenge with 9.5m downloads, followed by Mob Control with 6.7m, Hunter Assassin with 5.6m, Prison Survival: Tap Challenge with 5.3m and Going Balls with 5m.
South Korea now the fourth largest mobile gaming market
South Korea’s mobile game market has generated $6.77bn in 2024, making it the fourth largest globally behind the US, China and Japan, according to an in-depth report from Adjoe, Statista and Airbridge. Growing at a 12.25% CAGR, the market is expected to reach $8.6bn in 2028.
Almost 24m of South Korea’s 51m population (46%) are mobile gamers, and 800,000 new players are entering the market each year. The report notes that South Korea has a rapidly aging population, with the 55+ group accounting for over 39% of its total, suggesting there’s “a growing market opportunity for older (and higher-spending) users”.
RPGs generated 47% ($3.17bn) of total mobile gaming revenue in South Korea this year, with 80-90% coming from IAPs. The next highest earning genres were strategy games, which brought in revenues of $716.6m, and casual games, which generated $296.7m. Casual games are the most popular genre by downloads with 177m in 2024, ahead of RPGs with 133m and strategy games with 70m.
