There’s a deluge of new data and research to wade through in the mobile games business. Our regular data digest 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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Hypercasual downloads fell 12% in Q3
Downloads for hypercasual titles dropped by 12% between Q2 and Q3 of this year, according to Appmagic. Year-on-year there was a similar percentage decline, too. For Q3, the genre reached almost 2.99bn downloads.
Supercent’s Pizza Ready was the most downloaded hypercasual game, ahead of Wood Screw Puzzle and Hole.io.
Offline Games passes 100m installs
Surprise summertime hit Offline Games from indie developer JindoBlu has just passed 100m lifetime downloads, according to Appmagic.
After racking up around 4-5m downloads per month since the start of 2024, the game exploded in July, when it topped download charts worldwide and generated an estimated 34.6m downloads in a month. Downloads have declined sharply since, but Offline Games is still one of the surprise hits of the year, and racked up around 13.7m installs in September.
Wuthering Waves clears $150m in just over four months
Pocketgamer.biz reports that Kuro Games’ Wuthering Waves has earned over $150m since its release in late May, according to Appmagic estimates. The free-to-play, open-world action RPG with gacha elements has generated 23% of its earnings from Japan, 23% from China, 17% from South Korea, and 15% from the US.
Twerk Race 3D hits 200m downloads
Twerk Race 3D has topped 200m downloads since its release in September 2021, according to Miami-based hypercasual firm Freeplay. Its games, which also include Count Masters and Fidget Toys Trading, passed 1.5 billion downloads earlier this year, and it was among the top 20 publishers by downloads during the first half of 2024.
Future Run secures second Supercell-led funding round
Future Run has completed a second funding round, GamesIndustry.biz reports. The investment was once again led by fellow Finnish company Supercell, which initially backed the startup last year.
The studio, which was formed by the minds behind Big Bang Racing, plans to use the funding to grow its team and accelerate development of its debut title, a multiplayer team sports game called Riot Ball. The total sum raised was not disclosed, but we’ve asked Future Run for more detail.
Gaming advertising accounts for 3.6% of US digital ad spend
Gaming advertising accounts for 3.62% of every dollar in US digital ad spend, according to Sensor Tower’s State of Digital Advertising 2024 report.
From September 2023 to August 2024, the US gaming advertising spend totalled $3.37bn. This was down 9% – more than any other of the top 10 tracked categories – from $3.71bn during the previous 12 months.
Sensor Tower found that core gamers are largely male (74.3%) and under the age of 35 (67.2%). They are more likely to see ad impressions on TikTok, YouTube, Reddit or Twitter.
Casual gamers are primarily female (66.3%) and aged 35+ (63.8%). They are easier to reach on Facebook or Twitter.
Hypercasual gamers are also mainly female (62.4%) and most are aged 35+ (59.1%). They are more likely to see ad impressions on Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat or TikTok.
Castle Duels tops 1m installs
Tower defence game Castle Duels has surpassed one million installs since its beta release in July, according to My Games, which launched the iOS and Android title globally this week.
Puzzle is the top genre for US players of all ages
Puzzle is the most popular mobile games genre in the US in 2024, ahead of action and strategy titles, according to Xsolla’s latest State of Play report.
An average of over 20% of all age groups chose puzzle titles as their preferred genre, including 30% of players aged 55+, 29% of players aged 18-34, and 21% of players aged 35-64.
Action games were almost as popular as puzzle titles among gamers aged 35-64, with 18% of players in this demographic favouring the genre. However, far fewer players aged 18-34 (9%) and 55+ (6%) identified action as their preferred genre.
Xsolla’s report also notes that multiplayer games consistently achieve the longest session lengths, even among the bottom quarter of titles.
In Q1 2024, multiplayer games and casino titles were the only genres where the top quarter of games had average session lengths greater than 15 minutes, with most genre medians falling between 4 and 9 minutes.
Mobile ecommerce sales projected to top $2.5tn in 2024
Mobile ecommerce sales are forecast to exceed $2.5tn globally for the first time in 2024, according to a new report from advertising platform AppLovin.
The figure would mark a 16% increase over 2023, and account for 60% of total ecommerce sales.
Worldwide mobile advertising spend is projected to rise 11% year-on-year to $400bn, with the US accounting for over half of the total.
The report also suggests that customers acquired through in-app ads are more engaged than those acquired through other channels like social media.
In the US, mobile in-app advertising is expected to grow to $165.88bn this year, accounting for 81.9% of the total mobile ad spend.
