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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US mobile games revenue rose 12% in June
Game Dev Reports broke down a recent Circana report that estimated that the US games market was worth $4.6bn in June, a 5% decline year-on-year. The US mobile market grew by 12% in June, but that growth could not offset the 26% drop in console game sales.
The biggest mobile games in June were Monopoly Go, Royal Match and Roblox. The latter saw a 15% increase in revenue month-on-month, while downloads for the platform rose 22%.
Revenue up 31% for Roblox in Q2
Roblox reported $893.5m in revenue for its second quarter. That’s a 31% increase year-on-year, while bookings clocked in at $955.2m, a 22% rise. The company reported adjusted 79.5m daily active users, a 21% increase, while average monthly unique payers reached 16.5m. That’s up 22% year-on-year, while the average amount these players spent was $19.34.
18% of gamers agreed to app tracking in Q2
Gamers on iOS are increasingly likely to opt into app tracking transparency, according to research from Singular. The firm reports that over 18% agreed to ATT when asked, compared to around 12% on non-gaming apps. The gap was just 1% in Q4 2023, but increased to 4.1% in Q1 of this year before rising to 6.67% for Q2.
People playing music games were the most likely to opt into ATT. 35% of these users agreed to app transparency, the largest portion of any genre by at least 10%. Second place went to adventure games with just under 25%.
Whiteout Survival surpasses $1bn in revenue
4X strategy title Whiteout Survival has generated over $1bn in gross revenue. That’s according to Sensor Tower, which reports that the game took 17 months to hit this milestone.
It’s also the third mobile title that came out in 2023 to reach the landmark, following in the footsteps of Monopoly Go and Honkai: Star Rail. The game’s top market was the US, which has driven 35% of revenue.
BitKraft leads games VC chart with $44m
VC firm BitKraft has invested the most in early-stage funding for games companies, according to InvestGame. The organisation has committed $44m across nine pre-seed and seed stage rounds; in seven of these deals, BitKraft was the lead investor. A16z Games, meanwhile, has taken part in nine rounds but only invested $36m.
Mobile accounts for 68.4% of East Asian games revenue
Niko Partners reports that mobile makes up a 68.4% slice of revenue in the East Asian games market. The data firm’s East Asia Market Model Report – covering Japan and Korean – shows that this sector generated $20.6bn during 2023, though this is expected to drop by 2.9% to $20bn in 2024.
Q224 saw 52 M&A deals, says Drakestar
DrakeStar data shows that there were 52 M&A deals during Q2 2024. These tallied up to $3.5bn in value; of these mergers and acquisitions, 15% were for mobile games companies and 46% were for European firms.
The number of private financing deals fell 9% year-on-year to 181 in Q2. These raised $783m and predominantly have been focused on early stage financing. Of that figure, mobile raised around $100m across 27 deals.
Games consumer spending hit $19.7bn in Q2
New research from Sensor Tower shows that consumers spent $19.7bn on mobile games in the second quarter of 2024. That’s a 4% increase year-on-year, lower than the 11.7% overall increase for all apps. 54% of consumer spending on mobile came from games, too.
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The bulk of consumer spending for games is taking place on iOS still; $12.9bn was spent on Apple’s platform, a 7% increase year-on-year. Over on Google Play, consumers parted with $6.84bn, a 1.8% decrease. Finally, game downloads came in at 12.6bn, a 6% decline year-on-year.
Liftoff and SocialPeta’s CPI breakdown
South Korea has the most expensive CPI for Chinese games firms. That’s according to a new report from SocialPeta and Liftoff, which shows that this companies need to pay $8.02 per install, coming in ahead of the USA with $7.68. The research says that these regions come with a high upfront cost, but this is important to building user loyalty.
On average, the most expensive CPI is for iOS in North America. This stands at a massive $8.19, compared to $3.51 on Android.
When it comes to advertising Chinese games, video advertising has a lower CPI compared to other mediums. Video ads cost $3.81 per install on average, well below other avenues. It’s also got a low average cost per action after downloads at just $0.10. Banner ads boast the highest CPA at $1.87, while interstitial ads have the highest CPI at $6.20.
Overall, cost per install for Android games has dropped by 8%. The most expensive genre for CPI on Google’s platform is casino at $5.36, while card games came in at $3.58. Over on iOS, CPI has risen by 6%. Despite this, the most expensive genre on the platform – family – saw its cost drop from north of $12 to $7.32. Board games also fell from $9.80 to $6.94.
