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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Pokémon TCG Pocket declines dent Dena financials
Japanese game-maker Dena said that revenue in its game business was down 33% year-on-year in its latest financials, driven mostly by declines in revenue from Pokémon TCG Pocket.
While revenue is down on Dena’s flagship game, MAU remains relatively steady at 23m, down from an average of 24m across the previous quarter.
AppMagic estimates suggest the game has fallen from earning roughly $40-45m per month in IAPs for most of 2025 to around $25m in the first half of 2026. The data says IAP earnings dipped further in June and July, averaging under $20m for the first time since launch in late 2024.
CrazyLabs’ Sled Surfers drives mobile growth at Embracer
The Embracer operating segment – which includes mobile alongside PC/console, distribution and retro – grew net sales 48% to $329m (SEK3,134m), while the newly separated Fellowship Entertainment segment (Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Tomb Raider, Metro) fell 23% to $85m (SEK810m).
Within the Embracer segment, the company said its mobile business kept growing in both net sales and profitability, driven by CrazyLabs’ Sled Surfers – though as with mobile generally, no standalone figures were broken out explicitly in Embracer’s reporting.
My Hero Academia: United Survival tops 1m downloads a week after launch
To mark the milestone, the studios are running a login bonus event handing out character enlistment tickets through August 31.
Record MapleStory numbers drive revenue at Nexon
The MapleStory franchise delivered a record quarter, up 63% year-on-year, while Arc Raiders passed 16.3m cumulative unit sales and generated $113m (¥18.3bn) in the quarter alone.
Citing a $5.2bn (¥842bn) cash reserve built up partly through recent investment divestitures, Nexon announced a special dividend of ¥415 per share, worth roughly $2bn (¥324bn) in total and subject to board approval in September, taking total shareholder returns since its 2011 IPO past $5.6bn (¥900bn) by the end of the year.
Shooters lead midcore genre revenue gains in Q2 says AppMagic
While downloads grew within the Strategy genre, revenue didn’t keep pace. Card Battlers’ revenue fell an estimated 50.7% despite flat install numbers, largely on the back of Pokémon TCG Pocket’s decline.
AppMagic also flagged more 4X titles – including Whiteout Survival and Puzzles & Survival – borrowing hypercasual-style event loops.
Two creative trends stood out, too; stylised AI-generated video hooks, and a growing “tycoonisation” of UA ads.
Last Asylum: Plague hits a $3.8m weekly revenue high
According to AppMagic estimates, that pushes it to sixth place in the midcore 4X Strategy market by weekly revenue – five months after launch – overtaking Puzzles & Survival ($3.5m) and Evony: The King’s Return ($3.2m).
AppMagic linked the growth to the game’s “Era of Revival” content update in mid-July, alongside a run of strong-performing ad creative that opens with an AI-generated hook tied to the game’s plot – a trend it’s also spotted in Whiteout Survival and Kingshot. Weekly installs rose to 918k even before the update landed, up 80% in just two weeks.
We first covered the game’s early momentum in April, when it had already made the “strongest start” of any title in 37Games’ 4X portfolio.
Liftoff posts $220m revenue in its first quarter since IPO
It’s the ad-tech and monetisation firm’s first earnings report since its June IPO on the Nasdaq. Liftoff guided to $217-222m in Q3 revenue and $870-880m for the full year.
