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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Honor of Kings leads midcore games by Q1 revenue
Honor of Kings was the top earning mobile game worldwide in Q1 2026, meaning it was also the highest earner in the midcore segment, Appmagic reports.
Tencent’s game made $471m in IAP revenue during the first three months of the year, including an all-time monthly revenue high of $188m in January.
Last War Survival placed second on the Q1 midcore earnings chart with $381m in revenue, which was down 12% YoY.
In third place was PUBG Mobile, which saw IAP revenue jump 128% QoQ to hit $353m, driven by a major eighth anniversary update.
Rounding off the top five are Whiteout Survival with $326m (-18% YoY) and Roblox with $269m (-11% YoY).
The rest of the top 10 included Kingshot ($233m), Delta Force ($144m), Last Z Survival Shooter ($131m), MapleStory: Idle RPG ($129m) and Pokémon Go ($119m).
Pokémon TCG Pocket nears $1.5bn revenue, hits 100m downloads
Pokémon TCG Pocket has earned $1.49bn and surpassed 100m downloads since its global launch on October 30, 2024.
That’s according to data from Sensor Tower, which says the game is already the top grossing mobile card battler of all time, ahead of 2014 release Hearthstone ($1.33bn) and 2016 release Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links ($1.04bn).
In 2025, Pokémon TCG Pocket was the third highest earning IP-based title with $0.99bn in IAP revenue.
It came in behind Monopoly Go ($2.02bn) and Honor of Kings ($2.01bn), but ahead of Pokémon Go ($0.77bn) and Call of Duty Mobile ($0.61bn).
Among all Pokémon titles on mobile, Pokémon Go accounts for 53.7% of total IAP revenue generated by the IP so far in 2026.
It leads the way ahead of Pokémon TCG Pocket (36.6%), with Pokémon Sleep (3.7%) a distant third.
Royal Kingdom tops casual games by Q1 revenue
Appmagic has published a list of the top 10 casual games by IAP revenue in Q1 2026.
Dream’s puzzle game Royal Match retained the top spot, despite earnings falling 21% YoY to $312m. Downloads were also down 21% to 16m.
Scopely’s Monopoly Go was another non-mover in second place, with revenue of $294m (-9% YoY) and 9m downloads (-8% YoY).
Microfun’s Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story was up four places to third on the chart as revenue rose by 172% YoY and 6% QoQ to reach $270m. Downloads were up 74% YoY to 22m.
King’s Candy Crush Saga was up next with $263m (-7% YoY) in earnings and 23m downloads (-20% YoY), ahead of Moon Active’s Coin Master with $173m (-13% YoY) and 8m installs (-17% YoY).
Heartopia tops 30m downloads
Life simulation game Heartopia has surpassed 30m downloads, according to its publisher XD Games.
The cosy multiplayer title officially launched on January 7, 2026, for iOS, Android and PC, and it was one of that month’s most downloaded mobile games.
Tencent leads publishers by revenue in Q1
Appmagic’s top 10 publishers by mobile games IAP revenue chart once again has Tencent as the clear frontrunner in Q1.
Driven by the return to growth of flagship titles like Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile, it earned $1.6bn in the first three months of the year – up 15% QoQ and almost 2.5× that of its nearest competitor. Its games were downloaded 199m times.
Fellow Chinese publisher Century Games held second place on the list with $651m in revenue, which was up 49% YoY, and almost stabilising QoQ. It saw downloads jump 20% QoQ and 77% YoY.
Türkiye’s Dream Games earned $425m in Q1, which was relatively stable QoQ and YoY. Its downloads increased by 28% QoQ and 53% YoY, with Royal Kingdom installs 1.5x higher than Royal Match’s in March.
Ireland’s Playrix was in fourth place with revenue of $388m. Its portfolio of games, which include Township, Fishdom, Homescapes and Gardenscapes, racked up 50m downloads.
Singapore-based Funfly rounded off the top five with $385m in earnings. The Last War: Survival maker hit 24m downloads in Q1.
Mobile games spending rose to $6.7bn in March
Consumer spending on mobile games through the App Store and Google Play hit $6.7bn in March, according to Sensor Tower estimates.
Global spending was up 2% MoM, with the US accounting for 31% of total revenue, ahead of China (iOS only) at 15.4% and Japan at 12.1%.
Last War Survival retained the top spot on the revenue chart in March. Honor of Kings was also a non-mover in second place, while Whiteout Survival moved up to number three.
Global downloads increased 9% MoM to reach 3.8bn in March. India accounted for 616m downloads (16.6%), ahead of the US (7.2%) and Indonesia (6.8%).
Block Blast held the top spot as the month’s most downloaded mobile game, while Free Fire moved up one place to second, swapping places with Roblox.
eFootball clears 1bn downloads
Konami’s eFootball has surpassed 1bn downloads worldwide, the Japanese publisher says. It’s celebrating the milestone with daily login bonuses, a limited-time event inspired by the Master League mode from the Pro Evolution series. and a manga serialisation.
Following its initial PC and console release in September 2021, eFootball launched for mobile in June 2022. It was one of the top 25 IAP earners in 2024, generating over $300m.
135 games topped $100m in IAP revenue in 12 months
135 mobile games surpassed $100m in IAP revenue between December 2024 and November 2025, Sensor Tower reports.
These titles generated a combined $50.8bn during the 12-month period. Strategy games accounted for nearly $15bn, and strategy and puzzles titles made up half the total.
Strategy games also accounted for almost half of the total gains among games that generated over $50m in revenue growth in the year to November 2025.
