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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Naraka: Bladepoint Mobile was Q3’s highest earning new game
Naraka: Bladepoint was the top new mobile game based on IAP during Q3, according to Appmagic data reported by InvestGame. NetEase’s melee-focused battle royale game, which was released in China in late July, grossed $38m on the back of 8.4m installs.
Smilegate’s MMORPG Lord 9 came in at number two with $30m off of 500k installs across Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. And XD Network’s life sim Heartopia placed third with $12m following 10m installs in China. Metal Slug: Awakening ($10m), Civilization Mobile: World Origin ($10m) and Kingdom Top ($9m) rounded off the top six new releases.
Overall net revenue from IAP in Q3 came in at $14.4bn, which was down from $14.5bn in Q2, and up from $14.3bn during the same quarter in 2023.
Balatro passes $1.8m in its first month
The mobile edition of indie phenomenon Balatro has now earned developer LocalThunk and publisher Playstack over $1.8m since its launch on September 27.
According to Appmagic, the $9.99 game is racking up $30-40k per day, and is also likely earning a decent sum from the Apple Arcade edition. LocalThunk and PlayStack will get regular payments from Apple for that version of the game based on downloads and engagement.
Private market game funding was up 15% in Q3
Private market funding in gaming rose 15% quarter-to-quarter to hit $811m in Q3 2024, according to data from VC firm Konvoy Ventures, which was spotted by VentureBeat.
During the first three quarters, private market funding hit $3.74bn. That’s already 30% higher than the total for the whole of 2023, thanks largely to Disney’s $1.5bn investment into Epic Games.
The level of venture capital funding into the games industry rose by 1% quarter-to-quarter to reach $517m in Q3. $1.66bn was invested into the sector during the first three quarters, compared to $1.96bn at the same stage in 2023.
Netflix’s SpongeBob: Get Cooking and Bloons TD 6 hit 10m
Netflix may have disbanded its triple-A game team, but its casual mobile games are still racking up the downloads. Two of Netflix Games’ most popular titles passed 10m lifetime installs recently, according to Appmagic.
SpongeBob: Get Cooking was released through Netflix Games in September 2022, and has reached 10.7m lifetime downloads to date, says the data provider. Bloons TD 6 reached 10m much more quickly – it was released on Netflix in June 2023, and already has 10.3m installs.
They are the third and fourth most popular games available through Netflix, after top title GTA: San Andreas and surprise hit Storyteller.
72% of studios plan to adopt hybrid monetisation
72% of mobile game makers plan to implement or advance a hybrid monetisation strategy over the next six months, according to a survey carried out by Gamesforum in association with in-game advertising platform AdInMo.
63% of respondents said they are prioritising how to increase IAP conversions as the next biggest issue, while 49% of respondents intend to integrate immersive in-game ads.
The study found that almost twice as many respondents were able to grow their IAP revenue share (45%) this past year versus IAA (18%).
These camps were split when it came to predicting the future though, with about 38% on either side forecasting IAP or IAA will grow into a larger share of revenue next year.
In-game spending by children has fallen by 20% in Europe
Average monthly spending on in-game extras by children has fallen from €39 to €31 in Europe, according to a survey of almost 2,800 parents, which was conducted by market research firm Ipsos and spotted by gamesindustry.biz.
76% of parents claimed their children don’t spend on any in-game extras – the same percentage as in 2023, and slightly higher than in 2020 (74%).
18% of parents said their child spends money on in-game extras, while 6% were unsure. Of those that spend, 73% claimed their child spends an average of between €1-20 per month.
The most popular content to spend on impacts gameplay, like new weapons or abilities, with 38% of those spending doing so in this category. Unknown rewards, such as loot boxes, were the least popular type of content to spend on (21%).
95% of parents said they actively monitor their children’s spending, compared to 89% in 2023. 49% have an agreement with their child that they ask permission to spend, which was up from 38% a year earlier, while 27% have an agreement on spending limits, which was up from 23%.
Players aged 11-64 were also surveyed. 89% of respondents said they hadn’t spent real money on in-game currency, while 96% said they hadn’t spent on loot boxes. This was stable year-on-year for in-game currency and unchanged for loot boxes.
Delta Force: Hawk Ops tops 25m registered users in China
Tencent’s Delta Force: Hawk Ops has surpassed 25 million registered users in China following its mobile and PC release on September 26, Niko Partners reports.
The tactical FPS received mixed to positive reviews, and heavy promotion on Chinese social media platforms helped it debut atop the game download charts on iOS and Tencent’s WeGame portal.
Developed by Call of Duty Mobile and Honor of Kings maker Timi, Delta Force will release globally for PC in December, before hitting mobile and console in the first quarter of 2025.
Share of US population playing games falls below pre-Covid levels
The percentage of the US population playing video games has dropped to below pre-Covid levels, according to Circana’s latest Gamer Segmentation report.
As spotted by investor Matthew Ball, the research firm found that 71% of US consumers played video games in 2024. That’s down from 73% in 2019, the year before the pandemic hit, which resulted in a spike in player numbers.
Despite the decline, those that are playing are spending more time doing so, with average weekly playtime among US gamers increasing from 12.7 hours in 2019 to 14.5 hours in 2024.
Mobile remains the largest gaming platform in the US, attracting 65% of all consumers in 2024.
