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 minus the fluff.
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Royal Match hits $6bn
Dream Games’ Royal Match has reached $6bn in user spending, with $1bn added to the total over the last four months alone, according to Appmagic estimates.
The game was released in February 2021 and overtook Candy Crush Saga in June 2023 to become the biggest revenue-generating match 3 game on a monthly basis.
This April, Royal Match revenue was 14% higher than Candy Crush’s, although the latter still leads the match 3 market in terms of lifetime revenue with $8bn. Candy Crush is followed by Gardenscapes and Homescapes at $4bn each, and Royal Match at $3.6bn.
Appmagic also notes that an increased focus on monetisation and liveops saw Royal Match’s monthly revenue per download jump 17.3% year-over-year to $15.6 in April.
Honor of Kings reclaims top grossing crown in April
Honor of Kings reclaimed its place as the world’s highest earning game in April, having last occupied the top spot back in January. Tencent’s MOBA brought in $144m (+31% month-over-month) to lead the worldwide revenue chart last month, according to Appfigures estimates.
March’s highest earner, Century Games’ Whiteout Survival, dropped to number two last month with IAP sales of $131m (-1.5% MoM), 74% of which came from the App Store.
Having topped February’s earnings chart and placed at number five in March, Funfly’s Last War moved up to number three with sales of $112m (+8.7%). It also dethroned Royal Match as the top earner on Google Play. Dream Games’ title slipped two places to number four on the combined Android and iOS chart with flat earnings of $97m month-over-month.
Scopely’s Monopoly Go also fell two places on the chart as monthly earnings dropped to $92m (-21%) following a relatively weak performance on the App Store.
Downloads for the top 10 games in April fell 25%
The 10 most downloaded games in April racked up 109m downloads, down 25% from March’s total, indicating tightened UA spending, according to Appfigures.
Hungry Studio’s Block Blast held the top spot on the chart last month with 18m downloads (-4m month-over-month), including 5m on the App Store, where it was the most installed game.
Roblox was up one place to number two with 16m downloads (-3m MoM). It also topped the Google Play rankings, with 81.3% of its total downloads coming on Android.
Sybo’s Subway Surfers, which took the top spot in January and February, fell one place to number three on April’s combined platform chart with downloads of 16m (-4m MoM).
Having entered the top 10 in March, Gametion’s Ludo King was a non-mover at number four with 16m downloads (-3m), while Garena’s Free Fire moved up three places to number five with 9m downloads (-3m).
Mobile was 16% of Ubisoft’s bookings in FY24
Mobile accounted for a relatively large proportion of Ubisoft’s net bookings in FY 2024-25, which totalled €1.85bn ($2.08bn) across all platforms, marking a 20.5% year-over-year decline.
For the 12 months ended in March, mobile generated 16% of the Assassin’s Creed publisher’s net bookings, which was up from 6% in FY 2023-24. And in Q4, which included the launch of Bump! Superbrawl, mobile accounted for 22% of net bookings, compared to 4% during the same quarter a year earlier.
The company said “Q4 was marked by significant partnerships… including a new mobile opportunity on one of its leading franchises with strong expansion potential, notably in Asia”, but it didn’t elaborate on the brand in question.
It also confirmed that long-delayed mobile entries in its Rainbow Six and The Division franchises will be released this fiscal year.
Ten Square profit jumps 53% in Q1 despite sales decline
Fishing Clash maker Ten Square Games has reported increased profitability for Q1 2025 despite a decline in bookings from its main titles.
On a year-over-year basis, quarterly revenue was down by 3.5% to PLN 96.7m ($25.6m), and bookings dropped by 9.2% to PLN 90.5m ($24m).
However, adjusted EBITDA increased by 43.1% to PLN 30.5m ($8.09m), and net profit jumped by 53.2% to PLN 27.5m ($7.29m).
GDEV reports Q1 profit, but revenue drops 9%
GDEV, the parent company of Hero Wars maker Nexters, published its Q1 results on March 31. While Q1 revenue fell 9% year-over-year to $97m, profit (net of tax) came in at $14m, compared to a loss of $5m a year earlier, driven by a 33% decrease in selling and marketing expenses year-over-year.
It also reported adjusted EBITDA of $16m, versus a loss of $0.9m in Q1 2024.
TaleMonster Games raises $7m
TaleMonster Games has secured $7m in seed funding. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from a16z speedrun, Arcadia Gaming Partners, and Ludus Ventures.
The casual gaming company was founded last year and its first title is match 3 hero puzzle game Match Valley.
Ex-Belka Games leaders raise $3.6m for new studio
New mobile games outfit Studio 42 has raised $3.6m in a seed funding round led by Play Ventures, with participation from GEM Capital and Arcadia Gaming Partners.
The Cyprus-based studio was co-founded by CEO Aleksandr Bogdanov, COO Ivan Larionov and CPO Pavel Sudakov. They previously served as CEO, head of development, and head of R&D respectively, at Solitaire Cruise maker Belka Games.
Studio 42 plans to use the funding to accelerate development of its debut title, which combines classic puzzle mechanics with a modern hybridcasual approach.
Mobile publisher Brightika plans $3m console and PC expansion
Brightika is moving into the PC and console space with a planned investment of up to $3m over the next 12 to 24 months, Mobidictum reports. The Virginia, US-based firm plans to fund and support indie games by offering developers strategic marketing, publishing operations and product support.
The company’s mobile games, which include breakout successes like IQ Boost, Can You Spot It, and Will It Crush, have collectively reached almost 200m installs.
Midcore games account for 50% of top earning titles
Appfigures has published a new report analysing the state of the mobile games market in 2025, based on a custom classification of the top 1,000 earning mobile games globally last year.
Among the key takeaways, it found that midcore games accounted for 50% of the highest earning titles, ahead of casual games (32%), casino titles (11%) and sports and driving games (7%).
RPGs lead the way, making up 33.7% of the top 1,000 revenue-generating mobile titles. Puzzle games were last year’s biggest genre in the casual category and the second largest overall, accounting for 16.3% of the top earning mobile games.
Eight of the top 10 games released in 2024 by player spending came from China, with the other two originating from Japan.
The runaway leader with close to $1bn in spending was Dungeon & Fighter: Origins from Tencent, which was also comfortably 2024’s highest earning publisher.
The report also names the markets with the highest year-over-year growth and declines in player spending in 2024. Spending gains were led by Brazil (+47.3% to $574m), Mexico (+47.1% to $345m) and Poland (+42.4% to $330m).
The biggest declines occurred in Singapore (-19% to $291m), Malaysia (-17.5% to $286m) and Hong Kong (-15.7% to $779m).
Elsewhere, the full report delves into the impact of IP crossover events, identifies the top apps used by mobile gamers, and reveals which ad networks are most prevalent among top titles.
