Our data digest column breaks 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 $5bn
Appmagic estimates suggest that Dream Games’ match 3 monster Royal Match has now generated over $5bn in lifetime consumer spend.
As in the infographic above, the data provider says it has also racked up 325m downloads, and currently has a global revenue per download average of $9.46. Gender split for the game is 38% male and 62% female, Appmagic estimates.
Genshin Impact maker fined $20m over loot box practices
The company behind Genshin Impact has agreed to pay a $20m fine and to stop selling loot boxes to children under 16 without parental consent in order to settle charges brought against it by the US Federal Trade Commission.
The consumer protection agency alleges that Singapore-based Cognosphere (which trades in the US as HoYoverse) is deploying “dark-pattern tactics” to deceive players about the true costs of in-game transactions and their chances of obtaining sought-after prizes, and that it has violated a children’s privacy law.
The settlement will also require Cognosphere to offer an option to purchase loot boxes directly with real money rather than just with virtual currency, to disclose loot box odds and exchange rates for multi-tiered virtual currency, and to delete personal information collected from children under 13 unless they obtain parental consent to keep it.
Is Apple’s App Store operating at a 75% profit margin?
Apple has denied claims that it has a 75% profit margin on its App Store, the Financial Times reports. Testifying at a UK class action trial, in which the company stands accused of abusing an app store monopoly to reap exorbitant returns, CFO Kevan Parekh said it was impossible to accurately assess the standalone profitability of the marketplace because Apple “cannot allocate all indirect costs to specific products or services”.
While “it’s possible to do a directional estimate” of App Store operating margins, “it can’t be meaningfully estimated in an accurate way”, he claimed. The implication of Apple’s stance was that the store’s profitability “can’t be scrutinised”, according to barrister and class representative Michael Armitage.
Golf Clash has reached 100m players – or has it?
Golf Clash has attracted 100m players since its release in 2017, according to EA. That’s up from 80m global downloads reported by the company when it acquired the game’s UK-based developer Playdemic from Warner Bros. for $1.4bn back in June 2021.
That data didn’t tally with figures from Warner, which said just before the sale to EA was announced that the game had reached 90m downloads. For its part, Appmagic suggests the game has been downloaded 72.4m times and earned $937m in lifetime revenue.
DnF Mobile nears $2.5bn
DnF Mobile has generated almost $2.5bn in gross revenue since its release in May 2024, according to Niko Partners. The beat ’em up, which is published by Tencent and based on Nexon’s Dungeon & Fighter franchise, placed second on China’s top 20 iOS game revenue list for 2024, behind Honor of Kings.
It was one of five new titles to enter the top 20, the others being Love and Deepspace at 10, Whiteout Survival at 14, Three Kingdoms: Conquer the World at 17 and Zombie Boom at 19.
Pokémon TCG Pocket and Clash of Clans revenues spike
GameRefinery’s December update includes details on US revenue spikes for Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket and Clash of Clans on iOS.
According to its data, daily revenue generated by Pokémon TCG Pocket rocketed by over 470% on December 17. The spike coincided with the release of the game’s Mythical Island expansion, which introduced over 80 new cards alongside several fresh single-player missions.
Clash of Clans also saw a spike of more than 200% in daily revenue on the US iOS market on November 25, driven by the launch of its Town Hall 17 update, which added a new hero and a new Hero Hall building, among other features.
Private market game funding leapt 58% in 2024
Private market funding in gaming jumped 58% year-over-year to reach $4.54bn in 2024, driven by Disney’s $1.5bn investment into Epic Games, according to data from VC firm Konvoy Ventures.
Private market funding in Q4 totalled $571m, which was down 45% quarter-over-quarter, but up 10% year-over-year.
The level of VC funding into the games industry fell 15% year-over-year to $1.97bn. There were 446 VC deals last year, compared to 517 in 2023.
For Q4, VC funding totalled $286m, which was down 47% quarter-over-quarter and 19% year-over-year.
UA and monetisation platform Metica raises $9m
User acquisition and monetisation platform Metica has announced a $9m seed round. The London-based company is the latest venture from co-founders Phil Mohr (CEO) and Puli Liyanagama (CTO), whose previous startups include Comufy and DataTiger, which went on to be acquired by King and Apple respectively.
The funding round was led by VC firms Play Ventures, 13books, and Firstminute Capital, with participation from angel investors including King founder and ex-CEO Riccardo Zacconi, Trailmix CEO Caro Krenzer, Phoenix Games CEO Klaas Kersting, Deconstructor of Fun founder Michail Katkoff, FGS Global chairman Roland Rudd, ex-Dentsu CEO Nigel Morris and Moonbug Entertainment founder René Rechtman.
Monopoly Go and Vita Mahjong top December’s ad charts
Monopoly Go was the most advertised game on iOS in December, according to marketing data firm SocialPeta. Scopely’s game came in ahead of Matchington’s Braindom, which topped November’s chart, and Kidding Box’s Riddle Test Brain Teaser Game. Brain Who? Tricky Riddle Tests from Teos Oyum and GameBeans’ Soul of Dragon rounded off the top five.
Vita Studio’s Vita Mahjong was the top advertised title on Android for the second month running, ahead of Oakever’s Jigsawscapes and Monopoly Go, which both moved up one place from November. Braindom fell two spots to fourth, ahead of Habby’s Archero 2 in fifth place.
Run Sausage Run tops 160m downloads
Run Sausage Run has surpassed 160m downloads, according to CrazyLabs. It also claims that users have racked up 3.8bn minutes of playtime since the game’s release in 2017.
