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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Mobile games consumer spending over $20bn in Q1 2024
According to Sensor Tower, mobile games hit $20.3bn in consumer spending during the first three months of 2024. That’s a 2.9% increase year-on-year and the first time that mobile games consumer spending has been north of $20bn for a quarter. Games also accounted for 56.7% of total mobile spending.
Over on the App Store, mobile games saw a 6% increase in consumer spending to reach $13bn, while on Google Play, this category brought in $7.3bn, a 1.4% decrease year-on-year.
Overall, app downloads continued their slow and steady decline. Mobile game installs dropped by 7%, which Sensor Tower attributes to the issues facing casual games.
Game downloads on iOS remained steady at 2bn for the quarter, while on Android installs dropped by 8.5% to 10.8bn.
Wuthering Waves passes 30m downloads
Kuro Games’ Genshin-like open world RPG has hit 30m downloads already, according to an X post from the game’s official account. It was launched worldwide on May 22, so had racked up 30m installs in three weeks.
Africa and MENA made $85.5bn in 2023
Research from Niko Partners, first shared with VentureBeat, estimates that the Africa and MENA regions made $85.bn in revenue during 2023. That’s a 4.6% increase year-on-year. For 2024, Niko predicts that revenue will increase 2.5% to $87.6bn and expects that the area will see revenue of $97.1bn by 2028.
93.7% of gamers from the Asia and Mena regions play mobile games. Niko predicts that by 2028, mobile gamers will number 1.87bn in the area. In 2023, this audience spent $58bn, which represents 57.8% of global spending on the platform.
Pizza Ready hits 100m downloads
Hit casual resource management game Pizza Ready has passed 100m installs, according to a LinkedIn post from developer Supercent.
According to Supercent the game has also reached 100m faster than its previous hit Burger Please. As we’ve reported before, Pizza Ready has been top of Appmagic’s monthly download charts for the last two months running.
59% of mobile game ad revenue made on Android
New research from Tenjin shows that 59% of ad revenue in the mobile games space was on Android. The USA is a dominant part of the ad market for Apple’s ecosystem with 55% of all iOS ad revenue coming from that market. Meanwhile, on Android, the USA represented 33% of ad revenue.
On iOS, AppLovin is the dominant ad network, with a 37% of share of the market. Unity Ads is in second place with 16%.
Over on Google Play, AppLovin has competition in the form of Google’s own Admob network, which accounts for 28% of the market. AppLovin has to settle for second place with a 24% slice of the pie.
Island Hoppers: Jungle Farm closes in on $50m
Farming and adventure game Island Hoppers: Jungle Farm has made over $47m in revenue since its 2021 soft launch, says the parent company of developer Nexters, Gdev. The title has been downloaded 20m times on mobile and web browser, Gdev said, and cited Appmagic data to show that Island Hoppers was the eighth best performing game in the farming genre on mobile.
Mobile advertisers up 29% year-on-year for Q1
The number of companies advertising in the mobile games space rose by 28.9% year-on-year to reach 51.3k on average during Q1 2024. Data from SocialPeta shows that the number of creatives came in at 109 on average for the period, a decrease of 18% year-on-year.
Casual and puzzle genres were the strongest when it came to advertising. The former was responsible for 36.6% of advertisers and 39.6% of creatives – increases of 0.83% and 1.97% year-on-year respectively – while the latter clocked in 13.12% of advertisers and 12.31% of creatives.
Squad Busters hit $10m in its first week
As we reported earlier this week, Squad Busters passed $10m in worldwide consumer spending during its first week of global launch, according to Appmagic and Appfigures. Sensor Tower, meanwhile, estimated week one player spend of $9.1m.
AppsFlyer considering $300m IPO in early 2025
As we reported last week, AppsFlyer is considering an initial public offering in early 2025, according to a new Bloomberg report.
Sources say that the mobile marketing and analytics firm could seek a $300m raise in an early 2025 listing, with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase & Co and Bank of America apparently working on plans for the IPO.
A final decision has not been made on the timing or size of the offering, but Bloomberg’s sources said that AppsFlyer could go public sooner depending on market conditions. The company has not commented publicly on the report.
