Every Wednesday, we break down the latest data, research and financial results into digestible chunks.
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Global IAP revenue hits $40bn in H1 2026, down 2% YoY as downloads keep falling
Global mobile gaming IAP revenue totalled $40bn in H1 2026, down 2% year on year, according to Sensor Tower’s H1 2026 Gaming Digital Market Index Report.
Downloads fell more sharply, down 12% to 24bn, while casual games downloads specifically have declined from 11.2bn in H1 2021 to 6.34bn in H1 2026.
Gaming digital ad spend, however, rose 8% to $7bn, and ad impressions hit 1.4 trillion, up 14%, across 41 markets and 18 channels.
AppLovin and AdMob now control 65% of gaming ad revenue between them, up from 61% at the start of the year, while YouTube leads globally with a 27% channel share.
Honor of Kings reclaimed the top spot for mobile IAP revenue, after briefly being overtaken by Monopoly Go and Last War: Survival earlier in the year.
Hay Day hits new $1m daily revenue high, 13 years after launch
Supercell’s Hay Day hit a new daily revenue high of $1m on May 1, 2026, 13 years after its 2013 launch, driven by a dense single-day LiveOps push combining two collection events, task rewards, a linked exchange shop, and more than six special offers.
According to AppMagic, the mobile farming game has generated $1.5bn in lifetime revenue and accounted for 13% of the farming subgenre’s revenue in H1 2026.
The wider Farming category is up 15% year-on-year to $576m.
Pokémon Go revenue surges in Sensor Tower’s July rankings
Scopely-owned Pokémon Go was the star performer in Sensor Tower’s July rankings as it topped its revenue growth chart and came in second to Honor of Kings in the overall revenue ranking.
It was all down to Pokémon Go’s 10th anniversary celebrations, which saw a global Go Fest take place on top of community day, Road of Legends and several other live ops.
Zenless Zone Zero, Goddess of Victory: Nikke, Sol: Enchant, Eggy Party and new title Hololive Dreams also saw strong growth last month, Sensor Tower notes.
July’s download charts showed usual suspects Roblox, Free Fire, Block Blast and Arrow Puzzle lead the way, though World Cup fever also pushed Soccer Superstar, Football League 2026, EA Sports FC Mobile and eFootball into the top ten. Flow Games’ Smash Fest was top of the download growth rankings.
Krafton’s mobile revenue up 20% to $810m in H1, as PUBG franchise drives record results
Krafton’s mobile revenue, covering PUBG Mobile, BGMI, and Peacekeeper Elite, rose 20.2% year on year to $810m (₩1,153.7bn) in H1 2026, part of a record-breaking half for the company overall.
Total revenue hit $1.87bn (₩2.7tn), up 73.3% year on year, driven by PUBG franchise growth and Subnautica 2’s Early Access launch on PC, which has sold over 5m units.
Operating profit rose 38.3% to $683m (₩972.5bn), reaching 92% of Krafton’s full-year 2025 operating profit in just six months.
China approves 197 mobile-heavy game batch in July, taking 2026 total past 1,100
Mobile made up the bulk of the batch: 175 of the domestic approvals and three of the four imports were mobile games. Total 2026 approvals now stand at 1,110 domestic and 37 import titles.
Notable approvals include a new Fantasy Westward Journey mobile game from NetEase and Aion Classic from Shengqu and NCsoft.
