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Mobile gaming rebounds as IAP revenue reaches $80.9bn in 2024
Mobile gaming IAP revenue rose 4% to $80.9bn in 2024, according to Sensor Tower’s annual State of Mobile report. Driven by spending in the strategy, puzzle and action genres, it marks the first year-over-year IAP revenue growth since 2021.
Much of the growth came from emerging markets, with spending up in the likes of Mexico (+21%), India (+17%) and Thailand (+16%). Turkey saw the greatest rise (+28%), while established markets that experienced growth included the US (+9%) and the UK (+11%). There were declines in countries including Japan (-7%), mainline China (-3%) and Singapore (-14%).
The top mobile game genre by IAP revenue in 2024 was strategy ($17.5bn), closely followed by RPGs ($16.8bn). The puzzle ($12.2bn) and casino ($11.7bn) genres took the next two spots, while simulation ($6.1bn) was in fifth place.
4X strategy led the market in terms of subgenres, accounting for 9.98% of total IAP revenue in 2024, fuelled by Last War: Survival. Match swap games came in second place with an 8.67% market share, led by Royal Match. They were followed by squad RPGs (6.14%), MMORPGs (5.59%) and MOBAs (5.52%).
The increase in IAP revenue came despite a 6% year-over-year decline in downloads, which dropped by 3.3bn to 49.6bn in 2024.
The majority of markets saw downloads fall, including the US (-7%) and the UK (-5%), but there was growth in Saudi Arabia (+5%), Indonesia (+4%) and the UAE (+1%).
The download charts were tightly contested by three runaway genres in 2024. Downloads of simulation games rose 4% year-over-year to reach 9.8bn, giving the genre a 20% market share. That was closely followed by puzzle games, which saw downloads drop 3% year-over-year to 9.7bn. Arcade games captured a 19% market share after downloads fell by 12.5% year-over-year to 9.6bn.
In terms of subgenres, arcade platformer/runner games were the most downloaded in 2024, commanding an 8.34% market share, led by Subway Surfers. Simulation subgenres took the next two places. Simulator games accounted for 6.17% of total downloads, with My Superstore Simulator 3D being the top app. Driving/flight simulator titles had a 4.98% market share, driven by Vehicle Masters.
Scopely’s Monopoly Go was the highest earning game worldwide in 2024, ahead of Tencent’s Honor of Kings and Dream Games’ Royal Match, while Roblox and First Fun’s Last War: Survival Game rounded off the top five.
Garena’s Free Fire was the most downloaded game last year, followed by Roblox, Block Blast Adventure Master from Hungry Studio, Sybo’s Subway Surfers and Gametion’s Ludo King.
Dealmaking bounced back in 2024
After a relatively slow year for dealmaking activity in 2023, InvestGame’s global gaming deals report highlights year-over-increases in the number of private investments, M&A and IPOs in 2024.
Following two years of declines, the number of private investment deals rose 12% year-over-year to 466, while the total value of these deals was up by 79% to $5bn.
Having also nosedived over the previous two years, the number of M&A rose by 19% to 147 in 2024. However, the total value of these deals fell by 89% to $8.6bn (there would have been a 2% decline were it not for Microsoft’s $68.7bn Activision acquisition last year).
The number of IPOs and their total value increased for the second year running in 2024. The amount of deals rose by 18% to 52, while the value jumped by 129% to $9.6bn.
MAG’s Q1 revenue and EBITDA fall 10%
The QuizDuel and Wordzee maker posted revenue of SEK 69m ($6.3m) for the three months ended in November, which was down 10% year-over-year. EBITDA also declined by 10% to SEK 17.2m ($1.57m).
ARPDAU for the quarter was up 1% year-over-year to 6.9 US cents. The cost of user acquisition increased by 18% to SEK 13.2m SEK ($1.2m). Meanwhile, DAU (1m) and MAU (2.6m) were down 8% and 11% respectively.
“We continue to be profitable both quarterly and annually,” said MAG CEO Daniel Hasselberg. “While revenues and DAU are declining due to lower UA volumes than desired, our efficient operations and cost control have maintained our profitability despite significant investments in our new platform and game development.”
About 350 new App Store games grossed $1m+ last year
442 apps and games released last year ended 2024 with at least $1m or more of gross revenue, Appfigures reports. Games accounted for 80% (≈354) of the total, and apps for 20% (≈88).
According to its estimates, these apps and games grossed $4.9bn of revenue last year, 98% of which was generated by games. 55% of the games were RPGs, while 20% were casual titles and 20% were adventure games.
Homa’s games top 2bn lifetime downloads
Homa has surpassed 2bn downloads across its mobile gaming portfolio of 80+ titles, generating $35m in lifetime revenue, according to Appmagic.
While it’s now strengthening its hybridcasual division, the French firm’s biggest successes are in the hypercasual genre. Its top five games by download (revenue in brackets) are:
- Sky Roller: Rainbow Skating: 196m downloads ($1.1m)
- Merge Master: Dinosaur Monster: 127m ($253K)
- Attack Hole – Black Hole Games: 106m ($1m)
- Farm Land – Farming Life Game: 98m ($1.5m)
- Agent Hunt – Hitman Shooter: 95m ($465k)
Over 25% of developers are currently making mobile games, survey suggests
Over one quarter of game developers are currently making a mobile title. That’s according to GDC’s annual State of the Game Industry survey, which quizzed over 3,000 developers about their working practices.
It found that mobile game development increased for the first time since 2020, with 29% of respondents making games for Android and 28% for iOS (up from 24% and 23% a year earlier, respectively).
“Much of that is in Brazil and the East and South / Central / West Asia regions, where over half of developers say they work on mobile games,” the report states. Other platforms developers are currently making games for include PC (80%), PS5 (35%), Xbox Series X/S (34%), Mac (23%), Nintendo Switch (20%) and web browsers (16%).
