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 without the fluff.
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Whiteout Survival was September’s top earner, says Appfigures
Whiteout Survival earned $113m in September (-17% MoM) to retain its place as the highest earning mobile game worldwide last month, Appfigures estimates.
The top four was unchanged from August’s rankings, with Last War coming in at number two with $111m (-14.6%), ahead of Royal Match with $110m (-14.7%) and Monopoly Go with $110m (-6.9%)
Clash Royale earned $97m (+5.4% MoM) to replace Honor of Kings in the top five, as September’s top 10 generated $895m after platform store fees (-7% MoM).
Roblox leads September’s download chart with 18.5m
Roblox was the most downloaded game worldwide for the third consecutive month in September, according to Appfigures data.
The game racked up 18.5m installs (-3.7m MoM) last month, closely followed by Subway Surfers with 18.2m (+1.3m MoM).
The top five was completed by Block Blast with 14m downloads (-1.6m MoM), newcomer Prison Master with 10.2m, and Pizza Ready with 10m (-1.8m MoM).
The combined top 10 racked up 113m downloads in September (-7% MoM).
Century scales Tasty Travels to $1m per month on iOS
GameRefinery’s latest monthly mobile games market review includes an update on Tasty Travels, the steadily scaling merge 2 title from Whiteout Survival maker Century Games.
According to its data, which covers the US market and iOS only, monthly revenue and downloads have been on the rise since the beginning of the year, surpassing $1.2m and 100k respectively in September.
Appmagic estimates that Tasty Travels has earned Century over $20m in lifetime revenue globally following more than 10m installs, including over $5m in the past 30 days.
The game has been steadily scaling Appmagic’s worldwide top grossing chart throughout 2025, rising to number 180 in September.
Tencent is Q3’s top midcore publisher by revenue
Appmagic’s top 10 midcore publishers by revenue list shows Tencent way out in front with $1.5bn in Q3 2025.
The publisher’s star performer is Honor of Kings, which accounted for 24% of its total revenue. PUBG Mobile and Delta Force follow, with the latter hitting a new monthly revenue high of $58m in September.
Century Games took second place on the list with $543m. Whiteout Survival generated 63% of the publisher’s total revenue in Q3, ahead of Kingshot, which earned $67m last month. Roblox ($425m), Funfly ($398m) and Supercell (365m) rounded off the top five.
Vita Mahjong tops September’s ad charts
Vita Mahjong was the most advertised title on both iOS and Android for the third consecutive month in September, marketing data firm SocialPeta reports.
The tile matching puzzle game from Vita Studio topped the iOS chart ahead of Just Game Technology’s Lands of Jail, Leniu Games’ Huntopia Fantasy RPG, Hungry’s Sudoku Master, and Wonderful Studio’s Block Crush.
On Android, Vita Studio led the chart ahead of four titles from Oakever Games. Tile Explorer retained the number two spot, followed by fellow-non-mover Jigsawscapes, Zen Word and Zen Color.
4X strategy market hit $3.9bn in H1 2025
Having generated $5.8bn in worldwide IAP revenue in 2023 and $6.8bn in 2024, the 4X strategy genre is on track for further growth this year, Appmagic data shows.
In a deep dive into the segment, the firm estimates that 4X strategy games earned $3.9bn in the first six months of 2025, which was up 28% YoY.
Genre leaders Last War Survival and Whiteout Survival collectively accounted for $1.53bn, which was almost 40% of total IAP revenue. The former brought in $792.94m for Funfly, while the latter generated $740.6m for Century Games.
The heavyweights’ closest competitors were TG Inc’s Evony: The King’s Return ($127.7m), Florere Game Limited’s Dark War Survival ($107.3m) and River Game HK Limited’s Top Heroes: Kingdom Saga (also $107.3m).
The top five titles generated 50% of the genre’s IAP revenue in H1 2025, with the top 20 making nearly 70% of the total, and earnings beyond the top 100 “virtually insignificant”.
Just 15% of the top 100 grossing titles of H1 2025 were released in 2024 or 2025, with 14% released in 2023 and the largest portion, 19%, released in 2022.
Most of the best performing games in the genre are Eastern, with Chinese publishers alone accounting for more than half of the top 100.
Western publishers were responsible for 25% of the top 100 grossing games in the first half of 2025.
Sunday hits 500m downloads
Hybridcasual publisher Sunday has racked up half a billion downloads, according to co-founder and MD Christoph Sachsenhausen.
Founded in 2019, the company’s biggest hits by downloads include Cat Escape, Hypermarket 3D: Store Cashier, Spinner Merge, Dog Escape, and Hyper School.
Tilting Point launches $30m UA fund for non-gaming apps
Tilting Point has teamed up with French mobile publisher Quiet and a second undisclosed mobile firm to offer $30m in UA funds annually to grow their non-gaming apps.
$12m of this capital will be dedicated to Quiet’s storage management app Clean Manager, and $18m to a lifestyle app from the unannounced partner. The partnerships are part of a $150m UA funding initiative announced in March.
Stillfront Q3 revenue expected to fall 7.8% to $145m
Swedish roll-up firm Stillfront has announced its preliminary Q3 2025 results, including an expected net revenue decline of 7.8% YoY to SEK 1.373bn (~$145.1m).
User acquisition costs are anticipated to come in at SEK -336m (~-$35.5m), representing 25% of net revenue. That compares to SEK -462m (~-$48.8m) a year earlier, which corresponded to 29% of Q3 2024 revenue.
Adjusted EBITDAC is expected to rise 13.2% YoY to SEK 436m (~$46m), corresponding to a margin of 32 percent.
