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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Solo Leveling: Arise hits 10m downloads, $15m earnings in debut week
NetEase’s action-RPG stormed to the top of the charts last week in several major markets, and has also been performing well in terms of revenue: it has already passed 10m downloads, and $15m in IAP earnings, according to Appmagic estimates.
It’s most popular by downloads in India, followed by the US, Thailand, Brazil and Indonesia; on the revenue side the biggest spending nation is South Korea, with Japan a close second followed by the US, Thailand and Taiwan.
Squad Busters hits 30m pre-registrations
Supercell has reached its goal of 30m pre-registrations for the upcoming Squad Busters. The company announced the milestone on Twitter just 12 days after it hit 20m pre-registrations, and said its aim was to gather another 10m.
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes made $1m on May 4
Estimates from AppFigures show that Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes brought in a massive $1m in net revenue on the sci-fi holiday, May 4. That’s a five times increase on the amount of money the game makes on average per day.
AppLovin revenue rockets 48% year-on-year
Mobile advertising platform AppLovin brought in $1.06bn in revenue for the first quarter of 2024. That’s a 48% increase year-on-year. Meanwhile, the firm reported that its Adjusted EBITDA had more-than doubled to $549m, with a margin of 52%.
Monthly active payers held steady at 1.8m for the quarter, though the average amount these users shelled out rose from $46 to $48.
Rovio helped drive Sega sales up 12%
Rovio boosted Sega’s fiscal performance last financial year. In the company’s report for the 12 months ending March 31, 2024, it called out the Angry Birds maker as helping increase sales on the previous 12 months, alongside strong performance in Japan and Asia. Net sales for Sega’s entertainment division rose 12.4% to ¥318bn ($2bn) for the year.
Unity revenue dips 8%
Engine maker Unity has reported $460m in revenue for the first quarter of this financial year. That’s an 8% decline year-on-year. The bulk of Unity’s revenue still comes from its Grow Solutions publishing and monetisation division, which comprised 58.6% of the company’s total revenue. This arm brought in $296.7m, a 5% decline year-on-year.
Meanwhile, the company’s engine-focused Create Solutions brought in $163.7m, a 12.6% dip. Finally, Unity’s net loss swelled from $254m to $291m. The company says this is due to $212m of outgoing costs and its restructuring program.
Midcore stability offsets 39% decline in hypercasual at BoomBit
Publisher BoomBit made $56.8m from its mobile games business during 2023, a 14% decrease year-on-year. The company blames this decline on a 39% drop it saw in hypercasual game revenue related to “profitability declines” in mobile advertising. BoomBit’s midcore and casual titles helped keep things stable though, rising 17% to $34.8m.
Hunt Royale brought in $18m, while Darts Club and Car Driving Simulator earned $7.1m and $3m respectively.
Playtika revenue flat for Q1
Israel’s Playtika has reported more or less flat revenue for the first quarter of its financial year. The company brought in $651.2m, a drop of 0.8% year-over-year, with direct to consumer platform revenue of $171.5m, up 13.2% YoY. Meanwhile, credit-adjusted EBITDA was $185.6m, a 16.7% decline.
Its top three games were all down year-over-year. Bingo Blitz saw revenue of $157.5m, down 1% YoY; Solitaire Grand Harvest posted $77.8m in revenue, a decrease of 8.9% YoY; Slotomania revenue was $135.4m, a drop of 7.6% YoY.
Playtika also provided some other stats on its player base in the financial report, stating that it had 309k average daily paying users, a decrease of 5.2% YoY, and average payer conversion was slightly down from 3.6% the prior year to 3.5%.
Roblox revenue up 22% as losses stay steady
Games platform Roblox has reported $801.3m in revenue for its Q1, a 22% increase year-on-year. Bookings, meanwhile, clocked in at $923.8m for the period, a 19% rise. The company’s net losses rose from $269m to $270M, an increase of just 0.37%. Roblox’s adjusted EBITDA was $6.9m in the red, too.
The company has seen a 17% increase in daily active users, which totalled 77.7m for the quarter. Average monthly unique payers clocked in at 15.6m, a 13% increase; those users spent $19.68 on average.
In total, almost half of the company’s revenue comes from mobile. 29% was generated by Robux sales via the App Store, while 16% came from Google Play, totalling 45%.
PlayStation’s net sales up 17% year-on-year
Sony has reported a 17% increase in net sales for its Game and Network Services division for the year ended March 31 2024, ¥4.3tn or $27.5bn. Operating income was ¥290.2bn ($1.9bn), a 16% increase, for the same period.
Only 62% of mobile devs are aware of DMA
New research from fintech firm Aghanim shows that 62% of mobile game developers from the US, UK and Germany know about the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The company says that 82% understand how this new legislation will affect their business, while only 19% say they completely understand what DMA will mean for them.
31% of mobile studios asked say that DMA will mean more freedom, but only 9% say they’ll be keeping more of their revenue as a result of this legislation. 33% have started implementing changes to their payment process, with another 13% saying they will not be making such changes.
Square Enix’s mobile sales dip 10.7%
Japanese publishing giant Square Enix isn’t happy with the performance of its mobile games business. In its financials for the year ending March 31st, 2024, the company described “a slowdown” in its SD (smart devices and PC browser) division. Square reported a 10.7% decline in net sales in its SD arm, dropping to ¥101.5bn ($649m), while operating income fell 12.3% to ¥14.2bn ($90.8m).
Square Enix said that Dragon Quest Champions’ and Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis’s performances were not enough to offset a weak performance of its SD arm as a whole.
This is one of many challenges that Square Enix has addressed in its new ‘Square Enix Reboots and Awakens’ strategy presentation. The company says it will be releasing a “carefully curated” line-up for its SD arm and bringing more of these games to PC as part of its new multiplatform strategy.
Trophy acquires Tivola’s game portfolio for €700k
Danish developer Trophy Games has bought Tivola Games’ mobile portfolio. In a release on the former’s website, the company revealed it splashed out €700,000 (∼$756k) for 20 titles. These are management and simulation games focused on animals and pets.
