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 minus the fluff.
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Whiteout Survival tops March’s earnings chart
Century Games’ Whiteout Survival brought in $133m to lead the worldwide revenue chart in March, according to Appfigures estimates. That was up 16.7% compared to February and marked the game’s best monthly performance to date.
Dream Games’ Royal Match, which was the top earner on Google Play in March, jumped three places to number two on the combined Android and iOS chart with earnings of $117m (+7.3% month-over-month).
Scopely’s Monopoly Go fell one spot to number three after also earning approximately $117m (+1.7% MoM), while Tencent’s Honor of Kings was a non-mover at number four with earnings of $110m (-2.7% MoM), all of which came from the App Store, where it was the most lucrative game for the eighth consecutive month.
After topping February’s earnings chart, Funfly’s Last War slipped to number five in March with $103m (-10.4%). Having collectively grossed over $1bn for the first time in January, last month the top 10 games generated $947m (+2.9% MoM) in net revenue after store commissions.
Block Blast topples Subway Surfers with 22m downloads in March
Block Blast returned to the top of the worldwide download chart last month for the first time since December, Appfigures also reported. Hungry Studios’ game achieved 22m downloads (+5m month-over-month) in March, including 6m on the App Store, where it was the most installed game.
Sybo’s Subway Surfers, which took the number one spot in January and February, fell one place in March with downloads of 20m (+3m MoM), while Roblox was a non-mover at number three with 19m downloads (+2m MoM).
FPS Strike Ops rose three places to number four with 14m downloads in March, and Ludo King entered the top 10 with 13m downloads. Following a relatively short month in February, in March the top 10 games collectively reached 146m downloads (+16m MoM).
Private market funding in gaming increased 23% in Q1
Private market funding in gaming jumped 23% quarter-over-quarter to reach $700m in Q1 25, according to a new report from VC firm Konvoy Ventures.
However, that was down 69% year-over-year from $2.23bn in Q1 24, which included Disney’s $1.5bn investment into Epic Games.
The level of venture capital funding into the games industry in Q1 25 totalled $373m, which was up 35% quarter-over-quarter but down 41% year-over-year.
There were 77 gaming VC deals in Q1 25, down 6% from 82 in the previous quarter, and down 51% from 158 in Q1 24.
With 43 transactions, Q1 25 was one of the most active quarters for gaming M&A in several years. There were also 43 transactions back in Q4 23, but the last time there were more was back in Q3 22, when there 46.
Notable deals during Q1 25 included Swedish roll-up group MTG completing its $620m acquisition of Raid: Shadow Legends maker Plarium, and Scopely announcing plans to acquire Pokémon Go maker Niantic’s games for $3.5bn.
Meme Bots Tralalero Chase Room nears 10m downloads
M4P Media’s Meme Bots Tralalero Chase Room (formerly Meme Bots: Obunga Chase Rooms) is approaching 10m downloads following a recent relaunch, according to Appmagic.
Riding the wave of the Tralalero Tralala social media trend, the meme-inspired horror game saw two noticeable spikes in downloads this month following some effective ASO work. Originally released in September 2022, its biggest markets have been Indonesia, which accounts for 19% of its downloads, followed by the Philippines (9%), Mexico (8%) and Brazil (8%).
Appmagic also listed the top five horror games by downloads over the past 10 months: Scary Teacher 3D (33m), The Baby in Yellow (29m), Eyes Horror & Coop Multiplayer (18m), Identity V (16m) and Hello Neighbor Nicky’s Diaries (14m).
Minecraft movie boosts Mojang’s mobile revenue
The release of the Minecraft film drove a significant increase in revenues for Mojang’s $6.99 mobile game, Appfigures reports. As of April 11, it said players had spent $6m on Minecraft across the App Store and Google Play since the movie hit cinemas on April 4 – roughly double the amount spent in the same number of days in February.
While Minecraft has been the top-paid game in the US on both Android and iOS for several years, the app analytics platform goes on to suggest that owner Microsoft could benefit by switching to a free to download model.
Despite its brand strength, Minecraft’s performance falls well short of the top grossing US games. Appfigures estimates that the sandbox game has grossed $32m so far in 2025, which compares unfavourably to Coin Master ($248m), Candy Crush ($328m), Royal Match ($494m) and Monopoly Go ($500+).
