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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World Cup fever, by the numbers
Appmagic’s latest blog breaks down the uptick in downloads and revenue from the previous World Cup, and concludes that relevant sports games could see a 71% uptick in downloads and a 24% boost in revenue.
Based on data pulled during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the data firm said EA Sports FC Mobile was, unsurprisingly, the game to benefit most in terms of downloads and revenue. Hong Kong-based developer Real Freestyle Soccer also saw a boost for its title Soccer Superstar during the tournament.
The firm also noted that many other non-football games and apps are running major live ops during the 2026 World Cup, including Gossip Harbor, Royal Match and Coin Master. In fact, Moon Active’s title has three World Cup-adjacent live ops running at the same time.
Direct-to-consumer market is worth $17bn, says report
Direct-to-consumer monetisation accounts for around 15% of the $113.3bn mobile gaming in-app purchase market, according to a new survey of over 1,200 developers and publishers conducted by GDC and Appcharge. This means the DTC market overall is worth an estimated $17bn, says the report.
42% of those surveyed said their company is currently exploring DTC methods, with 25% stating that they are either scaling or at a mature phase of DTC adoption.
There’s still a long way to go for DTC, though. As above, 45% of respondents said less than 10% of their revenue comes from DTC, and 17% said DTC revenue accounted for 10-29% of revenue.
Another part of the survey said that 25% of the companies asked expect to see flat or no growth in DTC revenue this year, and 8% expect a decline. The other 67% said they expected it to grow.
Over $1bn paid out to Unreal Editor for Fortnite creators
Epic Games says creators using Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) have received over $1bn in payouts since the user-generated content platform launched in March 2023.
UEFN lets users build custom games and experiences and publish them directly to the Fortnite ecosystem. In May, these games captured 47% of all Fortnite player hours, up from 38% a year earlier.
With Fortnite back on Google Play and the App Store worldwide, Epic also said mobile playtime in UEFN games has more than doubled in the past year.
Fortnite has over 75m monthly active users, according to Epic.
Vita Mahjong and Zen Word top May’s ad charts
Vita Mahjong retained the top spot on the iOS mobile game advertising chart in May, according to data from ad intelligence platform SocialPeta.
Vita Studio’s tile matching puzzle title held the number one position ahead of March’s most heavily advertised game on iOS, Oakever’s Tile Explorer. Vertex’s Bingo Voyage, Good Job’s Match Villains and Oakever’s Zen Word completed the top five.
The five most heavily advertised games on Android were unchanged from April, with Zen Word holding the top spot for a second consecutive month. It came in ahead of Vita Mahjong, which last topped the rankings in March. Tile Explorer was third on the chart, followed by Cedar’s Mystery Town and Oakever’s Jigsawscapes.
Across the iOS and Android charts, titles from Oakever occupied over a third (7) of the 20 available top 10 places, and a fifth (8) of the 40 available top 20 positions.
Rush Royale hits $500m
My.Games has announced that its flagship game Rush Royale has earned $500m in lifetime revenue since its launch in 2020. The tower defense game has also surpassed 105m downloads in that time.
Data and monetisation platform Kinoa raises $10m
Kinoa, an AI-powered platform designed to help game-makers “engage, retain, and monetize users”, has raised $10m. The funding round was led by Transcend Fund, with participation from Sisu Game Ventures. Transcend founder Shanti Bergel has also joined the Kinoa board. The company was cofounded in 2022 by former Kenshoo Apps, Adquant and Adotomi boss Elias Sandler.
Google and Apple removed 2.2m apps for security violations last year
Almost 2.2m apps were purged from Google Play and the App Store for security violations in 2025. That’s according to research by cybersecurity company Surfshark, based on data from app store transparency reports.
Google deleted over 2m apps, which was down 48.5% compared to 2024, while Apple removals more than doubled YoY to nearly 167,000.
While Google didn’t break down apps by category, games accounted for 18% of all App Store removals in both 2024 (15,122) and 2025 (30,429).
Data protection and privacy violations were responsible for 44% of app removals on Google Play, while the distribution of ineligible goods, services, or content accounted for 35%.
On the App Store, 54% of removals were due to fraud violations, and 43% were due to obsolete software.
Despite these efforts, Surfshark says a low initial app rejection rate remains a worry, particularly on Google Play. In 2025, Apple rejected 23% of submissions to the App Store. The Google Play rejection rate was almost three times lower at 8%, meaning 9 out of 10 submissions were cleared.
Dessert DIY hits 150m downloads
Hypercasual simulation game Dessert DIY has topped 150m downloads, according to publisher CrazyLabs. The dessert decorating game, which was developed by indie studio WeLoadin, was released for mobile in its native India in late 2021, ahead of a global launch in May 2022, according to Sensor Tower.
It was CrazyLabs’ second most downloaded game that year with approximately 65m downloads, behind only Phone Case DIY (72m). The title made the jump to Nintendo Switch and PS4 in 2023, and had reached 100m downloads by March 2024, according to its publisher.
Nexon reveals $163m new studio fund
Nexon Partners, Kona Venture Partners and Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism have committed an investment of ₩250bn / ¥26.3bn – roughly $163m – to cultivate early-stage game development among independent studios in Korea.
The public-private partnership will spend the money over the next five years on start-ups “developing globally scalable IP and next-generation games leveraging emerging technologies”.
