There’s a deluge of new data and research to wade through in the mobile games business – so our regular data drop column breaks it all down into digestible chunks. Read on for the numbers you need to know about minus the fluff.
Genshin Impact hits $5bn in lifetime player spend
Data.ai says that Mihoyo’s Genshin Impact is the fastest mobile games ever to hit $5bn in player spending.
It launched in September 2020 on iOS, Android and PC, and the $5bn is an estimation of App Store and Google Play revenue. Revenue from the iOS version in China alone is nearly $1.5bn, around 30% of that $5bn total lifetime spend. Japan in second with ~$1.06b (~21% of spend) and the US is third with ~$903m (~18%).
Genshin reached $5bn in 40 weeks. Clash of Clans, the second-fastest game to hit the milestone, took 51 months to hit the same total. The most recent mobile game to pass $5b was Playrix’s Gardenscapes – all 13 mobile games to have surpassed $5b are in the chart above.
Bosses bet on new Xbox app store
A new trends report from Newzoo suggests that 73% of the industry leaders it surveyed believe Xbox will launch an App Store this year. 27% were unsure.
64% of those asked agreed that “Mobile developers will be increasingly affected by changes in the privacy landscape”. Senior bizdev director at Savvy-owned Steer Studio Marc Regeur added: “The rising costs of production and user acquisition will challenge studios to shift from having a strategic focus on user acquisition as cheaply as possible to maximising player engagement, building high quality in-game monetisation mechanics and LTV over time.”
The trends survey also found that 61% of those asked believed generative AI will accelerate game production. Respondents were less convinced that mobile developers moving over to PC was the way forward, though: 36% agreed mobile devs would be focusing more on PC in the year ahead, with 36% indifferent and 27% disagreeing with the statement.
Activision Blizzard boosts Microsoft games revenue
The Verge has digested the impact of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard nicely, reporting that the tech giant’s gaming vertical is up 49% YOY and has overtaken Windows as its third biggest business. It reported $7.11b in revenue for the three months ended December 31 2023.
We assume King played a large role in Microsoft boss Satya Nadella’s claim that Microsoft had now reached an all-time record of 200m MAU across Xbox, PC and mobile, too.
Mobile steady at EA, despite EA FC growth
In EA’s Q3 2024 results, its mobile bookings were up very slightly YOY to $307m, compared to $303m the year prior. Mobile is still firmly in third at EA in terms of platform split, with console bookings way ahead on $1.6bn and PC on $453m for the last quarter.
EA boss Andrew Wilson also said EA FC Mobile DAU is up 29% YOY, and Madden Mobile had “double-digit” player growth.
It’s also worth northing that EA is now mostly a live service game company, with 73% of its revenues coming from the likes of EA FC, Apex Legends and Battlefield.
Toca Boca and Mojang veterans raise €1.5m for ‘digital dollhouse’ studio Roro
Roro is a new Stockholm-based studio that’s building a kids sandbox experience. It just raised €1.5m in a funding round led by node.vc with participation from FOV Ventures, Robin Flodin, and angels including Craig Fletcher, Nick Button-Brown, Luis Villegas, Callum Underwood and more.
Cofounders William Sampson (Toca Boca, Stardom) and Robin Flodin (Toadman, EG7, Simple Magic) are joined at Roro by staff with experience at Mojang, Ubisoft and Avalanche.
Extraction shooter maker Order of Meta raises $3.3m
The Helsinki studio behind forthcoming mobile extraction shooter Cargo Hunters raised a $3.3m seed round led by Gem Capital, joined by Korea Investment Partners, Play Ventures and The Games Fund.
Order of Meta describes its debut game Cargo Hunters as a “mobile cross-platform PvPvE extraction shooter with a deep metagame”. The Finnish studio was founded in 2021 by CEO Alexey Sazonov and COO Sergei Koziakov, who previously founded Tacticool developer Panzerdog. That studio was acquired by My.Games in 2020.
Epic Heroes and Mighty Party top mobile advertiser charts
A very in-depth whitepaper from marketing data firm SocialPeta ranks the games with the most ad creatives in 2023. Panoramik Games’ Mighty Party comes out top on iOS, with Block Blast and Metal Slug: Awakening second and third.
Bingchuan Network’s Epic Heroes – also previously known X-Hero on iOS – leads on Android, with Mighty Party second and casino game Jhandi Munda King in third.
Elsewhere in the beefy 78-page report, SocialPeta lists Rollic, Bingchaun Network and Whiteout Survival maker Century Games as the top three labels pumping out the most creatives in 2023:
South East Asia is noted as the most competitive advertising region. There are also breakdowns of mobile game advertising trends by genre, creative type, region and more in the full report.
As we reported yesterday, UK publisher Kwalee has bought a €1.5m stake in hybridcasual outfit 8SEC, and will publish all of its games going forward.
French publisher 8SEC’s biggest titles include Trivia.io, Hero Squad and Idle Army, and it describes itself as an early adopter of hybridcasual games.
8SEC will continue to operate independently out of its offices in Lyon and Paris, but Kwalee will now assume all publishing duties going forward. Kwalee CFO Matthew Farrow and VP of mobile publishing John Wright will also join the 8SEC board.
