Here are last month’s top grossing mobile games worldwide, according to Appmagic data.
These numbers are estimates of developer earnings from IAP, and do not include Apple and Google’s 30% cut, ad or web shop revenue.
There’s commentary on which way the biggest earners are trending and other interesting tidbits from the top 20 and beyond below.
Tencent’s Honor of Kings is back on top after Scopely’s Monopoly Go toppled the monster MOBA to lead December’s top grossing rankings.
Honor of Kings had a bit of a wobble from September-November 2023 as it dipped significantly under its usual $120m-ish monthly earnings. But is climbing again and January’s $124.3m total represents a more typical month.
Scopely’s Monopoly Go reached a best ever monthly total of $130m in December. Despite a drop to $117.5m last month, it’s still the closest contender to Tencent’s MOBA by far.
Dream Games earned just over $87m from Royal Match for the second month running, and a slight month-on-month rise in January means it was its best-ever earnings total. 
Royal Match swaps places with PUBG Mobile this month, with the latter dipping significantly month-on-month from $98.8m in December down to $78.4m in January. The year-on-year comparison for PUBG Mobile is pretty rough – it raked in over $135m for Tencent in January 2023, so is down by around $57m annually.
As is customary for Roblox, it saw a huge earnings spike in December with most kids off on Christmas holidays. So January’s drop of ~$8m is perhaps no surprise. It’s down only a little bit year-on-year; it earned $80m in January 2023 versus his year’s total of $76.8m.
Candy Crush Saga was up slightly on December’s total and stays in sixth, a good $10m ahead of Mihoyo’s Genshin Impact, which is also up slightly on December. Despite a huge spike up to over $97m in November, Genshin is still suffering from what appears to be cannibalisation from Honkai: Star Rail’s arrival in April; it was regularly breaking $100m per month until that game came along.
Coin Master is down a spot despite being up on December’s total of $55m, and has remained steadily in that range for the last six months.
Tencent has the surprise package this month in the form of China-only League of Legends spin-off The Battle for the Golden Spatula. A new year season update has clearly been a big boost for the title, which rocketed up into the top ten from 45th place in December, when it earned $17.9m.
In tenth, Monster Strike is up slightly on December and seems to have settled after some wild earnings fluctuations throughout 2023.
January’s top grossing mobile games worldwide: 11-20
11. CrossFire: Legends (Tencent): $48.1m
12. Whiteout Survival (Century Games): $46.4m
13. Gardenscapes (Playrix): $43.7m
14. Pokémon Go (Niantic): $35.6m
15. Fate/Grand Order (Aniplex): $33.1m
16. Baseball Spirits (Konami): $33m
17. Honkai: Star Rail (Mihoyo): $32.8m
18. Justice Mobile (NetEase): $31.1m
19. Clash of Clans (Supercell): $31.6m
20. Homescapes (Playrix): $31.4m
Tencent shooter CrossFire: Legends is a strange one – having earned around $5.5m in December, it earned nearly ten times that in January. It saw a similar leap last January, too, so clearly Tencent is nailing the new year’s content for this China-driven game.
Honkai: Star Rail, meanwhile, was down eight places month-on-month, and has really taken a dive since October. January’s $32.8m earnings are its lowest monthly total since launch, after it looked like it had settled into earning $60-80m per month midway through 2023.
Clash of Clans is also noticeably down, falling nine places month-on-month after a bumper December in which it earned Supercell ~$47m. January’s $31m monthly total is a more typical showing for the stalwart strategy game.
Outside the top 20, Goddess of Victory: Nikke and Uma Musume Pretty Derby are up several places month-on-month, while Activision’s Call of Duty: Mobile is back down to its usual monthly earnings of around $25-30m after a big December in which it earned ~$35m.
It’s notable, too, that Supercell’s Brawl Stars surged up the rankings by 17 places. It continues a revival that started in December and has got the game back to earning nearly $30m, which is back where it was circa 2021.
