Here are the most-downloaded games worldwide from last month, according to Appmagic data.
The top ten is below, with annotations that indicate each game’s month-on-month rise or fall in the rankings.
There’s also commentary below on January’s most notable trends from the top 20 and beyond.
Royal Match rocketed up the rankings this month to take top spot, dethroning Roblox which has been number one for five of the last six months. January 2024 was Royal Match’s biggest ever month of downloads by some distance – way ahead of its previous peak in August 2023, when it reached 16.9m downloads in a month.
Roblox also hit its highest ever monthly download total last month, but it was still not enough to beat Royal Match’s huge spike. January’s record 21.1m downloads is unlikely to last, though: Roblox always spikes around the summer and winter holidays, so now the kids are back in school, expect a drop for February.
Another best-ever month for another top ten regular: Block Blast got a fraction under 20m installs in January, following on from another best-ever month in December. It has also been popping up plenty in our TikTok feed, so perhaps Hungry Studio has cracked the UA code there as well as through legacy marketing channels.
Subway Surfers drops down the rankings not due to any real decline in downloads – it’s slightly up on December’s total – but because of the other games’ relative rises. Sybo’s relentless runner gets around 20m downloads in a good month so January is nothing to be worried about, though it’s way of the wild spike of May 2022, when virality and China combined to push monthly installs over 32m.
Rounding out the top five is oddball Android-only hypercasual newbie Help Me: Tricky Story, which appears to be one of those risqué quiz games. Vietnamese studio ABI Game Studio is also the maker of such gems as ‘Haircut prank, air horn & fart’ and ‘Shotgun Sounds: Gun Simulator’.
Supercent scores another month in the top ten with Outlets Rush, its trainer-based interpretation of SayGames’ My Perfect Hotel, though it is down month-on-month by around 4m installs after breaking through in December with 18.5m downloads.
Garena’s Free Fire jumps up six places month-on-month and is up on December’s 11.8m downloads by around 2.5m installs. Its new ‘The Chaos’ theme may well have helped, pushing the game to its biggest monthly download total since January 2022.
Rounding out the top ten is Race Master 3D, which holds steady at eight with just over 13m installs for the second month running. After a dip in October and November, Supersonic’s Build A Queen sashayed back into December’s top ten with over 15m downloads. And it kept on going in January, though it dropped to over 13m installs last month.
Miniclip’s stalwart 8 Ball Pool was in tenth with 12.9m, down a little after a huge install spike in November and December.
January’s top mobile game downloads 11-20:
11. Ludo King (Gametion): 12.8m
12. My Perfect Hotel (SayGames): 11.8m
13. Candy Crush Saga (King): 11.5m
14. Free Fire MAX (Garena): 11m
15. Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle (AppVillage Global): 10.9m
16. My Talking Tom 2 (Outfit7): 10.7m
17. PUBG Mobile (Tencent): 10.5m
18. Magic Tiles 3 (Amanotes): 10.4m
19. Water Sort Quest (Mobirix): 10.2m
20. Monopoly Go (Scopely): 10.1m
Notable movers in the 11-20 bracket include Candy Crush Saga, which is recovering after downloads cratered in the second half of 2023. The comeback started in December and it’s up six places month-on-month for January.
Also on the rise in January are Free Fire Max, up 16 spots, and Android-only puzzler Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle, up 122 places having racked up 3.8m installs in December and a mighty 10.9m in January.
PUBG Mobile also rose up 10 places, adding 2m to its month-on-month downloads total. A new launch from Korean studio Mobirix, Water Sort Quest, claimed 10m downloads in its debut month, and Supercent’s companion piece to Outlets Rush, Pizza Ready, arrived in 21st spot with 9.8m installs, another title heavily inspired by SayGames’ My Perfect Hotel.
Scopely’s Stumble Guys had a good month too, rising 20 spots to reach 9.8m downloads in January. Dropping fast is Zego Studio’s Spider Fighting: Hero Game, which capitalised on the launch of Spider-Man 2 on PS5 at the back end of last year but is now fading fast.
There’s also been a huge drop-off for Real Car Driving: Race City 3D, which was up in the top ten from October-December, but only managed 6.6m installs in January and is therefore down 45 places.
