Here are last month’s top grossing mobile games worldwide based on in-app purchase earnings, according to Appmagic data.
These IAP estimates do not include ad revenue, web shop spend or Apple and Google’s 30% cut.
There’s commentary on which way the biggest earners are trending and other interesting tidbits from the top 20 and beyond below.
May was another ridiculous month for Honor of Kings, with a $50m+ lead over nearest contender PUBG Mobile – the biggest gulf we’ve ever seen between rankings in this chart.
It is also now in pre-reg as Tencent gears up to launch it worldwide (again). 98% of its spend is in China, and we doubt that will change significantly, but it’ll be interesting to find out how much it does shift when the game goes global on June 20.
Even more remarkable: despite that $50m+ drop to second placed PUBG Mobile, this was Honor of Kings’ fourth straight monthly revenue decline after a blockbuster January, when Tencent earned a record $184m.
PUBG Mobile’s numbers are less dramatic. May’s $99m is broadly in line with the last six months, though this is the second straight month-on-month decline.
Royal Match and Monopoly Go swap places this month, with Dream Games’ puzzler up month-on-month by over $6m to nearly $97m, and Scopely’s mega hit down from April’s $106.8m to $93.2m in May. Both have maintained healthy IAP earnings despite dropping significantly in the download charts.
Roblox keeps Robloxing in fifth, up a little on April to roughly where it was in March with nearly $89m. The graphs are all still broadly pointing up for this one, after a lull in spring 2022.
LastWar’s rise through the rankings continues, up over $5m compared to April’s total to reach a best-ever ~$86m. Its growth has slowed since rocketing up the top grossing charts at the start of the year, but it’s still quite an achievement for FirstFun, which can also count plenty of ad dollars not accounted for here as part of this game’s earnings.
King’s Candy Crush Saga in seventh is pretty steady at around $82m, as it has been for the last six months, though there was a blip in February when it dropped to $76m.
Up two spots this month is Brawl Stars, which beat the record earnings it posted in April by nearly $2m. The $65m Supercell earned from the game in May is quite the turnaround from its all time-low in February 2023, when it generated just over $5m.
New in ninth is another huge Tencent game from China, the new mobile edition of Dungeon & Fighter: Origin, often referred to as DNF Mobile. It’s a side scrolling action-RPG which has earned $63m from around 3.5m downloads in May, having only been launched on the 21st. At this rate it’ll be up there competing with the other Tencent giants in June’s list.
Century Games’ Whiteout Survival completes the top ten for May, up one spot despite posting $60m in IAP earnings for the third month running: it’s consistent, to say the least.
May’s top grossing mobile games worldwide 11-20
11. Honkai: Star Rail (Mihoyo): $60.3m
12. Coin Master (Moon Active): $55.2m
13. Legend of Mushroom (Joy Net Games): $40.2m
14. Solo Leveling: Arise (Netmarble): $39.6m
15. Gardenscapes (Playrix): $38.2m
16. Genshin Impact (Mihoyo): $36m
17. Battle of the Golden Spatula (Tencent): $33m
18. Township (Playrix): $30.7m
19. Pokémon Go (Niantic): $28.6m
20. Fishdom (Playrix): $28.4m
Hoyoverse’s two biggest games took a tumble in May. Honkai: Star Rail posted a second month-on-month drop, down to $60m in May after hitting over $86m in March and $73m in April. Genshin Impact suffered the more dramatic bump, falling seven places with IAP revenue of $36m, just over half the $68m it earned in April. Legend of Mushroom seems to be tailing off a little after peaking with $58m in March, posting $52m in April and $40m for May.
The big newbie in the 11-20 bracket is Solo Leveling: Arise. Netmarble’s new release has overtaken Gardenscapes and Genshin Impact in its first full month on the chart, posting close to $40m in IAP earnings. That’s pretty good going – we’ll see if it can maintain that as it settles into a post-launch rhythm.
Pokémon Go posted its lowest IAP revenue total since November 2017 last month, $28.6m. Though it should be noted that in the past Niantic has been very keen to point out that it is earning plenty of cash from its web store, so perhaps it is moving a lot of players over there. Still, May’s figure is quite a drop from its last peak of $62m in February this year.
Outside the top 20, it’s interesting that despite the addition of football superstar Erling Haaland, Clash of Clans revenue is down to $26.8m, its lowest total since November 2023. And Wuthering Waves debuted in 37th place with $18.5m earning in May, having been released on the 22nd.
Finally, we assume EA’s Team of the Season promo is behind a sudden rise of 30 places for EA FC Mobile, which shot up from earning just under $10m in April to over $16m in May. It was ranked the 47th top earner for May.
