Here are the top grossing publishers of 2024, according to Appmagic.
First, the usual caveats: Appmagic’s revenue estimates are based on publisher payout, and therefore do not include Apple or Google’s 30%. Of course, they do not include ad revenue or webshop revenue either, nor China’s fragmented Android ecosystem.
There’s more 2024 analysis elsewhere on the site, through the below links:
– 2024’s top downloads
– 2024’s top grossing games
– 2024’s top publishers by downloads
Appmagic’s live monthly top grossing and top downloads charts are also here, and well worth bookmarking.
Tencent’s ludicrous $6.25bn games earnings is its highest-ever total, up nicely on the $5.7bn-ish it has earned annually from 2021- 2023.
Like every year, a good chunk of that monster total is from Honor of Kings ($1.87bn) and PUBG Mobile ($1.18bn), but the spectacular launch of DnF Mobile will have certainly helped too. As we reported previously, it was the biggest new launch of 2024 by IAP revenue, adding ~$800m to an already very healthy balance sheet.
Scopely’s rise through the ranks is thanks to Monopoly Go, of course, which contributed $1.58bn of the US publisher’s $1.99bn total earnings last year. As ever, the caveat with Scopely is its strength in generating cash outside the app stores through webshops – only Scopely itself knows exactly how much it is making there, and it seems it is keeping those numbers to itself.
Playrix stays in third place for another year, very narrowly ahead of NetEase. The Homescapes maker saw annual IAP revenue fall from $1.9bn in 2023 to $1.7bn last year, about the same as 2022’s tally, as several of its older titles declined a little.
NetEase dropped two spots year-on-year, having earned $1.97bn in 2023 and $1.69bn last year. A drop off for top titles Fantasy Westward Journey, Knives Out, Onmyoji and Justice Online are part of the story here, though the NetEase catalogue is vast so there could be several other games in decline accounting for the drop.
The picture’s much simpler for Dream Games, which only launched its second game worldwide in November. It’s up three places and by around $540m year-on-year by IAP revenue, overtaking match 3 rival King for the first time. Obviously Royal Match accounts for the vast majority of those IAP earnings, so it’ll be interesting to see what Royal Kingdom does in 2025 after a decent but unspectacular start.
Behind Dream Games by about $21m is Candy Crush Saga maker King, which is down a little on 2023’s IAP earnings. Having tested a couple of new spins on the Candy formula in soft launch lately, perhaps we’ll see something fresh from King in 2025 to keep the lines pointing up?
Despite Squad Busters falling a little flat, 2024 was a terrific year for Supercell overall, mostly thanks to that much talked-about Brawl Stars comeback. 2023 IAP revenue stood at a fraction under $800m, so 2024’s haul of $1.44bn is a welcome boost, as Supercell had been gently sliding down these publisher rankings.
Conversely, it’s been a baffling year for Mihoyo, whose IAP earnings are about $440m down on 2023’s total. It launched a new game, Zenless Zone Zero, which earned $183m, but its two previous hits Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail each had a tricky twelve months, the former’s IAP earnings dropping by ~$465m and the latter by ~$100m. It all nets out as a drop overall, which perhaps suggests the firm needs to try and expand its audience rather than milk the same folks dry.
We’ve already talked though Roblox in our top grossing games of 2024 analysis, so there’s nothing new to add here.
So let’s move swiftly onto Century Games, one of the biggest risers through the rankings year-on-year. Whiteout Survival is mostly responsible, of course, but it’s also worth mentioning Dragonscapes Adventure ($40m earned in 2024) and Family Farm Adventure ($35m). Century Games has six other games that earned $10-20m in 2024, so it’s not quite the one-game publisher one might presume it is.
The top grossing mobile game publishers of 2024: 11-20 and beyond
11. Funfly (China): $1.15bn
12. Moon Active (Israel): $977m
13. Bandai Namco (Japan): $899m
14. Zynga (USA): $697m
15. Konami (Japan): $675m
16. Niantic (USA): $672m
17. 37 Games (China): $607m
18. Peak Games (Turkey): $565m
19. Lilith Games (China): $528m
20. Garena (Singapore): $520m
Last War maker FunFly missed out on a top ten spot this year, but if it keeps up its current momentum it’ll break in easily. It also only has one live game out there, so another hit could really propel the firm into the elite in 2025.
Moon Active’s IAP earnings are up year-on-year thanks to the growth of Travel Town, which has offset the decline of Coin Master. Bandai Namco drops year-on-year after a weaker twelve months for DBZ Dokkan Battle.
Zynga is also down annually as practically all of its top games steadily decline, including Empires & Puzzles, Merge Dragons, Zynga Poker and CSR 2. Still, Zynga-owned Peak Games had a great year thanks to Toon Blast and Match Factory, adding over $260m to its IAP earnings year-on-year.
Elsewhere, there’s quite a bit of noise around Habby currently, but its IAP earnings are actually a little down year-on-year – $275m in 2023, $267m in 2024. It’s the 45th top grossing label by IAP earnings, though of course it is bringing in big numbers via ad revenue too.
Pokémon TCG Pocket also propelled The Pokémon Company up the rankings in 2024 – it was sat in 261st place on $22m in 2023, but its Dena-developed hit boosted it up to 42nd with $288m earned through IAP in 2024.
