According to Appmagic, Azur Games is the top mobile game publisher by downloads for the fifth year running. Supersonic is second again, with SayGames, kids game-maker BabyBus and Outfit 7 completing the top five.
Lion Studios and Rollic dropped out of the top 10, while Car Race 3D maker Zego Studio was one of few hypercasual publishers to significantly grow downloads year-on-year.
Full analysis and commentary on the top twenty and beyond follows below.
Want more data and commentary? Elsewhere on the site you can find:
- The top mobile game downloads of 2023
- The top grossing mobile games of 2023
- The top grossing mobile game publishers of 2023
Once again, Azur comes out on top by the sheer volume of successful games its portfolio. Top title Worms Zone racked up over 70m installs, four other titles generated over 40m installs, 13 games ranked in the 20-30m range and 36 releases got between 10m and 20m installs in 2023. There are even more games beyond that, which all added up to over 1.5bn downloads.
Supersonic’s portfolio was once again led by Bridge Race (113m downloads) and Going Balls (110m) in 2023, with Tall Man Run the closest to those top two on 81m installs. New hit Build A Queen finished the year as Supersonic’s fourth biggest title with 54m installs, and Emoji Puzzle also broke 50m downloads in 2023. Supersonic’s downloads were also narrowly up overall year-on-year, unlike many others on this list.
SayGames was another of the few hyper/hybridcasual game-makers to see a rise overall. Race Master 3D was its top game with ~119m downloads, while new hit My Perfect Hotel came in second for 2023 with almost 87m installs. DOP 2 generated over 52m downloads.
BabyBus has got something right with its very particular style of kids games – where so many other publishers saw an overall decline in installs, it gained over 120m installs year-on-year, with Little Panda’s Ice Cream Game leading the pack on ~42m downloads in 2023.
Outfit 7 keeps on trucking, and alongside BabyBus perhaps shows us the rather under-appreciated staying power of kids games. While overall downloads across its portfolio were down year-on-year, they were down a little less than others around the My Talking Tom maker, so it gained a place in 2023’s list.
Outfit7 swapped places with Voodoo for 2023, whose shifting strategy (outlined in more detail here) has inevitably seen a decline in downloads across its portfolio. 2023’s total of under 700m installs is quite a drop from the highs of 2020, when Voodoo’s games were downloaded a colossal 1.8bn times. Its top five titles in 2023 were Mob Control (72m installs), Paper.io 2 (~50m), Hole.io (~46m), Aquapark.io (~39m) and Collect Em All (~31m).
Zego Studio was one of few hypercasual publishers to make significant gains in the last year, with Car Race 3D leading the way on just over 90m installs. Bike Race (44m) was its second-biggest title, with three more games in the 30-40m range and another six gathering 20-30m downloads in 2023.
CrazyLabs saw one of the biggest year-on-year declines in downloads, from 2022’s total of ~914m downloads to 2023’s figure, ~572m. That’s around a third of its installs gone in a year, with 2022 hits Phone Case DIY, Dessert DIY and Sculpt People all down significantly.
Homa was another of the handful of hyper/hybridcasual publishers to beat the overall market downturn, breaking 500m installs for the first time. Attack Hole was the main driver of that total with just over 90m installs in 2023, while Farm Land and Aquarium Land generated ~32m and ~30m installs respectively.
Miniclip is the only non-hyper/hybridcasual or kids game publisher in the top ten, and placed there largely due to the continued success of 8 Ball Pool, which accounted for ~129m of that 501m total. Players in India drove its second and third most-downloaded titles, Carrom Pool (68m) and Cricket League (50m).
The top mobile game publishers on 2023, by downloads: 11-20 and beyond
11. EA (USA): 406m
12. 1Soft (Vietnam): 328m
13. Rollic (Turkey): 322m
14. Lion Studios (USA): 314m
15. Tencent (China): 308m
16. Kayac (Japan): 300m
17. Playrix (Ireland): 287.3m
18. Freeplay (USA): 286.8m
19. Garena (Singapore): 281m
20. TapNation (France): 276m
EA’s improved showing in 11th spot was mostly down to EA Sports FC, which has been on a hot streak ever since the 2022 World Cup. Its ~108m downloads made it the clear leader within the EA portfolio, though surprisingly the ancient Plants Vs Zombies was second with a whopping ~60m installs. Need for Speed No Limits (~42m downloads), Real Racing 3 (~37m) and Plants Vs Zombies 2 (36m) complete EA’s top five titles by downloads.
1Soft, the low-key publisher of 1945 Air Force, saw a larger-than-average drop in year-on-year downloads, while in 13th and 14th respectively Rollic and Lion Studios saw more notable declines after the duo each secured top ten placings last year. Rollic dropped from ~761m installs in 2022 to ~322m last year, while Applovin-owned Lion dropped from ~773m to 314m.
On top of its continued dominance of the top grossing chart, Tencent’s portfolio grew on the installs side too, helped by new releases like Undawn and Goddess of Victory: Nikke plus of course its existing blockbusters. Japan’s Kayac also posted a decent rise in downloads, driven by a big boost in installs for top performer Number Master and others.
Downloads across Playrix’s portfolio grew year-on-year which meant a leap up the rankings by five places, and it was the same story for Freeplay, whose portfolio rose up the rankings three places thanks to Twerk Race 3D, Snake Run Race and Count Masters. Garena and TapNation both declined year-on-year, but held onto a top 20 spot.
There were some notable moves up and down the rankings for several big-name western publishers outside the top 20, too. Scopely (24th) and Roblox (33rd) rose up the rankings a little, while King (25th), Sybo (31st) and Kwalee (34th) dropped a few spots.
