Nordeus
Company
Documents about Nordeus
2026’s Top Games So Far: Market, Investment and Industry News
This weekly newsletter from mobilegamer.biz, dated July 31, 2026, rounds up the week's mobile games industry news in a single digest, pointing readers to full stories on the publication's site and to its companion podcast.
- Honor of Kings leads mobile game grossing for 2026 so far, surpassing $1 billion, with new contenders Gossip Harbor and Kingshot also in the top ten.
- Free Fire Max is the most downloaded mobile game for the first half of 2026, ahead of Block Blast, with two Arrows games also entering the top ten.
- Ubisoft's mobile revenue share increased to 19% of total group net bookings, up from 10% year-over-year, driven by the record quarter performance of Invincible: Guarding the Globe.
How the Games Industry M&A Frenzy is Making New Genre Leaders in Mobile
Sustained mergers and acquisitions are reshaping genre leadership in U.S. mobile gaming, with a single major deal or string of smaller purchases able to elevate a publisher to category leader in a short time.
- The mobile gaming industry is experiencing a significant M&A frenzy, driven by a maturing market, a lockdown-induced bump, and intense competition, allowing major publishers to quickly become genre leaders.
- EA became the No. 1 mobile Sports games publisher by U.S. revenue ($176 million) and the No. 1 Lifestyle games publisher ($123 million) between January 1 and August 31, 2021, largely due to its acquisitions of Glu Mobile and Playdemic.
- Activision Blizzard (including King) maintained its position as the No. 1 publisher in the Puzzle genre, generating approximately $873 million in U.S. player spending from January 1 to August 31, 2021, with Candy Crush Saga performing strongly.
News Mash-Up: Week 22 & 23 (June 2021)
E3 2021 returned in a reduced, digital-first form after the 2020 cancellation, with 18 events and conferences operating under the E3 banner.
- Microsoft is expanding its Xbox cloud gaming strategy by developing a streaming dongle and smart TV app to enable GamePass access via browsers, mirroring the Stadia model.
- Take-Two Interactive acquired mobile developer Nordeus, creator of Top Eleven, for $378 million to expand its mobile gaming footprint.
- GameStop reported a 25% year-over-year revenue increase to $1.3 billion for Q1 2021, though the company still posted a net loss of $41 million.
Facebook Instant Games: Designing Games for Chat
Facebook Instant Games on Messenger is presented as a distinct platform requiring a fundamental shift in game design, comparable to the move to mobile in 2010-2011, rather than a simple port or marketing channel.
- Facebook Instant Games is a standalone business platform rather than a user acquisition channel for external mobile games, with top titles reaching 3 million to 10 million players.
- Retention on the platform is driven by social interactions within chat threads, such as group raids where players must collaborate to complete challenging levels.
- Developers should avoid traditional mobile porting strategies, as the platform requires unique designs that leverage native Messenger features like bot channels and social contexts.
