Global Mobile Games in September 2022

The September 2022 snapshot of the global mobile gaming market highlights a mix of established franchises and fresh releases driving revenue, downloads, and advertising activity. Genshin Impact, despite a 20 % month‑over‑month revenue rise on iOS and a 17 % decline on Android, shifted focus from sales to brand building through extensive offline collaborations with perfume, food, and media partners. Survivor.io emerged as the top‑grossing title, generating over $30 million across iOS and Android by combining casual roguelike mechanics with a robust top‑up system, supported by 163 daily creatives. Classic IPs also performed strongly; Ragnarok Online’s spin‑off, 愛如初見, earned more than $16 million on iOS after a launch that leveraged celebrity endorsement and nostalgic gameplay.

Download trends mirrored this blend of novelty and familiarity. Stick Hero, a stick‑man tower‑defense game released in late August, surpassed 10 million Google Play downloads and achieved a 4.7 rating from over 90,000 reviews, illustrating the power of creative IP replication. X‑HERO saw a 117 % month‑over‑month download surge on iOS, driven by dog‑head creatives and mini‑game updates. Meanwhile, Save the Doge’s download share slipped by 12 % MoM on Android, falling out of the top ten.

Advertising activity surged across both platforms. The iOS ad leader was 1945‑Airplane Shooting Games with 2,500 deduplicated creatives, while Android’s top spot went to Bingchuan Network’s 英雄戰紀 with 7,400 creatives. New entrants such as Overmortal and spot‑the‑difference titles (Define – Find the Difference, Find the Difference) added 7,000+ and 3,300 creatives respectively. Traditional strategy‑based games like Rise of Kingdoms and Last Fortress re‑entered the ad charts, signalling a broader recovery in SLG advertising spend. Overall, September’s data underscores how diversified monetization models, creative marketing, and cross‑platform presence continue to shape the competitive landscape of global mobile gaming.