ReportSensor Tower
State of Card Battler Mobile Games Report 2021
1 Jul 202126 pages~12 min full read
Mid-core games drive 60 percent of total mobile player spending despite accounting for only 20 percent of worldwide installs.
See it on page 5The U.S. has become a critical growth engine for card battlers, capturing 27 percent of the revenue market share and seeing a 53 percent increase in revenue per download.
See it on page 10Mobile card battlers reached a new financial baseline of over $55 million in monthly player spending during the first half of 2021.
See it on page 9Established 'forever franchises' like Hearthstone and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links have generated nearly $1 billion and $700 million in lifetime revenue, respectively.
See it on page 15Newer titles are rapidly disrupting the market, with Magic: The Gathering Arena reaching the top 10 grossing list within three months of its mobile launch.
See it on page 18Card battlers currently represent 5 percent of strategy game revenue and 6 percent of total strategy game downloads.
See it on page 12The mobile card-battler sub-genre represents a high-growth segment within the broader mid-core strategy market, characterized by strong monetization and increasing global diversification. While mid-core games account for only 20 percent of worldwide installs, they drive 60 percent of total player spending. Within this ecosystem, card battlers represent 5 percent of strategy game revenue and 6 percent of downloads. Data from the first half of 2021 indicates a significant shift in market composition; while historically dominated by Asian markets like Japan and China, the United States has emerged as a critical growth engine, increasing its revenue market share to 27 percent.
Financial performance in the sub-genre reached a new baseline of over $55 million in monthly player spending during early 2021. This stability is supported by "forever franchises" such as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links and Hearthstone, which have accumulated $700 million and nearly $1 billion in lifetime revenue, respectively. However, the market is also seeing rapid disruption from newer titles. Magic: The Gathering Arena and Mighty Party have utilized aggressive user acquisition strategies across major ad networks to challenge established leaders, with the former reaching the top 10 grossing list within three months of its mobile launch.
The analysis, which utilizes Sensor Tower’s proprietary store and ad intelligence data, concludes that the sub-genre offers significant opportunities for both major intellectual properties and niche titles. In the U.S. market specifically, card battlers exhibit the fastest-growing revenue per download among all strategy sub-genres, rising 53 percent. This trend suggests that as the segment matures, it has the potential to match the commercial scale of dominant categories like 4X strategy and MOBA games.
