AppMagic
AppMagic is a mobile app market intelligence service for app and game market research. It publishes reports and articles on top mobile games by revenue and downloads, hypercasual and hybridcasual markets, and app categories.
Documents
Casual Gaming in 2024: Using Insights From 2023
The mobile gaming market faced a challenging environment in 2023, characterized by a 3.5% decline in user spending and a decrease in successful new releases.
- The mobile gaming market experienced a 3.5% decline in user spending during 2023, accompanied by a decrease in the number of successful new releases.
- Match 3D is a high-potential category for 2024, characterized by a strong success rate driven by hypercasual-adjacent mechanics and the monetization of time-limited levels.
- The Merge-2 with Meta genre is highly competitive, typically requiring over a year of development and refinement to achieve market success.
Top Selling Mobile Games: Nigeria 2023
The mobile gaming landscape in Nigeria experienced significant revenue generation during the first half of 2023, with the top ten titles collectively earning over $1.2 million.
- The top ten mobile games in Nigeria generated over $1.2 million in revenue during the first half of 2023.
- Candy Crush Saga was the highest-grossing mobile game in Nigeria for the first half of 2023, accounting for over $330,000 in revenue.
- May 2023 was the peak revenue-generating month for Candy Crush Saga, contributing more than $59,000 to its total.
AppMagic: The Most Downloaded and Highest-Grossing Mobile Games of September 2023
The global gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural transition, characterized by a shift toward digital-first distribution and the rising dominance of Asian publishers in mobile revenue.
- EA Sports FC 27, released on September 25, has become the highest-grossing paid new release of 2026 across Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox.
- The global video game market is projected to reach a record $213.9 billion in revenue by 2026, largely attributed to the anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto 6.
- In September 2023, 'Build A Queen' was the most downloaded mobile game on Google Play with 15.9 million downloads, while 'Nextbots In Backrooms: Sandbox' had 12.8 million downloads, exclusively from Google Play.
Top 10 Hypercasual Games: Q3 2023
The hypercasual gaming market experienced a contraction in the third quarter of 2023, with total global installs falling to 3.5 billion from 3.8 billion in the previous quarter.
- The hypercasual gaming market experienced an 8% decrease in total installs from Q2 to Q3 2023, dropping from 3.8 billion to 3.5 billion, and a year-on-year decline from 4 billion installs in Q3 2022.
- Tier-1 East was the only region to show positive growth in Q3 2023, with a 7% rise in downloads to 113 million, while Tier-1 West declined by 10% (to 529 million) and other countries by 7% (to 2.8 billion).
- Newcomers to the top 10 hypercasual games in Q3 2023 include "My Perfect Hotel" (28M installs), "Magic Piano Tiles: music game" (26M installs), and "Twerk Race 3D — Running Game" (22M installs).
Top Selling Mobile Games of 2023: Egypt
The mobile gaming market in Egypt demonstrates significant revenue-generating potential, challenging perceptions regarding the viability of strategic investment within the African continent.
- The top 10 revenue-generating mobile games in Egypt collectively earned $5.6 million during the first half of 2023.
- PUBG Mobile dominated the Egyptian market, generating over $1.1 million in revenue during the first six months of 2023.
- FIFA Soccer ranked as the second highest-grossing mobile title in Egypt, accounting for more than $650,000 in revenue during the same period.
Top Selling Mobile Games: Algeria (H1 2023)
The mobile gaming market in Algeria demonstrated consistent revenue growth throughout the first half of 2023, driven by a strong appetite for established shooter and strategy titles.
- PUBG Mobile remains the top-grossing mobile game in Algeria, generating over $60,000 in revenue during the first half of 2023.
- The top ten mobile games in Algeria generated a combined revenue of over $167,000 during the first six months of 2023.
- Rise of Kingdom and Age of Origins: Tower Defense were the second and third highest-grossing titles in the first half of 2023, earning $44.5k and $22.3k respectively.
Top Selling Mobile Games of 2022: Africa
The mobile gaming landscape in Africa during 2022 was characterized by the dominance of established international titles, though localized engagement and development efforts remain notable.
- South Africa is the highest revenue-generating market among those analyzed, with Candy Crush Saga alone earning over $7 million in 2022, followed by Coin Master at $5.3 million and Roblox at $3 million.
- Global hyper-casual and established IP titles dominate the top-grossing and free-to-play charts across Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa, with Subway Surfers and Candy Crush Saga appearing consistently.
- In Egypt, PUBG Mobile was a top performer, generating over $4 million in revenue during 2022.
Casual Mobile Gaming in H1 2023
The mobile gaming market in Tier-1 Western countries—comprising Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US—experienced significant shifts during the first half of 2023.
- The casual mobile gaming market in Tier-1 Western countries is experiencing increased saturation, leading to a notable decline in success rates for new releases across most categories.
- The Merge-2 subgenre saw a 60% increase in monthly revenue during H1 2023, though the market has become inaccessible to new entrants with no new titles achieving significant success.
- The Idle RPG sector grew by approximately 20% in monthly revenue in H1 2023, bolstered primarily by successful new releases from South Korean developers.
Mobile Gaming in 2022
The mobile gaming industry experienced a difficult 2022, marked by the first-ever decline in global user spending, which fell by approximately 5%.
- Global mobile gaming user spending declined by approximately 5% in 2022, marking the first such contraction in the industry's history.
- The Merge-2 subgenre experienced a 102% year-over-year revenue increase, while the Match-3 Tile subgenre grew by 85% through the integration of timers and decoration meta-elements.
- Core gaming segments struggled significantly, with shooter games recording a 30% year-over-year drop in cumulative revenue.
Hypercasual Market: Q4 2022
The hypercasual gaming market experienced a slight contraction in the final quarter of 2022, signaling a shift in industry momentum.
- The hypercasual game market saw a slight overall growth in 2022, with 15.5 billion annual installs, a 5% increase from 2021.
- Despite annual growth, Q4 2022 downloads for hypercasual games decreased by 7% compared to Q4 2021 (3.68B vs 3.97B) and by 2% quarter-on-quarter from Q3 2022 (3.68B vs 3.79B).
- Regional download dynamics in 2022 showed a decrease in Tier 1 West (5% drop) and Tier 1 East (8% drop) regions, while other countries collectively experienced a 7% increase.
Top Mobile Games by Revenue and Downloads: November 2022
The mobile gaming market in November 2022 experienced notable shifts in both download volume and revenue generation, as captured by global performance data.
- Goddess of Victory: Nikke emerged as a significant new revenue generator in November 2022, topping Android revenue charts and reaching fifth on iOS, earning $94 million across both platforms.
- The game's revenue, however, showed a decline by the end of November, dropping from $5.8 million to $1.7 million daily, suggesting its peak might be short-lived.
- The top downloaded games chart saw considerable changes, with previous leader Gangster Crime disappearing and recent hits like Stumble Guys and Survivor.io losing positions.
Hypercasual Market: Q3 2022
The hypercasual mobile gaming market experienced a slight contraction in the third quarter of 2022, with total global downloads reaching 4 billion. This figure represents a 10% decline compared to the previous quarter.
- Total hypercasual game downloads in Q3 2022 reached 4 billion, a 10% decrease from Q2 2022.
- Despite the quarterly drop, 2022 year-over-year downloads are projected to slightly surpass 2021 by 5-7%, primarily driven by growth in developing countries, while developed countries show a slight decrease.
- Several 'old-timer' hypercasual games like Bridge Race, Race Master 3D - Car Racing, Tall Man Run, and Going Balls maintained positions in the Q3 2022 top 10 downloads.