Sensor Tower

Research

118 documents

Documents

Report30 pages

The State of Mobile Game Advertising: An Analysis of U.S. Mobile Game Advertising Trends in 2021

Mobile game advertising in the U.S. remained resilient through H1 2021, showing no immediate negative impact from the deprecation of IDFA.
Playable ads have become a dominant creative format, accounting for over 40 percent of the gaming share of voice on AppLovin.
Specialized ad networks like AppLovin, Chartboost, and Vungle maintain a gaming-focused inventory exceeding 90 percent share of voice, while platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube provide broader audience reach.

Marketing Advertising Mobile+1

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report42 pages

Mobile Game Taxonomy Report 2021

Hypercasual games became the dominant volume leader in 2020 with 6.3 billion downloads, a 123% year-over-year increase that surpassed the Arcade genre.
RPG and Strategy titles maintained their financial stronghold, collectively generating 50% of the total global revenue among top-performing mobile games.
Simulation games experienced the highest spending growth in 2020, recording a 56% increase in consumer expenditure.

Market Analysis Monetization Global+1

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report78 pages

The State of Mobile Gaming: An Analysis of Mobile Gaming Market Trends and Top Titles in the U.S., Europe, and Asia

The mobile gaming market is bifurcated between mature markets like the U.S., Japan, and China, which generate the bulk of global revenue, and emerging regions like India and Brazil, which drive the majority of download volume.
Hyper-casual games are the fastest-growing segment, surging from 757 million installs in Q1 2018 to over 3.4 billion in Q1 2021, representing more than 30% of all mobile downloads.
Freemium models are the industry standard, accounting for 99% of App Store revenue, while subscription models remain a minority, utilized by only 29% of top U.S. games.

Market Analysis Mobile North America+2

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report26 pages

The State of Card Battler Mobile Games

Card-battlers are a high-growth segment of mid-core strategy, accounting for 34% of total strategy revenue and experiencing a 17% revenue increase in Q1 2021.
The U.S. market is capturing a larger share of player spending, growing to 27% of global revenue in H1 2021, a six-percentage-point increase year-over-year.
Card-battlers demonstrate strong monetization potential with a U.S. Revenue Per Download (RPD) of $19, which is double the global average and represents the fastest RPD growth (175%) among strategy sub-genres in H1 2021.

Market Analysis Mobile Card Battler+1

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report80 pages

Store Intelligence Data Digest: Q4 2021

Global mobile app downloads reached 144.2 billion in 2021, with Q4 alone contributing 36.1 billion installs, a 2.7% year-over-year increase.
Meta and Google maintained market dominance as the world’s top publishers, each surpassing 600 million downloads in the fourth quarter.
Business app installs remained significantly elevated, more than doubling 2019 pre-pandemic levels, while Medical apps also sustained higher-than-normal activity.

Market Analysis Global Mobile

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report27 pages

Mobile Game Store Asset Optimization Trends 2021

The release of iOS 15 in late 2021 introduced native A/B testing for up to 90 days and the ability to create 35 unique Custom Product Pages, enabling highly targeted audience acquisition.
Top-performing publishers are aligning App Store screenshots and icons with high-performing ad creatives—such as Playrix and Nexters' 'Pull the Pin' ads—to reduce user acquisition costs and minimize conversion friction.
Successful mobile game publishers treat store assets as dynamic marketing tools rather than static elements, frequently updating them to reflect seasonal events, anniversaries, and live operations.

App Store Optimization Market Analysis User Acquisition+2

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report25 pages

An Analysis of IPs in U.S. Mobile Gaming

Licensed IP titles represent only 9% of the U.S. mobile market but account for 23% of total player spending and 17% of all installs.
Video game franchises are the primary drivers of IP revenue, contributing one-third of the total, followed by manga (13%), television (12%), and comics (10%).
Action, shooter, and role-playing games rely most heavily on licensed IP, with these genres deriving 64%, 45%, and 47% of their respective revenues from such titles.

Market Analysis Mobile USA

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report73 pages

Store Intelligence Data Digest: Q1 2021

Global mobile app downloads reached 36.6 billion in Q1 2021, an 8.7% year-over-year increase driven by a 15.3% surge in Google Play installs.
Hypercasual games dominated the mobile gaming sector, accounting for over half of the top 20 titles on Google Play with publishers like Voodoo, AppLovin, and Crazy Labs maintaining market leadership.
Crash Bandicoot: On the Run achieved a strong market entry with 23.6 million downloads and nearly $700,000 in consumer spending during its first week.

Market Analysis Mobile Global+2

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report25 pages

Intellectual Property in the Mobile Games Market 2021: An Analysis of IPs in U.S. Mobile Gaming

While IP-based games represent only 9 percent of the total U.S. mobile market, they account for 23 percent of player spending and 17 percent of all downloads.
Video game-based IPs are the leading category, generating one-third of all licensed mobile game revenue in 2020.
Manga is the fastest-growing IP category, experiencing a 54 percent year-over-year revenue increase.

Market Analysis Mobile USA+3

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report30 pages

Mobile Ad Creative Report: August 2021

Mobile gaming ads in August 2021 shifted toward high-fidelity, narrative-driven content featuring real-world celebrity partnerships, such as Garena Free Fire’s collaboration with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Call of Duty Mobile’s integration of Ozuna.
Top-performing creatives are increasingly moving away from pure gameplay footage in favor of cinematic storytelling, anniversary-themed promotions, and interactive elements like Buzzfeed-style quizzes.
Psychological triggers remain a core engagement strategy, with 'fail-state' ads—demonstrating a player losing a level—continuing to drive performance for titles like Royal Match and Evony.

Creative Ads Marketing Global+1

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report26 pages

An Analysis of the Card Battler Sub‑Genre 2021

The card battler sub-genre reached a new revenue baseline exceeding $55 million per month in the first half of 2021, driven by a 17 percent quarterly revenue increase.
The United States has become a critical market, accounting for 27 percent of global player spending and experiencing a 53 percent increase in revenue per download during the first half of 2021.
Market leadership is dominated by established intellectual properties, with Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links and Hearthstone leading in lifetime earnings and Magic: The Gathering Arena entering the top ten shortly after its March 2021 launch.

Market Analysis Card Battler Mobile+1

Sensor TowerJan 2021

Report53 pages

2021-2025 Mobile Market Forecast

By 2025, global mobile consumer spending is projected to reach $270 billion, with annual downloads expected to hit 230 billion.
Non-gaming applications are projected to surpass gaming revenue on the Apple App Store by 2024, driven by a shift toward subscription-based business models.
The Apple App Store and Google Play continue to drive the market with compound annual growth rates of 21% and 17%, respectively.

Market Analysis Market Forecast Monetization+2

Sensor TowerJan 2021