Every Wednesday we break down the latest data, research and financial results into digestible chunks.
Read on for the numbers you need to know about without the fluff.
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Kingshot outpaces Whiteout Survival to hit $500m in 11 months
Century Games’ Kingshot hit $500m in net revenue (after fees) in its first 11 months, according to Appfigures data. That’s three months faster than the publisher’s last 4X strategy blockbuster, Whiteout Survival, reached the same milestone.
Notably, Whiteout Survival’s earnings haven’t really slowed down since Kingshot launched last February. The older game is still bringing in over $70m per month, and the titles earned approximately $140m in combined net revenue in January 2026.
The US market accounts for about 40% of Kingshot’s revenue, ahead of Japan and South Korea, then Germany and the UK. This is similar for Whiteout Survival.
Female players still overlooked, research suggests
The industry is sleeping on a “significant untapped audience” of potential female gamers, according to consumer research from Ampere Analysis.
Most notably, the data firm says female non-gamers are less resistant to gaming than men, with under half of those surveyed (47%) saying they would never consider playing, compared to 57% of male non-gamers.
Ampere found that women are less likely to cite cost and time as deterrents to playing games than men. However, gaming culture and community, as well as finding relevant, appropriate content and entry-level experiences, were identified as greater barriers for female non-gamers than male ones.
Casual games IAP revenue down 0.7% to $21bn in 2025
IAP revenue from the casual games market declined by 0.7% YoY in 2025, according to Appmagic’s latest report.
While the data firm says annual downloads rose by 8%, it estimates that revenue was almost flat at around $21bn, with puzzle and casino games accounting for over 72% of the total.
The puzzle genre led the way in both revenue and downloads, with the former up 7.6% YoY to $8.25bn, and the latter increasing 9.9% YoY to 7.7bn.
Match 3 was the top puzzle genre with $4.8bn in revenue (-0.1% YoY) and 811m downloads (-8% YoY). Merge followed with $1.4bn in revenue (+80% YoY) and 507m downloads (+9% YoY), ahead of match 2 blast with $466m in revenue (+0.8% YoY) and 62m downloads (-32% YoY).
Casino retained its place as the second biggest casual genre in 2025, despite IAP revenue declining 7.6% YoY to $6.9bn. Downloads were up 15.7% YoY to 1.7bn.
Its largest subgenres were Slot games with $2.7bn in revenue (-14% YoY) and 496m downloads (+2.7% YoY), coin looter with $2.4bn in revenue (-3% YoY) and 186m downloads (+11% YoY), and casino card games with $784m in revenue (-3% YoY) and 412m downloads (-0.5% YoY).
Simulation was the third-highest grossing casual genre in 2025, although revenue declined 4.8% YoY to $1.9bn, while downloads grew 5.3% YoY to 4.9bn.
Farming games generated half of this genre’s IAP earnings with $955m in revenue (-2% YoY), while downloads came in at 317m (+2.6% YoY). Time management titles were a distant second place with $135m in revenue (-12% YoY) and 509m downloads (-5.4% YoY), followed by life sims with $135m in revenue (+1.4% YoY) and 291m downloads (-2.6% YoY).
Monopoly Go leads January’s earnings chart with $134m
Monopoly Go has ended Last War’s three-month streak as the highest-earning mobile game worldwide, according to Appfigures estimates.
Scopely’s game brought in $133.8m (+10.6% MoM) in January, taking net revenue past $3.5bn since launch, while Funfly’s title earned $117.6m (-15.5% MoM).
The top five was completed by Honor of Kings with $110m (+89.7% MoM), Royal Match with $109.9m (+6.7% MoM), and Whiteout Survival with $101.6m (+0.6% MoM).
January’s top 10 generated $935m after platform store fees (+8% MoM).
Block Blast tops worldwide download chart for fourth month running
Block Blast held off Roblox for a fourth consecutive month to remain the world’s most-downloaded mobile game in January.
Based on Appfigures data, Hungry’s game achieved 25.2m downloads (-5.2m MoM) last month, while Roblox was downloaded 19.6m times (-0.8m MoM).
Subway Surfers charted at number three with 18.7m downloads (+3.2m MoM), followed by Pizza Ready with 15.6m (-0.9m MoM) and Vita Mahjong with 15.5m (+2.8m MoM).
The combined top 10 reached 152m downloads in January (+2m / +1.3% MoM).
Mobile games IAP revenue reached $20.6bn in Q4 2025
Mobile games IAP revenue from the App Store and Google Play in Q4 2025 rose by 1.5% year-over-year to $20.6bn.
That’s according to data from Sensor Tower, which published the estimate in its latest quarterly digital market index report.
While worldwide revenue from all iOS apps grew 6.8% YoY to $29.1bn, driven by non-games, games revenue actually fell 1% YoY to $12.87bn.
Google Play app revenue was up 15.2% YoY to $14.3bn, with Android games revenue rising 5.7% YoY to $7.74bn.
While non-game downloads reached a new high of 25.4bn in Q4, mobile game downloads declined by 10.7% YoY to 11.7bn.
Google Play game downloads fell 11.5% YoY to 9.82bn, while App Store game downloads dropped 9.3% to 1.85bn.
Strategy and puzzle games accounted for 45% of all gaming IAP revenue in Q4. Strategy revenue grew 9% YoY to reach $5.31bn, while puzzle revenue increased 21% YoY to $3.94bn.
The next three largest genres all experienced declines, with revenue from RPG games down 7% YoY to $3.29bn, casino down 4% to $2.79bn, and simulation falling 12% to $1.62bn.
When it came to downloads, the top three genres accounted for 60% of the total, but downloads declined for each of the top 10 genres on a YoY basis.
Puzzle games led the way with 2.42bn downloads (-8% YoY), followed by simulation titles with 2.38bn downloads (-9% YoY), and arcade games with 2.22bn downloads (-12% YoY).
Last War Survival generated the most IAP revenue for the fifth consecutive quarter. It came in ahead of Whiteout Survival, which leapfrogged Monopoly Go, and Royal Match and Candy Crush Saga.
Block Blast overtook Roblox to lead downloads in Q4, while Garena Free Fire, Pizza Ready and Subway Surfers rounded off the top five. Clash Royale was the only title to place in the top 10 in both revenue and downloads.