Game Radar – August
This short report is a continuation of a previous report of the same type, which was published 4 weeks ago and focuses on games that have generated notable revenue for the first time (or after a significant gap of several years) and based on an AppMagic data. A more detailed explanation of how this report is compiled can be found in the “Methodology” section.
This issue features as many as eight games, plus one that should have made it in but was left out due to technical reasons. All the staple genres of fresh top-grossing titles are represented from arcade puzzles to 4X strategies, along with several RPGs. There’s even a game that broke into the top 10 of the US Top Grossing charts on both platforms. While one might expect a summer slowdown, there’s clearly no room to relax. The chart below illustrates each game’s ranking (Y-axis) over the corresponding weeks (X-axis).
DC Worlds Collide (Google Play + iTunes)
DC Worlds Collide is a turn-based RPG with a superhero gacha, based on the DC franchise and developed by Warner Bros. Games San Francisco . This year has already seen several similar titles enter the US Top 200, for example, the recent DC: Dark Legion from FunPlus , but so far, none have turned into major long-term success stories. DC Worlds Collide is well-made: visually, its style references animated series rather than live-action movies, and in terms of gameplay, battles account for multiple factors, with a broad and branching upgrade tree that also creates strong monetization potential. US revenues have been stable since week one on both platforms, with downloads also having leveled off. The current total of $2M in the US (just under $6M globally) could give the developers six to twelve months to prove the game’s potential for long-term growth and justify further investment, otherwise, it’s unlikely to last more than two years.
Lost Sword (Google Play)
Lost Sword is an autobattler (Idle RPG) from Korean developer WEMADE , where players manage a team of female warriors acquired through a gacha system. The game has already generated $11M (making it the developer’s third-highest earner), primarily in South Korea, and is now attempting to replicate that success in the US, but so far, the results don’t compare. Lost Sword relies on high monetization from a very small user base, over the last four weeks, it saw 120K downloads with an RpD of $7.5. This performance is likely driven not only by its gacha mechanics but also by romance elements with the female team members, including the ability to “chat” and “give gifts.” An iOS version is also available, but the game has found little traction on that platform.
MARVEL Mystic Mayhem (Google play + iTunes)
As noted earlier this year, there has been a surge of games based on superhero franchises, but few have achieved significant success, especially in the RPG genre. MARVEL Mystic Mayhem is one such title, developed by NetEase Games and visually adapted for Western audiences. It is currently generating around $400K in the US (its primary market, for obvious reasons) across both platforms. With a $5.4 RpD in the US and just over 500,000 downloads in more than six weeks, this is hardly the kind of performance that a company as large as NetEase Games would consider a major success. As a result, the project’s future looks uncertain, especially against the backdrop of a broader trend of declining popularity for well-known superhero franchises.
Palmon: Survival (Google play + iTunes)
4X strategy games are a constant presence in our updates on newly profitable titles appearing more often than merge or even hypercasual games. This time, it’s Palmon: Survival, launched by Lilith Games, the company behind hits like Rise of Kingdoms and AFK Arena (each having generated over $1B globally). Palmon: Survival incorporates hypercasual elements, with the player’s base managed by a character moving around it in real time, as well as “Pokémon”-style creature collection, with those creatures later fighting alongside the player. The game was heavily promoted in the US late last year, though something seems to have gone wrong at that time. Currently, its RpD is around $6.7 at week 20 post-launch. For comparison, in Lilith’s other, and not even most profitable, title AFK Journey, RpD exceeded $7 as early as week 3–4.
Silver and Blood: Requiem (Google play)
These past few weeks have been marked by a wave of team-based RPGs. Silver and Blood: Requiem is a vampire-themed title from Chinese developer MOONTON, best known for its MOBA strategy game Mobile Legends. The game was clearly built with the ambition of being the most stylish and visually striking entry in the genre. However, its dark fantasy setting and atmosphere are likely to appeal only to a narrow, niche audience that enjoys this particular combination. To date, the game has generated $10M in revenue, but only 10% of that comes from the US. Most likely, the title will continue to grow, but primarily thanks to its earnings from the Asian market.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby (Google play + iTunes)
Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a well-known phenomenon – a game that managed to reach #5 in the US by revenue. It’s an idle-style title where the player trains a team of “horse girls” (Japan) and competes against other teams. Horse girls are acquired through gacha, and can also be bred from two other horse girls (Japan). The game has been live in Japan for quite some time, so its US launch came with a large amount of content and highly polished mechanics right from the start. The total number of downloads is relatively small, 1.4M, and has been declining for five consecutive weeks. The revenue breakdown (over $17M) is worth a closer look: earnings are roughly equal between Google Play and iOS, but on iTunes there was one day when revenue spiked 13x and then fell back almost to previous levels. On Google Play, revenue roughly tripled and stayed elevated for three weeks. The reason is that on mobile, that specific day marked the first event where players could pay to obtain the horse girls featured on the cover (the third image shows one of the two horse girls that alone generated over $10M from the US market). Most likely, this is a very narrow audience of long-time US fans finally getting access to their favorite game, and it’s almost unrelated to the 1.4M downloads, which probably came from the wave of YouTubers and streamers showcasing what is, to Western eyes, a rather unusual game. This means that regular-period revenue will be much lower (under $700K/week), with spikes during 2–3 week events tied to selling specific horse girls.
Car Match – Traffic Puzzle (iTunes)
Car Match – Traffic Puzzle appears to be a successful experiment in blending puzzle and casual match-3 mechanics from Grand Games, the Turkish developer behind Magic Sort. The core gameplay involves collecting cars of the same color into a special slot (holder) in sets of three to clear them from the board and free up space. The game has reached a stable level of 80–90K installs per week and continues to steadily grow its revenue, although it seems to have plateaued over the last two weeks at around $400K per week, which is still roughly half of what its predecessor was making at its peak.
Panthia: Magic & Merge Game (iTunes)
Panthia: Magic & Merge Game is a classic, even old-school, merge title that launched in early 2024. It was developed by the Chinese studio Playorcas, also responsible for the lesser-known Infinity 8 Ball™ Pool King. Panthia is far from being the most advanced merge game and had been slowly climbing toward the #200 position in the top grossing chart. However, installs suddenly spiked by 7x for a couple of weeks before dropping back down, though still remaining 2–3x higher than before. This surge allowed the game to reach the #150-160 range in the charts.
Necessary mentions.
Persona5: The Phantom X made it into the chart, but due to this report’s delayed release, it did not appear in our main list. However, it’s worth noting that the high expectations for its launch were not met. While the first weeks’ revenues were on par with top-tier games of similar quality, such as Genshin Impact and Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, by the fourth week interest had faded- downloads dropped well below 10K per week, with revenues following the same downward trend.
Methodology.
The games featured in this report are sourced from the top-grossing charts on Google Play and iTunes, which list the top 200 games in the US. AppMagic collects and aggregates chart data at different intervals, with the initial dataset sourced from AppMagic‘s API. To be included in this report, a game must have appeared in the top 200 for at least three random weeks within the last four weeks. Additionally, the game must not have appeared in the top 200 within the past year prior to this period. This report is updated every four weeks accordingly.
