In the next years, mobile gaming (and in general, whole gaming) will be growing more by growing the average value per gamer than just by growing the number of gamers. Still, there are some regions where we will see incremental mobile gamers in the next years (based on Newzoo data from February 2025). Most of those incremental gamers will come from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
What are the trends and opportunities in different mobile gaming genres after the first few months of 2025? I did quite deep analysis (based on Sensor Tower data) and I am sharing part of it here. In that data: - each of the categories is presented with 2024 data (illustrating the growth from 2023 to 2024), - and with 2025 data (illustrating the growth from Jan-April 2024 vs Jan-April 2025) - Size of the bubble presents the in-app/subscriptions revenue (2025 is extrapolation from current data). - iOS data from China is excluded (I do not see it relevant for 99.9% of developers) - you can see the "journey" of specific genre in the last years.Limitations of the analysis - the data does not include web stores data - for that reason especially core gaming genres will be a little underrepresented […]
An estimated 80,000 new mobile apps are added each month, with mobile games accounting for approximately 10-15% of this total...😲 (based on 42matters data) With that each of stores has ~2 mln apps in total. Of course majority of downalods and revenue comes from small number of them (around 50% of those Google Play and 60% of iOS apps have not received a single rating).On the other side of the story, number of apps is rather declining than growing (comparing with some 2024 data). ...
We can see on data (two data sources: AppsFlyer and Adjust) that the retention rates in gaming is slightly declining. Of course there are still games with exceptional retention rates + there are some genres that got into "casualisation" trend so its data is improving, although once we talk about average data, the trend is visible... What is the reason? Too much content and too many games? Strong focus on advertising and Growth that is moving away users from one game to another? Much more focus on monetisation than on retention? Focusing on low hanging fruits, known patterns - so finally there is not so much innovation in the games? #mobilegaming #insights #retention
Revenue concentration (in-app + subscriptions) in mobile apps (gaming + non-gaming) is crazy.... It is huge market, although at the same time 66% of revenue in 2025 (based on Sensor Tower, Jan-April 2025 data) comes from apps that were built in 2019 and earlier.Interesting aspects ▪️ Just 1% of revenue in 2025 came from apps that were built in 2025 ▪️ Revenue concentration in subscriptions + in-app is actually higher in mobile non-gaming apps than in mobile gaming apps (it is different market, although not necessarily easier) ▪️ From positive side share of revenue from apps that are 2-3 years old is pretty high already (16% already so for sure that share will increase till end of the year)What it means? 👑 As I was mentioning a few times already, apps market is getting "the winner takes all" type of […]
Really good session about importance of device optimisation (presented at Google Playtime 2024). Unique knowledge based on Google Play data. - On Google Play 65% of revenue comes from low and mid tier devices in all regions- Potential problems in technical performance are more heavily influencing monetisation on "Low", "Mid" devices than on "High" devices. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZbnEIUJk5w&ab_channel=AndroidDevelopers
What is happening in mobile gaming after 2024 and Q1 2025? We can look at Sensor Tower to see what is happening there (each category is presented with 2024 data illustrating the growth from 2023 to 2024, and with 2025 data illustrating the growth from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025; size of the bubble presents the in-app/subscriptions revenue). Based on the data, we can see that 🔹 iOS is heavily driven by casual genres (Casual, Puzzle, Card games have very strong data) 🔹 evan casual genres have strong revenue concentration in top titles 🔹 core genres on iOS are starting the year with worse results than in 2024
It seems that we have some stabilisation in mobile gaming business. Based on Sensor Tower mobile gaming (excluding China) in Q1 2025 grew by 2% YoY (with iOS growing 5% YoY and Android declining -5% YoY). Once we look at the data, we can see that: ▪️ It is more and more a fight for attention - for the last quarter's revenue grows faster than downloads; it is easier to increase the monetisation ofthe user base than that user base ▪️ most likely, the real growth of mobile gaming is higher (the worst results are in hardcore and core gaming, where some additional direct-to-consumer payments are getting some popularity) ▪️ In the next months, we can expect a relatively low, although stable, growth rate of the mobile gaming business.
What does mobile game monetization look like in 2025? I examined this from a data perspective, focusing on recent Sensor Tower data (March 2024 - February 2025). Below is data showing the percentage of revenue and downloads in mobile gaming for games with specific monetization features. So we see the following: 🔸 F2P is the king, and paid games hardly exist on mobile 🔸 Currency bundles and Live ops are becoming the standard now for in-app games 🔸 Subscription and season pass are moving to heavy in-app games 🔸 Lootbox is a topic in bigger games 🔸 It is still not a year of NFT and Crypto in mobile gaming :).
Mobile gaming is still growing, but a big chunk of the revenue comes from older games. The data shows this clearly (based on Sensor Tower): more than 50% of in-app and subscription revenue is from six or older games. That's why there was so much talk about new growth strategies at the recent GDC, like more creative user acquisition, using IPs in games, web gaming, new platforms, different business models, deeper hybrid monetisation, etc. The problem is, this makes it harder to get a clear picture of mobile gaming's real growth, especially in categories where revenue is coming in through less traditional ways. Current data systems might struggle to track this, at least for now. It'll be interesting to see how this evolves...
In recent years, there have been many changes within the iOS ecosystem (both on gaming and non-gaming side). As my report about iOS from 2024 got pretty good attention, I decided to refresh it for new data. I hope it will be useful :). ▪️ What does the current iOS ecosystem look like? ▪️ iPhone vs iPad performance ▪️ In which countries does iOS have a strong presence, and where is it less dominant? ▪️ How does iOS perform across different mobile gaming and non-gaming genres?All details about iOS in 2022-2024 you can find in my report 📕 📕 📕 - more than 60 pages with different data analyses, data points around iPhone/iPad, iOS in mobile gaming, iOS in non-gaming apps (from various data sources).#ios #mobilegaming #mobileapps #mobilegames #iphone #ipad
Monetization in emerging markets presents a significant challenge. However, given the slowing download growth across most mobile categories (both gaming and non-gaming), it's a crucial consideration for any growth strategy. This is particularly true because data reveals that users in emerging markets, especially younger audiences, demonstrate much higher engagement and spend significantly more time on their mobile devices compared to their Western counterparts.Compelling data from GWI's 2024 research highlights the amount of time users in various age groups spend on mobile. This data suggests that markets like Indonesia and Brazil are poised to be key drivers of mobile growth in the coming years.#insights #data #mobile #mobilegaming #nongaming
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