The growth in mobile game downloads and revenue was believed only due to the pandemic and was expected to shrink once everything gets normal but the data proved it wrong. The global mobile games revenue grew by 25% year-over-year in Q1 2021 across the App Store and Google Play, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data reveals. The worldwide consumer spending of mobile apps cloaked $31.8 billion, with App Store contributing $20.4 billion and Google Play’s share corresponds to $11.4 billion. Out of the $31.8 billion revenue, mobile games contributed a whopping $22.2 billion that’s a 25% jump from that of Q1 2020.
Out of the $22.2 billion global mobile games revenue, Google Play contributed $9.2, up from $7.0 billion from last year. Share of the App Store was $13.0 billion, up from $10.7 billion from last year. It’s clear that people spend more on the app store but the spending growth in Google Play was 31% compared to 21% of App Store. This shows that the difference between the two platforms is shrinking.
PUBG Mobile became the top-earning mobile game
PUBG Mobile became the top-earning mobile game across the globe including data from Google Play and App Store. The report also mentions that PUBG Mobile, including its Chinese localization Game For Peace, recently surpassed $5 billion in lifetime earnings. PUBG Mobile was followed by Honor of Kings and Genshin Impact at the number 2 and 3 respectively. Coin Master from Israeli studio Moon Active topped the chart of top-earning mobile games on Google Play.
If we observe the list of top 10 global mobile games revenue earned in Q1 2021, then it includes a diversified genre of games from Casual and Puzzle genre to Battle Royale. This shows that the mobile gaming community is very diversified and the developers can make revenue from any genre if they focus on quality. Not only the genre but also the list includes newly launched games like Genshin Impact and all-time hit games like Roblox and Pokémon Go. In fact, Roblox and Pokémon Go experienced 77% and 80% growth respectively in revenue in comparison with Q1 2020.
Join Clash 3D became the most downloaded mobile game
Total downloads of mobile games crossed the 14 billion mark if we combine the numbers from both Google Play and the App Store. Racing adventure mobile game Join Clash 3D topped the leaderboard of the most downloaded mobile game followed by Innersloth’s popular title Among Us at number 2. Match-3 puzzler Project Makeover topped the chart of most downloaded mobile games on the App Store in Q1 2021.
Interestingly, the list includes almost a decade-old endless runner mobile game Subway Surfers at number 7 of most downloaded mobile game. Last year, the list was topped by Garena Free Fire followed by PUBG Mobile. Majority of the most downloaded game of Q1 2021 includes casual and puzzle genres depicting the mood of the mobile gaming community. It will be interesting to note the developments in mobile gaming as many popular PC games are scheduled to be launched soon.
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