No items found.
Over the last few decades, gaming has evolved from a niche hobby to one of the most common outlets for personal entertainment. Video games have become much more sophisticated, with enhanced graphics and engaging elements. Similarly, playing trends have also changed considerably over the years. Whereas it was once only possible to play games on a console connected to a TV, mobile gaming on devices like dedicated handheld consoles or smartphones allows people to play anywhere.
Because of its accessibility and the fact that more people own smartphones than gaming consoles, mobile gaming has become more popular than console or PC gaming in recent years. A 2023 YouGov survey of 48 countries, for example, found that 46 percent of people who identify as gamers spend time playing on mobile devices. Just 40 percent play on consoles or PC.
The mobile gaming market, expected to exceed $138 billion by 2025, includes a variety of genres, including hyper-casual, which usually feature only one core action and are relatively easy to play. Action, simulation, puzzle, and driving are among the other popular genres, each of which accounts for more than 1 billion downloads per year.
Below are four of the most prominent mobile games as of the beginning of 2024 in terms of downloads and revenue.
1. Monopoly Go!
While many of the top-grossing games on Google Play and the App Store are older and have an established player base, Monopoly Go! was released in 2023 and was the most downloaded iOS and Android mobile game as of early 2024. It was also the top game on Android devices based on revenue, ahead of Royal Match and Candy Crush Saga. Singular.net rated it as the most popular mobile game based on a metric that accounts for Android and iOS installs and revenue. Monopoly GO! scored 180, finishing first ahead of Royal Match (168) and Roblox (160).
Monopoly Go! is a free-to-play strategy game that is similar to the iconic Hasbro board game. However, it features new locations and characters and emphasizes social interaction, which has boosted downloads. Scopely, which also created Dice with Buddies and Mini Golf MatchUp, developed the title, releasing it in April 2023. This was its third collaboration with Hasbro. By early 2024, Monopoly Go! had already generated more than $135 million in revenue and was a top-five most downloaded free game in more than 100 countries.
Monopoly Go! had 14 million downloads and made $70 million in revenue in July 2023.
2. Roblox
According to Data.ai, Roblox was the third-most downloaded game on Android and fifth on iOS in early 2024. The game is an online platform in which people can build and interact with others in user-generated 3D worlds. Unlike Monopoly Go!, which is still in its infancy, Roblox has been around since 2006 and has become even more popular since the pandemic. It achieved 300 million monthly active players in May 2023, up from 121 million in February 2020 and only about 9 million at the start of 2016. It has about 70.2 million daily active players.
During Q3 2023, Roblox generated more than $713 million in revenue, more than double consumer spending in the same quarter in 2020. The platform has numerous unique user-created games, including MeepCity, Murder Mystery 2, and Brookhaven RP. The latter is the most popular, with more than 34 billion visits as of July 2023.
3. Genshin Impact
An open-world fantasy roleplaying game with cross-platform compatibility with PC and PlayStation, Genshin Impact didn't make the top-30 list of most downloaded games on iOS or Android in 2023. However, it was the highest-grossing mobile game in the App Store as of early 2024. Created by Chinese studio miHoYo, the game was released in September 2020. At that point it already had more than 10 million registrations. It was downloaded on more than 23 million smartphones within a week of its release and generated more than $400 million by January 2021.
While it's a free-to-play game, users can spend money on in-game purchases like weapons and materials to enhance the overall experience. The game generated $1.5 billion in revenue from in-app purchases in 2022 and had 4.8 million monthly active players, down from 7.9 million at its peak in September 2020.
4. Subway Surfers
Subway Surfers is another older game that has maintained longevity, although the classic hyper-casual game hasn't generated nearly as much revenue as some of the more successful recently released titles. An endless runner game inspired by the likes of Temple Run and Jetpack Joyride, Subway Surfer was released by developer Kiloo in May 2012. It went on to become the first mobile game to be downloaded 1 billion times on Google Play. Today, it is one of only a few apps (and the only mobile game) with more than 4 billion downloads.
TikTok channels highlighting the game helped its growth during the pandemic. Subway Surfer had 35 million monthly active players in 2022, up from 15 million in 2020. Even though it has been around for more than a decade, it was the 14th and 11th most-downloaded game on iOS and Android, respectively, in early 2024.
