Casual Casino: Behind the Locked Doors 🗝️

In 2024, the genre saw a 60% revenue surge and a 24% drop in downloads. While the revenue growth is impressive, its structure tells a more important story:

🎲 Monopoly GO! dominates—Scopely’s hit alone generates over 50% of the genre’s revenue.
💰 Playtika owns 4 out of the top 10 after spending $2.3B+ on two recent acquisitions.

With 80% of revenue coming from just three games and only one new release hitting our $50k/month success benchmark, it’s clear—breaking into this genre is tough, even for the big guys 🤯

Still, Casual Casino is buzzing with innovation in LiveOps, monetization, and event design—offering valuable lessons for the entire industry! ✍️

Eager to learn more? Check out our Casual Games Report 2024: https://appmagic.rocks/research/casual-gaming-2024?utm_source=AMTelegram

Top 10 Tripeaks Solitaire Games: Can King’s New Release Ace the Market?♣️

Candy Crush Solitaire is going global today! But is the market welcoming? Let’s find out! 👀

💸 Just 2 games dominate over 80% of the market revenue in 2024, while the majority of top 10 faced the revenue decline in 2024 compared to 2023.

👑 Solitaire Grand Harvest dominates with $213M revenue in 2024, leading its closest rival by over 70%.

😮‍💨 Meanwhile, 7 out of the top 10 didn’t even hit $10M per year.

While the two leaders have been controlling the market for a long time, Monopoly GO! showed us that big shifts can happen fast, right? 🚀

Check out top 10 on AppMagic’s Market Segment Dashboard: https://appmagic.rocks/top-charts/apps?tag=243536,243762&aggregation=year&date=2024-01-01&utm_source=AMTelegram

Match 3D: The Rise of New Market Leaders 💣

Match 3D revenue doubled this year, outpacing download growth—driven by fresh noscripts! ⭐️

🔥 Match Factory! took over in less than a year, now holding 42% of the market and surpassing longtime leader Triple Match 3D, which saw a 43% revenue drop in 2024.

🎭 Four new games made it into the top 10, including Match Villa and Match Frenzy, tapping into viral “gross” aesthetics like pimple popping and dirt cleaning.

💰 1 in 3 new noscripts crossing the $50K/month benchmark also uses this trend!

What’s fueling this success? A shift from hypercasual to casual. How? Find out in our Casual Games Report 2024: https://appmagic.rocks/research/casual-gaming-2024?utm_source=AMTelegram

Solitaire Grand Harvest: Leading The Solitaire Tripeaks Pack with $1B Revenue ⭐️

Solitaire Grand Harvest continues to dominate the Solitaire TriPeaks market, holding 67% of total revenue in 2024💰

After surpassing Tiki Solitaire TriPeaks in 2019, it now leads by 75% in 2024 revenue 🚀

Supertreat, the studio behind Solitaire Grand Harvest, was acquired by Playtika in 2019 💼

Once again, they’ve proven their skill in scaling acquisitions, with Solitaire Grand Harvest’s annual revenue going up from $22M in 2018 to $213M in 2024 🧐

👉 Explore the genre leader’s public AppMagic page here:
https://appmagic.rocks/google-play/solitaire-grand-harvest/net.supertreat.solitaire?utm_source=AMTelegram

New Blog Post by Ilkka Confirms Our Takes on Squad Busters 🚀

Back in June 2024, we published our Squad Busters deconstruction—one of the most-read articles on our website: https://appmagic.rocks/research/squad-busters-revenue?utm_source=AMTelegram

We covered everything from skipping soft launch to reusing old content and the challenge of balancing midcore and casual audiences. ✍️

But the main idea we carried through the text was best summed up in this line:

“Supercell isn’t afraid to admit its mistakes and continuously works to fix what didn’t land at launch.”

Since then, Squad Busters has gone through many changes that confirm this approach. And now, Ilkka’s latest blog post proves it once again. 💪

Supercell’s willingness to experiment and refine its games is exactly what drives its long-term success! 🏆

Kudos to the Squad Busters team—we can’t wait to see what’s next in 2025! 🎉

Sort Puzzle: The Hottest Genre Of 2024 🔥

The genre saw explosive 460% YoY revenue growth in 2024! Already popular in Tier-1 West, it made a breakthrough by finding the right monetization strategies 💪

🤩 6 out of the top 10 grossing games are 2024 newcomers.
👑 Newcomer Hexa Sort by Lion Studios replaced Block Jam 3D after its 15-month reign.
🍦Water Sort Puzzles are fading from the rankings, while a new theme of household goods sorting is gaining momentum.

Learn more how the genre evolved in 2024 in our new Casual Games Report: https://appmagic.rocks/research/casual-gaming-2024?utm_source=AMTelegram

New Trending Screw Puzzle: Screwdom 3D 🧩

Spotted at #3 in Top Trending for the last month, Screwdom 3D by iKame Games has been gaining traction since late January 2025, peaking at 297K daily installs on February 8 🚀

Today, the Screw Puzzle sub-genre is heating up, nearly rivaling Sort Puzzle in popularity—and iKame Games is riding the wave 🌊

In fact, another noscript from the publisher, Screw Out, already ranks #3 in lifetime revenue within the Screw Puzzle market 🔥

Could iKame Games become the new leader in the space? We’re eager to see their next hits and how they push the genre forward!

Screwdom 3D AppMagic public page is avaliable via the link for you to check out: https://appmagic.rocks/google-play/screwdom-3d/com.ig.screwdom?utm_source=AMTelegram

Color Block Jam: The New Leader of Block Puzzle Games 👑

New releases continue to flood the Top Trending chart, and this time, we’re focusing on #4—Color Block Jam by Rollic Games ⭐️

Since Nov 2024, the game has been steadily increasing its revenue, securing its position as a genre leader by Jan 2025 🥇

To put it into numbers, Color Block Jam’s revenue in Jan 2025 reached $2.39M and is nearly 4x higher than its closest competitor—and it’s still climbing! 🔥

In just a few months, it also claimed the #5 spot among Rollic’s top-grossing games 🚀

Will Color Block Jam maintain its dominance? We’re watching closely 👀

Have closer look at the game using its AppMagic public page: https://appmagic.rocks/iphone/color-block-jam/6504332779?utm_source=AMTelegram

Acquiring Niantic = Scopely Controlling 76% of the Location-Based Market

Scopely is reportedly in talks to acquire Niantic for $3.5B. If the deal goes through, it would be one of the biggest M&As in gaming history.

For us, this is a perfect moment to take a closer look at the genre and Niantic’s role in it:

🔷 Niantic owns 4 out of the top 10 location-based games, generating 76% of total market revenue. This is one of the most monopolized segments in gaming, with incredibly high entry barriers.

🔷 Having a major IP is almost essential in this market, yet even that doesn’t guarantee success. Despite its dominance, Niantic has seen multiple failures with noscripts based on Harry Potter, NBA, Transformers, Catan, and Marvel.

🔷 While Pikmin and Monster Hunter are performing better, they’re still far behind Pokémon GO, which alone accounts for 62% of the market.

🔷 Scopely is owned by UAE-based Savvy Games Group, one of the most active acquirers and investors in gaming and esports. This deal could be a strategic move to optimize operations by merging internal resources and scaling efficiencies across its companies.

Want to see how location-based gaming thrives on IP power?

Check out our public dashboard: https://appmagic.rocks/top-charts/apps?aggregation=year&date=2024-01-01&tag=243641&utm_source=AMTelegram

Mobile Game Publishers Heatmap in 2024 🥇

Kudos to Anton Slashcev for compiling this comprehensive list! Let’s review the publishers who boosted, maintained, or dropped their revenue in 2024, so we can learn valuable lessons 😉

🟢 Supercell: $1.44B (+79.8%) -
🟢 Dream Games: $1.5B (+57.64%)
🟢 Scopely: $1.98B (+57.93%)
🟢 Peak Games: $564.8M (+89.96%)
🟢 FUNFLY: $1.2B (+2893.14% - not a typo)
🟢 The Pokémon Company: $357.4M (+424.44%)
🟢 Paper Games: $345.5M (+673.23%)

𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗲𝗱?
🔴 Cognosphere: $1.3B (-24.76%)
🔴 NetEase: $1.97B (-10.47%)
🔴 Playrix: $1.7B (-11.65%)
🔴 NEXON: $259.5M (-36.62%)
🔴 Lingxi Games: $366.2M (-40.11%)
🔴 Zynga: $696.5M (-16.33%)
🔴 FunPlus: $445.1M (-22.88%)

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗚𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀:
🟡 Tencent: $7.8B (+10.79%)
🟡 King: $1.45B (-0.51%)
🟡 LINE Corporation: $776M (-1.64%)
🟡 Roblox: $1.18B (+24.1%)

The top 100 mobile game publishers generated $47.8B in 2024, marking a 7.32% increase.

How this year will turn out? Share you thoughts 👇

Semantic Core: How To Optimise Your ASO 🚀

Almost two months after Squid Game Season 2, inspired games are still trending in AppMagic’s Top Rankings: 456 Run Challenge: Clash 3D holds №2 this month! ⭐️

After Season 1, over 800 related games launched. Some remain, now joined by new ones. With such competition, how can your game stand out? 🤔

You need to help users find your game—this is where ASO optimization comes in:

🍪 AppMagic’s Semantic Core Graph identifies competitors with similar ASO and tracks success through revenue, downloads, and visibility. For 456 Run Challenge, only four games hit 1M+ installs—they are perferct for analysing their ASO.

🦑 Competitors’ Top Keywords reveal commonly used terms. For 456 Run Challenge, competitors often use “cookie game,” “squid,” or “cookie doodle.”

Once the core of your game is ready, ASO optimization can be a powerful tool to bring it to market.

Learn more about AppMagic’s Semantic Core Graph here 💡

Call of Duty Mobile Hits $3B in User Spending 🔥

Activision Publishing’s top-grossing and most-downloaded mobile game has reached a major milestone, now accounting for 97% of the publisher’s total mobile revenue 💰

Moreover, if we factor in the user spending from CoD Mobile Garena—a Southeast Asian version of the game—total user spending increases by an additional $340M!

The game has also maintained a stable monthly download rate, consistently ranging between 3M and 4M over the past two years 💪

A well-deserved applause for the studio’s ability to sustain both engagement and revenue for such an extended period! 👏

Don’t forget to check out the game’s public AppMagic card: https://appmagic.rocks/iphone/call-of-duty%28r%29-mobile/1287282214?utm_source=AMTelegram

Kill or Pivot: A Comprehensive Guide for Mobile Game Devs 🎯

Every developer hits a crossroads: keep iterating, pivot, or shut the game down and move on?

Together with Appodeal Publishing, we’ve put together a practical guide to help you make data-driven decisions 🤝

https://bit.ly/4bihiBP

Inside, we break down three essential questions every developer must ask:

📉 When is it time to pivot?
— Spot the warning signs early and identify opportunities to shift direction.

🔄 How to pivot smartly?
— Learn the best strategies to reposition your game for a better market fit without starting from scratch.

❌ When to walk away?
— Sometimes, the best move is to cut losses—but knowing when is the hardest part.

At the end of the article, you’ll find a practical checklist to help you navigate these tough decisions step by step. ✅

Read the full guide here:
https://bit.ly/4bihiBP

Checklist: Do You Need to Pivot Your Game? 🏎️

Every game developer faces a moment of doubt—should you push forward with your project or call it a day? 🏁

To help you navigate this decision, we’ve put together a checklist that will bring some clarity 💡

Once you've gone through it, the next step is to check out our report, created in partnership with Appodeal, to map out your pivot strategy: https://appmagic.rocks/blog/how-to-pivot-mobile-game?utm_source=AMTelegram

Top Grossing Mobile Game Publishers (2015-2024)

Huge shoutout to Anton Slashcev for this blockbuster video! 🔥

In just a few seconds, watch how the landscape shifted over 9 years—from Supercell leading with $550M in revenue to Tencent dominating the market with a staggering $51B.

Guess which company held its ground all along? King! ⭐️

Catch all the industry shake-ups in the video!

If you want to make other types of rankings, use AppMagic Top Publishers page.

How Original Games Boosted Merge Inn's ARPDAU by 13% with AppMagic Monetization Intelligence 🚀

🎯 Goal
Original Games aimed to boost revenue without altering the game’s core. Market research pointed to optimizing in-game offers as the best strategy.

🔑 Key Improvements
Using AppMagic’s Monetization Intelligence designed to analyse the most effective IAP offers, Original Games decided to implement the following changes:
— Double Offers Redesign
— Triple Offers Introduction
— 1+1 Offers Revamp

💰Results
A mix of monetization optimization and seasonal promotions allowed to enhance key US metrics:
— ARPDAU (IAP): +13.3%
— Conversion: +9.28%
— ATV: +1.74%

👉 Read the full case study for a deep dive into the analytical methodology and monetization strategies