Casual Report H1 2025: Growing, Declining and Hanging In There Genres

Last week, we released our staple mid-year report on the Casual games market 🔥

We know your time is precious, so here are three key insights to help you turn the Casual market to your advantage:

1️⃣ Match-3, Merge-2, and Farming genres keep growing — a proof that even mature noscripts can reach new all-time highs with the right LiveOps and monetization strategies.

2️⃣ Match 3D has declined after a major peak and is now stabilizing at revenue levels far below the Casual top tier.

3️⃣ Casual Casino is recalibrating after the explosive success of Monopoly Go!, settling into a new post-boom normal.

⭐️ And finally — there’s a new rising star among genres, with one of its subgenres growing 12x in revenue YoY!

Which one is it? We’ve got the answer in the report — go take a look 😉

Top 10 Casual Subgenres H1 2025 Worldwide

In H1 2025, global Casual games revenue grew by 0.8% year-over-year (YoY), reaching $12B in net IAP revenue 🔥

Three genres — Puzzle, Casino, and Simulation — generated 80% of the total. Puzzle showed a confident 14% YoY growth, driven by mature hits like Royal Match and Candy Crush Saga, which together accounted for 30% of the genre’s revenue in H1 2025.

Casino saw a decline after the 2024 revenue peak of Monopoly Go!, with the genre now settling into a new normal as the game’s numbers stabilise 🧘

The fastest-growing genre among the top 10 was Arcade, up 26% YoY to $316M, powered by the 2023 release — Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon. In H1 2025, the game’s monthly revenue is already on par with the all-time favourite Gold & Goblins: Mining Games.

Learn more about Casual genre trends in our latest report 💡

Casual Games + LiveOps: Two Must-Read Reports This August

The last few weeks were quite insightful for the industry, as AppMagic released two major reports.

If you missed them, here’s a quick way to catch up:

👉 Start with the Casual Report H1 2025 to find out which genres are on the rise and still have a low entry barrier

👉 Continue with the Casual LiveOps Report H1 2025 to learn which LiveOps mechanics showed the best results

So, if you’re already working in the Casual genre or just planning to enter it, you’ll get a handful of insights to successfully advance your game 😎

Singular Released Q3 2025 Trends Report Backed by AppMagic Intelligence

We’re glad to announce that our partners at Singular released their new quarterly report featuring some extra special insights on mobile apps and game genres — powered by AppMagic data 😉

Alongside the hottest genres, the report also uncovers:
— Global ad spend trends
— Regional trends in key metrics (CPI, CTR, COM, IPM)
— Monetization trends
— Singular ROI Index 2025

Smart insights for effective strategies of tomorrow await you here 💡

Mytona Arrived at $1B User Spending

In the past few years, Mytona has reached a steady IAP revenue plateau, averaging $4.5M a month.

Most of this revenue comes from two noscripts:

1️⃣ Seekers Notes: Hidden Objects — responsible for 58% of the publisher’s lifetime revenue. The game also ranks among the top two in the Hidden Objects genre, accounting for 14% of the market lifetime revenue.

2️⃣ Cooking Diary: Restaurant Game — contributes 39% of Mytona’s total revenue and 0.6% of the Simulation genre lifetime revenue.

Explore more on Mytona’s public page at AppMagic ✨

Grok vs ChatGPT: Holding the top two spots in the market, these apps seem close. But in reality, they’re worlds apart:

This July, a new version of Elon Musk’s Grok was released with live web + X search and automatic LLM selection. But let’s be honest — the real buzz came from the anime assistant girl.

The buzz was so loud, that in just three days after launch, Grok’s daily revenue jumped 5x to $390K 🚀

Check out yourself!

Soon after, ChatGPT rolled out its own update with automatic model selection. Everything got smoother, smarter — and yes, finally no more confusing model switcher UI. The effect on revenue though was there: +11%, up to $7.3M daily.

Though both apps sit at the top of the AI Chatbot charts, Grok’s revenue is still 30x smaller 🤯

It’s clear ChatGPT was the first app to truly make AI mainstream — and breaking that dominance won’t be easy.

Top 10 Hybridcasual Games in Q2 2025: How Voodoo & Rollic Took Over

Striking 2x YoY revenue growth — and that’s not just a catchy phrase. It’s the actual performance of the Top 10 Hybridcasual games in Q2 2025 🚀

But don’t rush into building a Hybridcasual game just yet — there’s a catch! Curious what it is? Find out in our latest article!

Inside, you’ll also discover:
— Which Hybridcasual subgenre is driving this growth
— A breakdown of the newcomers in the Top 10 Grossing Hybridcasual games
— How Voodoo and Rollic are setting up the entry barrier

Don’t miss it out 😉

‘How to’ with Antti Kananen: Market Segments As A Door For Deeper Analysis

Antti Kananen is a seasoned expert at full cycle game building, currently serving as Head of Games at games & leaves GmbH.

🎯 While Antti covers the full funnel, his starting point is to understand market dynamics and identify competitors that could challenge the segment leaders.

Here’s how he does it using AppMagic tools:

1️⃣ Market Segment Comparison allows him to spot shifts in the target genres.
2️⃣ Using Market Segment he understands which games caused these spikes.
3️⃣ Then he deep dives with advanced AppMagic tools like LiveOps Calendar and Monetisation Intelligence to uncover the innovations in these noscripts.

🏁 This approach allows Antti to build scalable full funnel strategies to put his games in the top percentile and be ahead of the market majority.

Voodoo’s Epic Plane Evolution: 3 Small Steps to Enter the Top 10

In just one month, Voodoo’s Hybridcasual hit Epic Plane Evolution soared from $592k to $1.4M in monthly revenue — with the US market driving the growth!

How did they pull this off? We asked the same question. That’s why we broke it down in our new article:

✈️ What gameplay changes fueled the growth?
💰How did monetization shift toward Hybridcasual?
📈 What results has the new approach delivered — and are they sustainable?

Find the answers via the link 💡

Top 10 Hybridcasual Games in Q2 2025

To wrap up Q2, we’ve recently released the article on Hybridcasual games 💡

Here’re a few key insights you wouldn’t want to miss:

1️⃣ iAP revenue of the Top 10 Hybridcasual noscripts doubled year-over-year (YoY), compared to +67% YoY in Q1 2025.

2️⃣ Puzzle leads the way, accounting for 50% of Hybridcasual revenue with +137% YoY growth. Arcade follows with 35% share and +67% YoY growth.

3️⃣ Half of the top are newcomers — including Screw Sort Puzzle™-Cube Jam 3D, which grew +258% QoQ.

And that’s not all 👀
After reading the article, you’ll also find out:
— Which two studios dominate the Top 10?
— What is the 2025 Hybridcasual trend with 200+ new releases?
— Which in-game changes helped Voodoo’s Epic Plane Evolution boost revenue by +265% QoQ?

You know which link to click 😉

See you at WN Conference Cyprus next week

While we’re busy convincing our CEO, Max Samorukov, and our Director of Business Development, Cian O’Leary, about the importance of sunscreen in Cyprus, they’re getting ready to chat with you about the latest trends in the mobile games market.

With all the new reports we’ve just released, you can bet they’ll come prepared! 😉

Play Ventures: 5 Steps to Data-Driven Investments

For mobile gaming studios, AppMagic’s value is obvious. But for VC funds, its role might not be as clear 🤔

That’s why we invited Juha Lindell (Platform Director) and Florent Simon (Principal) from Play Ventures to share how they leverage our tools to find better deals and boost portfolio performance 💡

In this case study, we explore:

— How Play Ventures spots key market shifts and uncovers breakout segments
— How the team turns this data into actionable investment insights
— How data continues to guide their work with portfolio companies post-investment

The full piece is already live!

Top 10 Casual Releases in Summer 2025

One way to spot market trends is by tracking new releases. Let’s try it out and check the top Casual releases by Tier-1 West iAP revenue 😉

💡Go to Advanced Search > Release period ‘Jun - Aug 2025’ > Tag ‘Casual’ > Geography ‘Tier-1 West’ > Revenue ‘Lifetime’

A new Idle PRG Lootborn Warriors leads with $1M lifetime Tier-1 West iAP revenue and $11K daily revenue at the start of September.

Close behind is Farm Manager, a farming simulator that already outpaces Lootborn Warriors in daily revenue, hitting $12K in September.

Looking at the top 10 new casual releases, we can see that two games are based on international IPs—Pokémon and LEGO—highlighting the strong impact of IP usage in today’s market 🤌

And compare them with the leading Casual genre trends from August 2025!

The King of Fighters AFK hits $200k daily revenue in just one week after release

Last week Netmarble launched The King of Fighters AFK, a new mobile Idle RPG noscript based on SNK’s legendary The King of Fighters franchise, which has been around since 1994. Only a week after release, the game is already pulling in $200k in daily IAP revenue and has surpassed 120k downloads!

This isn’t the first time the franchise has appeared on mobile. In AppMagic, we can track more than 40 other KOF noscripts, with the top-grossing one, KOF ’98 UM OL, generating $300M in lifetime IAP revenue since 2016 and still averaging around $15k per day 💪

What sets The King of Fighters AFK apart from the original KOF is its genre and art style. Instead of a traditional fighting game, it adopts a retro pixel look and plays as a character-collection idle RPG, offering a very different experience while still reimagining the franchise’s iconic fighters.

Explore the game’s metrics on its AppMagic public page ✨

Plinko Subgenre’s Monthly IAP Revenue Grew 4x in Just 6 Months

Remember our Casual Games H1 2025 Report? That’s where we spotted Plinko as the rising star of the Casino subgenre. Here’s a quick refresher💡

Well, we kept watching — and guess what? Just a month after that report, Plinko’s monthly revenue jumped another 25%, hitting $174k!

🙋‍♀️ Wait, what’s Plinko again?
It’s the mechanic where players drop a ball from the top of a peg-filled board, watching it bounce unpredictably until it lands in a reward slot at the bottom.

The main troublemaker behind this spike? Plink by Pokerist. Just three months after launch, it’s already raking in $132k monthly — a hefty 76% of the subgenre’s revenue in August 2025.

But can the momentum hold? Top 10 Plinko noscripts have a habit of shooting up fast… only to tumble back down to just a few thousand dollars a month 😮‍💨

Have a closer look at game’s metric at its AppMagic Public page!

We’re Launching Monthly Expert Insights

Stay ahead of the market with 50+ slides of reviews, data, and actionable recommendations—delivered before the 15th of every month.

🎯 Choose your focus:
1️⃣ Casual — Match, Merge, Hybridcasual, Coin Looter, and many others including Hybridcasual.
2️⃣ Midcore — RPG, 4X Strategy, Shooters, and other major genres.

📥 Inside each report
— Market overview: trends, growth drivers, and niches to watch
— New releases: IP impact, UI/UX notes, mechanic deep dives
— LiveOps update: key changes, new IP collabs and holiday events
— Monetization update: standout changes and experiments

💡 Quick sample insight
There’s a new trend in Merge-2 monetization—Level Pass. It lets players unlock paid rewards for a limited set of levels (e.g., 2–6) instead of the full pass.

— In Merge Fashion, projected revenue already increased by 30% on iOS and 20% on Android.
— In Merge Cooking, where it’s more optional, the increase is projected at only 1%.

Level Pass boosts ARPDAU and average spend in high-density monetization games. In others, it only works if the content stays engaging.

👉 Learn more and download your first Expert Insights via the link.