Top 10 Idle RPG Games (2017–2025)

In 2025, the Idle RPG market was comfortably plateauing at around $130M in monthly IAP revenue, after spiking to $203M in March 2024. Yet, what makes it fascinating is how often the leaders ranking has changed ✨

Back in 2019–2020, AFK Arena shook things up, peaking at $74M monthly revenue and taking 61% of the market.

In 2024, Legend of Mushroom stood out with $52M and 27% share! Two other notable releases of 2024 were AFK Journey ($43M) and Capybara Go!($22M) 📈

2025 gave way to fresh challengers: Heroes Don’t Flash (英雄没有闪) peaked at $16M, and Legend of the Staff and Sword (杖劍傳說) reached $14M.

Still, AFK Arena remains the long-time leader, responsible for 10% of total lifetime Idle RPG revenue, followed by stalwarts like Idle Girls – Blossoming Maidens (放置少女 - 百花繚乱の萌姫たち) and Idle Heroes – Idle Games 💪

But the market shows time and again: the entry barrier is far from impossible, and new noscripts can still rise fast.

Learn more about leading Idle RPG tiles in 2025!

Top Arcade Subgenres (2015 – 2025 YTD)

The Arcade genre has shown steady growth, with a 22% year-over-year (YoY) increase in monthly IAP revenue in August 2025, reaching $73M 💪

The largest subgenre is Arcade Clicker/Idle, accounting for 38% of lifetime Arcade revenue. In 2025 it plateaued at around $28M per month, led by Gold and Goblins: Mining Games. Back in 2024 it also saw a spike from Idle Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon and Office Cat: Idle Tycoon.

Rhythm is the second-largest subgenre, averaging $12M monthly revenue and representing 35% of lifetime Arcade revenue. Its leader, QQ Dance Mobile – Heart-Choice Season (QQ炫舞手游-心选季), holds 18% of lifetime Rhythm revenue 🎶

The one to watch is Eat & Grow, which grew 8x YoY to $8.4M in August 2025. Growth took off in 2024 thanks to All in Hole: Black Hole Games, now driving 28% of lifetime Eat & Grow revenue and 70% of monthly revenue in August 2025.

And don’t forget to check the top grossing Arcade games of 2025!

Century Games Reached $6B in Lifetime User Spending

Century Games hit a new milestone this September, surpassing $6B in lifetime user spending. The publisher’s monthly revenue also continues to climb, reaching $215M in August 2025 — up 111% YoY 🤯

This explosive growth is fueled by Whiteout Survival, now making up 64% of the portfolio. Even with revenue growth has plateaued, the game remains a powerhouse, generating $128M in monthly revenue—outperforming heavyweights like Royal Match and Monopoly GO!

Another major contributor is Kingshot, a 2025 release that is rapidly scaling, with $67M in revenue in August alone and contributing 31% to the publisher’s revenue that month 💰

Learn more about Century Game’s portfolio on its AppMagic public page.

Get ready to Q4 2025: Read Three Main H1 Reports

Today marks the start of Q4 2025 — and our Content Team is already hard at work on fresh reports to keep you one step ahead of the industry 🤩

And while we’re doing the prep, let’s recap the main reports of H1. If you missed them, now’s the perfect time to catch up:

1️⃣ Casual Games Report H1 2025

Discover the 3 genres driving 80% of market revenue, the subgenres on the rise, and the key innovations behind the latest hit games.

2️⃣ Casual LiveOps Report H1 2025

70 slides on how LiveOps strategies evolved across Casual, Puzzle, Casino, and Hybridcasual, and explore the key trends and approaches used by top performers.

3️⃣ Top 10 Hybridcasual Games in Q2 2025

Learn how the Hybridcasual market is evolving: which subgenre is driving growth, the top 10-grossing newcomers, and how Voodoo and Rollic are setting the entry bar.

Five UA Trends: From AI to Fake Influencers

Ad creatives are no longer just ads, they’ve become a form of entertainment, blending seamlessly into our feeds, videos and stories 📲

If you work in UA or just looking for inspiration, here is our new article on five major UA trends:

1. AI-generated content for rapid testing and iteration
2. LiveOps integration for smart reusing of existing assets
3. Social-inspired formats designed for authenticity and virality
4. Niche hooks that make creatives more engaging and memorable
5. Big collabs and smart targeting to scale reach without wasting spend

Of course, creatives are meant to be watched, not just discussed. So we’ve filled the article with great video examples and many practical insights!

👉 Enjoy the read 👈

Top 10 Publishers by Hypercasual Downloads in Q3 2025

It’s the beginning of Q4, which means it’s time to harvest the results of Q3 2025! And what better way to start than with the leading Hybridcasual publishers?

Our undisputed leader is Azur Games, powered by all-time favorites like Worm Zone.io, Rollance: Adventure Balls, and Pick Me Up 3D: Taxi Game. Interestingly, the latter has gained momentum again — climbing from 1M average monthly installs in 2024 to 4M in 2025. Way to go! 🚀

Next up is Voodoo, with its evergreen hit Hole.io, which started gaining traction again in 2024 and still averages 10M installs per month. They’re also doing great in IAP monetization — check out our latest article on Epic Plane for more insights.

This trend of “old-timers” making a comeback can be seen across most of the publishers in our top 10. One of the key reasons behind it is the ongoing hybridization of games — the addition of light meta-mechanics and diversified monetization strategies to boost engagement and revenues.

The ranking of the most successful Hyper/Hybridcasual publishers by IAP revenue is coming soon. In the meantime, explore the Top Free Hypercasual Publishers of 2025.

Сrazy Big News: We Just Released Steam Analytics  

We’ve been working days and nights — and the big day has finally come! Now AppMagic users can access data on 130K+ Steam noscripts and DLCs, complete with a powerful toolkit for in-depth analysis.

Fire, right? Let’s take a moment for a happy dance 💃

And back to question!

🎤 What data is available?
• Revenue/Downloads
• DAU/MAU
• Average Daily Playtime and Daily CCU
• Followers
• Pricing information

🎤 What tools can you use to analyze it?
• Top Charts: Top free and top grossing rankings with period, genre, and geography filters.
• Granular Revenue Breakdown: Base, IAP, and DLC revenues — plus total earnings combining all three.
• Game Comparison Dashboards: Compare noscripts side by side by revenue, downloads, retention, and user activity over time.

🔥And last but not least — our new Steam module is fully integrated into the AppMagic platform, ensuring a seamless UI/UX experience.

👉 Learn more here

Mobile Gaming Industry Must-Reads of the Week (Oct 4 — Oct 10)

If you’ve been following us on LinkedIn, you’ve probably seen our weekly Must-Reads.

Every Friday, we select the most insightful LinkedIn posts with market analyses on trends shaping the games industry.

We’ve been wondering for a while how to bring this format to Telegram, but in a way that doesn’t make you follow to external links. So here’s our answer: good old Telegraph!

Meet the first edition of Must-Reads, tailored specially for our Telegram readers ✨

Enjoy the read

Get Ready For Winter 2025: LiveOps Tactics That Worked

While you’re carving pumpkins, remember — winter is quietly approaching. Historically, December and January outperform all other months in IAP spending, so it’s time to gear up and make the most of the season 💪

To give you a hand, we unpacked our LiveOps & Events Calendar to see what delivered the best results last year.

In the article we explore:
— Albums in Royal Match and Merge Mansion
— Passes in Hay Day and Royal Match
— Co-op events in Monopoly Go! and Survivor.io

Take a break with your pumpkin spice latte and dive in 🎃

Top 10 Publishers by Midcore Revenue in Q3 2025

We’re continuing to wrap up the results of Q3 — and on today’s menu is the top of Midcore publishers! 😉

Tencent is opening the top with a quarterly revenue of $1.5B — more than twice as high as the closest competitor. The leader of Tencent’s portfolio is Honor of Kings, which accounts for 24% of the publisher’s total revenue, followed by PUBG Mobile and the more recent Delta Force, which reached a new monthly revenue high in September 2025 at $58M.

Next up is Century Games with $542M earned in Q3 2025. Whiteout Survival accounts for 63% of the total portfolio revenue, followed by Kingshot. The game is showing confident growth, reaching $67M in monthly revenue this September.

In third place comes Roblox, which continues to grow and hit new records in 2025. And the latest Roblox Developers Conference showed that the developers don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.

This quarter, the top 10 publishers worked hard to keep their user base engaged and monetized — and quite successfully, we must say! 💪

Have a look at the top Midcore publishers in 2025 yourself 💡

In-Depth Look at 4X Strategy Monetization: Two Ways to Win

4X Strategy market hit $3.9B in H1 2025, up +28% YoY. But here’s the catch — half of that revenue comes from just five games. And with only 15% of the top 100 noscripts being new releases, newcomers face a tough battle 🫠

So, we teamed up with Duamentes to find out what it really takes to succeed in this market ⭐️

In our new article we uncover:
• The trends shaping 4X monetization right now
• How leading games stage their monetization
• The two monetization strategies dominating the genre
• Best practices to apply in your next project

In our breakdown you'll learn where 4X Strategy market is heading next and if there’re any new challengers to keep an eye on!

Read the full artcle.

Mobile Gaming Industry Must-reads of the Week (Oct 11 — Oct 17)

Last week, we started sharing our traditional Friday Must-Reads from LinkedIn here on Telegram — and today we’re back with a fresh selection to make your midday coffee even more enjoyable 😉

☕️ Click the link to explore the insights!

Two Reports To Read Today: 4X Strategy Monetization & LiveOps Tactics for Winter 2025

Last week our Content team went heavy on actionable insights for our readers — and two new articles are already live and waiting for you to dive in 👇

1️⃣ An In-Depth Look at 4X Strategy Monetization: Two Ways to Win

Quick spoiler: blend 4X-adjacent genres and balance aggressive monetization to get closer to the leading publishers with years of experience.

2️⃣ Get Ready For Winter 2025 — LiveOps Tactics That Worked

Quick spoiler: layer multiple event types such as Royal Match’s Winter Pass and Festive Collection, and make your events social, turning players into teammates.

That was just a little appetizer — the real insights are waiting for you in the full articles 😉

Top 10 Publishers by Games IAP Revenue in Q3 2025

The ranking we’ve all been waiting for! Let’s unpack the highlights 🔎

Tencent remains the undisputed leader this quarter, outperforming its closest competitor by more than 2.5×. Its top earners haven’t changed — Honor of Kings contributed 29% of total revenue in Q3 2025, followed by PUBG Mobile with 21%.

Century Games secures second place, continuing its active revenue growth thanks to its hit Whiteout Survival, which generated 59% of portfolio revenue, and the fast-rising Kingshot, responsible for 31% this quarter 🚀

Closing the top three is Scopely, powered by Monopoly Go!, which accounted for a massive 83% of its portfolio revenue in Q3.

Which game from the top 10 publishers have you played the most this quarter? 🤔

Explore the Top Grossing Games chart and spot all your favourite.

Top 10 Hybridcasual Games in Q3 2025

The highlight of our third-quarter wrap-up is, of course, the top Hybridcasual games. You’ll definitely want to read this one — revenue from the top 10 noscripts keeps climbing, showing a 114% year-over-year increase this quarter!

Q3 saw even fewer new noscripts entering the chart, but the veterans only got stronger — achieving both long-term stability and rapid growth 💪

Still, a few new names managed to break through. How? By offering something familiar yet fresh. For instance:

👉 Crowd Express refined Rollic’s signature formula with a gradual rollout of LiveOps layered over Parking Jam–inspired gameplay and Sort Puzzle mechanics.

👉 Coin Sort gave the classic “water sort” puzzle a twist — adding a more complex core loop and steady LiveOps that keep both ad and in-app revenues flowing.

But we won’t spoil all the fun! Learn about the rest of the Hybridcasual trends from the third quarter in our latest article.

Mobile Gaming Industry Must-reads of the Week (Oct 18 — Oct 24)

Days are getting shorter — and so is our energy supply. To help you save some battery, we’ve rounded up this week’s must-read insights for a quick catch-up 😉

Click the link to discover our selection!

Dream Games Reaches a New High of $7B in User Spending

The main star powering the portfolio’s revenue remains Royal Match, now accounting for 95% of the publisher’s total earnings.

In September, Royal Match’s IAP revenue was estimated at $107M, 16% down from September 2024. However, its year-over-year performance remains strong, showing a 7% increase in 2025 💪

We should also highlight the progress of Royal Kingdom, which reached $29M in monthly revenue this September — the second-best month in the game’s lifetime after August 2025!

Dream Games is getting stronger day by day, taking a 4th place among the top-grossing publishers of 2025 by gaming revenue. Have a look yourself ✨

Time to Bid Farewell: Squad Busters Final Update

Last week Supercell has announced the final update for Squad Busters, with the game shutting down in H2 2026 😪

Being honest, we kind of saw it coming, even though we didn’t want to believe it:

👉 In our first breakdown, the game felt rather unpolished

👉 Even after the big rework, core issues remained

So, where did things go south?

1️⃣ Audience mismatch. Trying to serve both casual and midcore players, the game lost clarity — lacking the midcore tactical depth and the casual simplicity.

2️⃣ Unrewarding progression. Progression didn’t feel motivating enough to encourage long-term play or spending, with few standout heroes or cosmetics to chase.

3️⃣ Limited LiveOps depth. Despite strong IP collabs and frequent events, Squad Busters still revolved around just two core modes — far fewer than noscripts like Brawl Stars, making long-term engagement harder to sustain.

In the end, the metrics confirm: the game’s been dying for a while.

So, it’s time to say goodbye to the squad 👋

How Solo Developer of Ball x Pit Made $1M on Steam In a Day

Kenny Sun didn’t stop just there: his game since the mid October 2025 release already earned $9.8M. Good thing we can spot such success stories with our Steam Analytics to share with you 😉

Ball x Pit, an indie roguelike brick-breaker published by Devolver Digital, surely deserved a closer look. So, we broke it down in our latest article: 

— Key trends in Ball x Pit revenue and DAU dynamics
— How the game came together and who Kenny Sun is
— What does this game have to do with Habby’s early noscript PunBall

The piece is already live, don’t miss it!

Mobile Gaming Industry Must-reads of the Week (Nov 1 — Nov 7)

Days are getting shorter, but not our lists of weekly must-reads, because the industry never disappoints!

Here’re our picks ✨

AppMagic x Sensemitter Webinar: “Too Much Too Soon Trap” — November 20

Many games fall into the same trap: they show players a paid offer too early, before the user understands the value of the game.

Most players simply ignore it — and that early rejection leads to lower conversion later on. Their first impression becomes: ‘I don’t buy in this game’ 😅

To make sure you don’t fall for this trap, we teamed up with the Sensemitter to break it down in a webinar. We’ll cover:

— First-time user experience (FTUE) emotional readiness map
— Good vs bad first-session monetisation patterns
— FTUE deconstruction of 3 games (Monopoly GO!, Dice Dreams, Coin Master)

📍Save the date: November 20
🔗 Register via the link

See you there! ✨