- In Q2 2024, the RPG genre fall from first place in consumer spending for the first time since “at least” 2017
- Strategy was the highest-earning genre of Q2 2024
Get Industry News In Your Inbox…
Sign Up Today
RPGs have been dethroned from their long-held seat at the pinnacle of mobile game spending, usurped by the strategy genre’s road to resurgence.
According to Sensor Tower’s Q2 2024 Digital Market Index report, Q2 saw the RPG genre fall from first place in consumer spending for the first time since “at least” 2017, down 15% year-on-year and landing in second place with $4.142 billion earned.
Considering the declining mobile game markets in Japan and South Korea – crucial markets for the RPG genre – Sensor Tower has advised game developers in certain top APAC markets that they “may want to look to new genres” instead.
With its shiny gold trophy, the strategy genre may be inviting for many to explore. In Q2 2024, the genre edged ahead of RPGs with $4.149 billion in consumer spending, up 12% year-on-year. Sensor Tower highlighted the US and South Korea as key regions for strategy’s growth in the quarter.
Close competition
While the RPG and strategy genres did swap places in Q2, the puzzle genre just maintained third place with $2.89 billion, ahead of casino’s $2.886 billion. Both grew year-on-year in consumer spending, but casino closed the gap through 20% growth against puzzle’s 12%.
Simulation ranked fifth in Q2 with a 7% rise to $1.28 billion – less than half of fourth-place casino’s earnings. Shooters ranked sixth at $1.01 billion, up by 8% and the final genre to surpass $1 billion in the quarter.
The action genre also saw a major feat as the fastest-growing genre in the top 10 in the quarter, up by 50% to $843.6 million and ranking seventh overall.
Sports, arcade, and lifestyle genres filled out the remainder of the top 10.
Across every genre, mobile games generated $19.7 billion in consumer spending during the quarter.
Best of the best
Scopely’s Monopoly Go! once again led the charge for casino’s revenue, having driven more consumer spending than any other mobile game in the quarter. The game’s performance was so strong, in fact, that it marked the third-best quarter for any mobile game ever.
Tencent’s Honor of Kings came in second place and Dream Games’ Royal Match came third, followed by Roblox and Candy Crush.
Meanwhile, FirstFun’s Last War: Survival Game was “a prime example” of a success story in the strategy genre, ranking sixth for global consumer spending in a single game and second in quarter-on-quarter consumer spend growth.
Dungeon & Fighter and Brawl Stars were also among the top-ranking games globally, one with an incredibly lucrative start and the other making quite the comeback.
Sensor Tower’s full report dives deep into the top games by region, such as Honkai: Star Rail reaching a higher ranking in Japan than anywhere else in the world. Despite not landing as a top earner globally in the quarter, HoYoverse’s 2023 hit continues to top gacha charts, even ahead of its predecessor Genshin Impact.
