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This week we revealed the Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2024, sponsored by Appcharge, live at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki.
Celebrating its 15th edition, the list aims to shine a light on the industry’s best and brightest, highlighting the movers and shakers shaping the sector.
Criteria for being in the list expands from the quality of new games released, live ops success and revenue performance to notable innovation, industry impact, business transformation, and future potential.
So who better to take the number one spot in this year’s Top 50 than Scopely. The company is behind one of the most successful mobile games ever: Monopoly Go, a highly polished title which has already bagged more than $3 billion just over a year after launch and multiple accolades at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards in association with Gamelight.
It’s not the only massive hit in Scopely’s portfolio. Stumble Guys, acquired from Finnish dev Kitka Games, has over 50 million monthly players and more than 700m downloads. The company also has titles like Marvel Strike Force, Star Trek: Fleet Command and Yahtzee with Buddies in its portfolio.
There’s lots of competition, but it’s clear that Scopely is at the top of its game right now, earning its place at the top of the pile.
The big trends
Elsewhere, there are 10 new companies on this year’s list, showing a changing market landscape powered by innovative new titles, expert live ops, transforming businesses and astute M&A.
One of those new entrants is SuperPlay, which entered the Top 50 for the first time thanks to the incredible growth of Dice Dreams – 2024 is its best year yet – and the promising new launch of Domino Dreams. Clearly we were right to include the studio so highly this year – Playtika has just acquired the developer in a deal potentially worth up to $1.95 billion.
I highlighted in a previous newsletter the number of secret and not so-secret mobile hits that have emerged since 2023. Titles that have released since the start of last year and have gone on to achieve over $1bn include the aforementioned Monopoly Go from Scopely, Century Games’ Whiteout Survival, FirstFun’s Last War, HoYoverse’s Honkai: Star Rail and Nexon’s Dungeon & Fighter Mobile. That’s not bad going during what has been a challenging time for many.
Competition in the merge games category has heated up significantly over the past year. Metacore’s Merge Mansion was previously the market leader, and while it continues to perform, it faces serious competition from Magmatic Games’ Travel Town and Microfun’s Gossip Harbor and Seaside Escape. It’s a genre that’s flourishing beyond the former market leader.
Meanwhile, the world’s top hypercasual publishers have notable entries, not least for their transformation into successful hybridcasual hit makers. Following Habby’s path and willing the category into existence, publishers like Voodoo, SayGames, Homa and Kwalee have survived a post-ATT world that might well have killed them off.
We’ll be publishing more interviews, data analyses and retrospectives on the Top 50 over the coming weeks. For now, make sure to check out the Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2024 right here.
