May 2024 saw Nexon’s big Dungeon & Fighter Mobile launch in China land the title straight into the top 10 grossing rankings worldwide while Supercell continued its climb up the revenue charts, according to the latest mobile games charts.
Each month we analyse the mobile market to uncover the top grossing games, most downloaded titles and top publishers, with data provided by AppMagic.
Below you can see the latest top games and companies, as well as the big stories and trends from the last month.
Top grossing mobile games
The big story: Dungeon & Fighter Breaks into the top 10 at launch
Nexon’s big new title, Dungeon & Fighter Mobile, published by Tencent, broke straight into the global top 10 grossing charts in May. That’s despite this version of the game only launching on May 21st on China’s App Store alone.
It generated $91 million in gross player spending for the month, ranking above the likes of Century Games’ Whiteout Survival, miHoYo’s Honkai: Star Rail and Moon Active’s Coin Master.
According to Niko Partners, as reported by Bloomberg, its first week could have seen the title accumulate as much as $140m when taking into account third-party Android stores.
Publisher Nexon has big hopes for the title. The franchise is one of its major blockbusters and revenue generators, accumulating more than $22 billion in lifetime revenue to date with over 850m downloads.
In its recent Q1 2024 financials report, the publisher forecasted sales in China to increase between 48% to 90% year-over-year in Q2, rising to as much as ¥34.6bn ($223.4m). That would represent a turnaround from Q1, which saw revenue in China fall by 32% Y/Y.
Nexon has a lot riding on this one. Revenue has so far remained stable since launch – but big releases in China for major IPs are not unusual. Sustaining and growing that in the months ahead will be the real challenge.
Top grossing mobile games for May 2024
As ever, Tencent’s MOBA Honor of Kings ranked as the No. 1 revenue-generating mobile game in the world, generating $217.2m, down 15.9% Y/Y and 6.1% M/M.
PUBG Mobile ranked No. 2 after picking up $141.2m in May, a rise of 12.6% Y/Y, but a decline of 9.6% M/M.
Dream Games’ Royal Match usurped Scopely’s Monopoly GO last month to take the No. 3 spot, with player spending hitting $138m – a rise of 48.9% Y/Y and 7% M/M
Brawl Stars continued its rise in May, hitting the No. 8 spot with $94.2m in revenue, up 721.3% Y/Y and 2.9% M/M.
However, player spending in the title looks to be peaking following months of rapid growth. You can see our latest breakdown of the game’s rise to the top 10 from RZAIN Consulting‘s Claire Rozain here.
Overall, the mobile games market generated $6.48bn in May 2024, a decline of 2.77% Y/Y and a rise of 1.07% M/M.
Most downloaded mobile games
The big story: Netmarble’s big Solo Leveling: Arise launch
Netmarble launched new RPG Solo Leveling: Arise in May, picked up an estimated 18m installs, charting as the No. 3 most downloaded game worldwide last month.
The title also generated $56.6m in its debut month, ranking as the No. 14 top grossing mobile game in the world.
While South Korea ranked No. 1 for revenue, the United States ranked top for downloads, followed by India, Indonesia and Brazil.
The title is clearly most popular in Asia, but early player spending and download levels suggest a global push by Netmarble, supported by worldwide appeal.
Most downloaded mobile games for April 2024
Supercent’s Pizza Ready once again ranked as the No. 1 most downloaded mobile game worldwide, picking up 21.9m downloads in May, down 14.5% M/M.
Roblox held its No. 2 position with 18.2m downloads, while Solo Leveling: Arise ranked No. 3.
A new entrant to the top 10 was Zego Studio’s Wood Nuts & Bolts, Screw at No. 7 with 12.3m installs. The title tasks players with untwisting nuts and bolts to remove wooden objects – with the challenge of placing screws back onto the board once they’ve been removed.
Overall, the global mobile games market generated 4.72bn downloads in May, up 4.3% Y/Y and down 3.5% M/M.
Top performing mobile games publishers
The big story: Supercell’s rise continues
Supercell’s surge up the global top grossing publisher rankings continued in May, with the Finnish developer rising to No. 4. In April, it had ranked as the No. 6 revenue-generating publisher.
Supercell generated $181.1m across its portfolio last month, spurred on by the continued growth of Brawl Stars – though as noted earlier, that title’s revenue appears to be plateauing.
The Finnish studio now firmly has the No. 3 ranked Playrix and No. 2 ranked NetEase within its sights, with just $6m separating it from the Chinese publisher
Supercell has an ace up its sleeve too – it launched its latest game Squad Busters globally on May 29th, which could help propel it into that No. 2 spot behind its parent company Tencent by the end of June.
It’s worth noting that revenue from Supercell’s portfolio companies, including Space Ape Games and Metacore, aren’t included in these estimates.
The top grossing mobile game publishers for May 2024
Tencent placed as the No. 1 grossing games publisher worldwide in May 2024, picking up $717.1m. NetEase ranked No. 2 with $187.2m, while Playrix charted at No. 3 with $186m.
Netmarble fired up the rankings to No. 13 with $97.1m, thanks to the launch of Solo Leveling: Arise. It had previously ranked No. 43 in April.
Top mobile games publishers for downloaded in April 2024
When it comes to downloads, the top six publishers were the same as April with some minor shuffling of the order. Azur Games ranked No. 1 with 140.7m installs, SayGames took No. 2 spot with 100.6m downloads, and Supersonic ranked No. 3 with 91.2m installs.
Note: There is some discrepancy between April estimates this month and last month. We have reached out for clarification. Data providers sometimes update their estimates for greater accuracy.
