Mobile Games (Global Market)

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2025: Global Mobile Gaming Market Size Up 7.7% Year-on-Year to Reach $108 Billion

At the end of 2025, spending on the global mobile games market amounted to more than $108 billion. For comparison, a year earlier, the volume of this sector was estimated at $100.7 billion. Growth of 7.7% was recorded, as stated in the Newzoo review, which TAdviser got acquainted with in early February 2026.

It is noted that in 2025, the total costs of video games (taking into account personal computers, mobile platforms and consoles) reached $196.7 billion. Growth compared to the previous year, when the indicator was at the level of $183 billion, amounted to 7.5%. Thus, the mobile sector in terms of growth is ahead of the dynamics of the market as a whole. In total expenses, the mobile direction accounted for 55% - as in 2024.

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Фото: Freepik

Newzoo chief analyst Michel Buijsman notes that the recorded growth is due to an increase in companies' investment in the development of gaming ecosystems, and not just the expansion of the gaming audience.

Geographically, Asia Pacific is leading the mobile gaming market, according to Segwise. In-game purchases are a major driver of the industry. In addition, a significant part of the income is generated by advertising. So, according to surveys, 74% of American mobile gamers are ready to watch video ads in order to gain access to content inside applications. And 82% of mobile game lovers reported that they prefer free ad apps over paid games without one.

It is noted that users of all age groups are fond of mobile games (persons 16 years and older are considered), but they are most popular among young people. In particular, in the total mass of gamers, young people aged 16 to 24 account for 28.3%, citizens in the group of 25-34 years old - 29.5%. Another 23.1% are users aged 35-44 years, 12.8% are 45-54 years old, 6.3% are people over 55 years old. The average age is 36, with 53.6% of mobile players being male and 46.4% female.

The level of engagement varies by genre, but some clear patterns stand out. Thus, the average duration of a gaming session is in the range of 4-10 minutes. The daily playing time is between 15 and 48 minutes. Mobile gadgets as a gaming device dominate among young audiences. Thus, representatives of generation Z play mainly on smartphones - 77%. Among millennials, this figure is at 73%, and among Generation X persons - 54%. The baby boomer generation has a value of 34%. According to MobileGamer.biz, the list of the most profitable mobile games of 2025 includes Honor of Kings, Last War: Survival, Roblox, Whiteout Survival and Royal Match.

The key drivers of the mobile gaming sector are the growing penetration of smartphones and the development of 5G networks. According to Exploding Topics, released in mid-June 2025, there are 7.21 billion smartphones globally (many people own several devices). Such devices account for 94.2% of all devices used for Internet access. Against this background, the popularity of mobile gaming is increasing. At the same time, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in 2024, the 51% of the world's population was covered by 5G communication. The presence of high-speed mobile Internet access increases the attractiveness of games for smartphones and tablets. Technological advances, including the introduction of artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality platforms, also have a positive impact on the industry.^[1][2]

2024: Mobile game downloads cut by 6.6% to 49bn

At the end of 2024, the number of downloads of mobile games for devices running Android and iOS on a global scale amounted to about 49 billion, which is 6.6% less than the previous year. Thus, users around the world downloaded about 93-94 thousand games every minute. This is stated in the Sensor Tower review, published in mid-March 2025.

In 2024, mobile games brought in revenue of $49.3 billion. For comparison, in 2023 this figure was $52.7 billion, and in 2022 - $56 billion. Peak values ​ ​ were recorded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic - $57.6 billion in 2020 and $56.7 billion in 2021. Thus, as of 2024, the global mobile games market has been declining for the fourth year in a row.

At the same time, income from purchases inside gaming applications remains high: in 2024, it was at around $81.7 billion. For comparison: in 2022 and 2023, the figure was $79.2 billion and $78.6 billion, respectively. The maximum value was noted in 2021 - $87.4 billion. The observed trends indicate that the growth in the volume of in-game purchases in 2024 is due to a greater increase in the costs of existing users, and not the influx of new ones.

Players spent almost $82 billion on purchases in mobile games in 2024. Growth was mainly seen on the iOS platform, while revenue from purchases in Android apps was almost unchanged from the previous year. Casual games showed the most significant increase. Mobile games have been downloaded 49 billion times, down 7% from 2023: this decline mainly affected casual games. The biggest growth in app purchases was seen in Western markets, the Sensor Tower report noted.

Geographically, the growth of purchases within gaming applications was recorded in almost all regions: in North America it amounted to 9%, in Europe - 14%, in Latin America - 13%, in the Middle East - 18%, in Oceania - 8%. The only major region where the decline was observed was Asia, with a contraction of 3% on an annualized basis: however, this may be explained by a strong dollar exchange rate against some local currencies. The ranking of the ten most profitable games in terms of in-app purchases in 2024 includes:

1. Monopoly Go!;
2. Honor of Kings;
3. Royal Match;

# Roblox;

1. Last War:Survival;
2. Candy Crush Saga;
3. Whiteout Survival;
4. Coin Master;
5. Dungeon and Fighter Mobile;
6. Game for Peace.

In 2024, users around the world spent approximately 390 billion hours on mobile games. This is 7.9% more than in the previous year, when the value was 362 billion hours. The total number of gaming sessions on an annualized basis rose by 12% - from 3.17 trillion to 3.55 trillion. The most time in the world was spent on strategy games, followed by shooters, simulators, puzzles, sports games and arcades.

In 2024, simulators and puzzles led in the number of downloads of mobile games in the world: each of these genres accounted for about 20% of the total downloads. At the same time, simulators showed a slight increase in annual terms (plus 0.4%), and puzzles - a decrease (minus 3%). Arcade games, despite a 12.5% reduction in downloads compared to 2023, received a share of 19%. Lifestyle games showed a 10% reduction in downloads, and action projects - by 7.9%. At the same time, the number of downloads of strategies increased by 14.5%.^[3]

2023: Global Smartphone and Tablet Gaming Market Shrinks 1.4% to $90.5 Billion

In 2023, the global market for games for smartphones and tablets amounted to $90.5 billion, which is 1.4% less than in 2022, when the costs in this segment were estimated at about $92 billion. Mobile game developers face problems monetizing and attracting users, which is associated with the privacy policy of Apple and Google. This is stated in the review of LNG JSC and the Organization for the Development of the Video Game Industry (ANO RVI), published in mid-September 2024.

It is noted that in 2023, the mobile segment accounted for about 49% of all costs in the global video game market, which, taking into account consoles and PCs, amounted to $184 billion. The growth of income in developing regions, as well as the preservation of the high performance of the largest old hits of the mobile industry, ensured the comparative stability of this sector. However, mobile developers are forced to adjust previous strategies and experiment with new ones against the backdrop of a changing situation.

The authors of the report emphasize that Apple and Google, which, in fact, are monopolists, often dictate unfavorable conditions for both game creators and publishers. Video games with paid add-on content will retain gamers, leaving less room for new mobile projects to succeed. This contributes to users switching to premium products and getting involved in fewer games. The use of artificial intelligence tools in the production of video games is expanding. However, this technology, analysts say, does not have a significant impact on the industry as of 2023.

It is said that the mobile segment will remain the most significant in terms of consumer spending in the future. There has been an increase in cross-platform projects combining mobile devices and PCs. Although not all companies can start with this scale of development, for many games it has become a significant competitive advantage.^[4]

2022: Top 8 mobile games by revenue

The world leader in mobile game revenue - Honor of Kings (Chinese, like all top 3 games!) - Earned $1.81 billion in 2022 ! PUBG Mobile brought 1.52 billion to its creators, Genshin Impact - 1.39 billion.

In 4th place was the European () the Swedish Candy Crush Saga (0.98 billion), by 5 - American Roblox with revenue of $0.86 billion.

Data on the results of 2022

2020

Rating of leaders in sales of mobile games, Russian company Playrix in TOP-3 - App Annie

Playrix, founded by brothers from Vologda Igor and Dmitry Bukhmanov, has become one of the three largest developers of mobile games in 2020. This is evidenced by the data of the analytical agency App Annie, released in early February 2021.

Compared to 2019, Playrix climbed four positions in revenue among global mobile game publishers. The company was ahead of the American Activision Blizzard, the publisher of the shooter Call of Duty. The first and second places in annual revenue in the App Annie ranking remained with Chinese Tencent and NetEase, respectively, they have occupied them for the past four years. App Annie does not disclose developer revenues.

Ranking of the largest mobile game developers in 220 (App Annie data)

The App Annie rating takes into account the revenue of companies from app downloads and internal purchases through the platforms App Store and. Google Play At the same time, developers' income from advertising in applications and subscriptions distributed not through application stores is not taken into account. At the end of 2020, the top 5 of the region EMEA was headed by Playrix, and took third place, Mail.ru Group which in the overall standings was located in 51st position.

App Annie analysts associated Playrix's breakthrough with casual games Gardenscapes and Fishdom, which do not require special skills from the player and are designed for a wide audience. According to the Sensor Tower service, in January 2021, Android users downloaded Gardenscapes 11 million times, and iOS users - 2 million times, this brought the creators of the game $48 million.

Playrix turned out to be ready for quarantine restrictions - the processes of remote work were set up a long time ago, its marketing director Alexander Derkach explained to RBC the success of the company. According to him, in 2020 the number of downloads of all Playrix games increased: Gardenscapes and Fishdom - two and three times, respectively, to 190 million and 130 million downloads.^{[5] [6]}

Market growth to $85 billion

AppsFlyer: Demand for gaming applications in the world increased by 45%

On November 12, 2020, it became known that AppsFlyer published a report by The State of Gaming App Marketing, 2020 Edition, on the state of affairs in the mobile game segment in the first three quarters of 2020. The basis for the study was 9.2 billion application installations. Marketers will be able to draw from the report the results of an in-depth analysis of data, major industry trends and opportunities for growth at the global level, as well as the indicators of the 16 largest world markets.

Games have long been the driving force behind the mobile application segment, but the pandemic has helped them reach a completely different level: compared to 2019, the number of installations in 2020 increased by 45%. This is 40% higher than the growth rate last year.

In our report, we note a sharp increase in the number of users trying mobile gaming for the first time, but in the current conditions this is not surprising. For example, the number of installations of games in the Hyper Casual segment (hypercasual games) increased by 90%, and the growth in the number of inorganic installations in this case reached 250%, "said Adam Smart, director of products for the gaming segment at AppsFlyer. - It is important that the developers of game applications realized in time the opportunity to increase their user base and took full advantage of this trend.

The mobile games segment was able to maintain high income indicators in the months after the end of spring lockdowns. This was due to the high level of engagement of users who installed applications at the beginning of the pandemic. User spending on app purchases began rising in March, peaking in May, up 25% from February 2020, before rising again in July.

Key facts:

• 25 percent increase in IAP revenues (purchases made in the application) during quarantine due to COVID-19. This growth was mainly caused by the casual games segment, in which revenues increased by 55% and remained at a high level until August. The analysis found that users have become less tolerant of advertising in applications, but are ready to spend more in them. Therefore, in conditions when mobile advertising loses its effectiveness, marketers should focus their efforts on this indicator.
• For the period from February to August 2020, IAP revenues increased by 67%. At the same time, the IAA indicator (income from advertising in applications), on the contrary, decreased by 16% over the same period.
• The number of inorganic installations in the segment of hypercasual games increased by 250%. The growth is explained by the fact that many players first tried mobile games during a pandemic? And marketers took note.
• Advertising resource costs during the pandemic grew in all regions and categories of games - for example, in the United States they increased by 35%. By September, marketing efforts had declined by 42%, reducing the number of inorganic installations to 8.3% (from 14.2% in April).
• The most significant factor in the growth was the active attraction of users in the early stages of the pandemic. This allowed the mobile gaming segment to remain successful even after the number of new installations declined.

Although there was a significant increase in the number of installations in the mobile games segment in the first few quarters of 2020, it is obvious that the market still has something to work on, "said Brian Murphy, head of mobile gaming at AppsFlyer. - The total number of app installations during this period also increased, and many large brands from non-gaming segments returned to the market, which led to a sharp increase in the cost of advertising resources. This means that marketers need to look for less costly strategies for promoting products. Another problem can be considered remarketing, which receives very little attention, although the re-involvement of users in 2020 has become one of the key sources of revenue growth.

Large emerging markets such as Brazil, Indonesia and India, and to some extent Russia and Vietnam, have seen one of the fastest growth in attracting solvent users. This is in line with the overall market forecasts for 2020, so it is not surprising for analysts. Moreover, the impact of COVID-19 in this case practically does not change the situation in these markets.

Also during the quarantine period on devices iOS To Europe in, an 18 percent increase in income from purchases in applications was noted. But subsequently, this figure decreased by 32%, primarily due to the Russian market segment. In the ecosystem, respectively, there Android was a 6 percent increase in income, and then a drop of 14%. Also in the region there was a decrease in advertising revenue in applications (IAA).

Lower app advertising revenue (IAA) since April 2020. First of all, the trend is noticeable in the segments of hardcore games and social casinos

According to the researcher, it is possible that the explosive success of the mobile games segment will become the "new norm," because in 2020 revenues from it remain consistently high, although in 2019 they showed a downward trend. But there remains uncertainty in the market related to the long-term economic consequences of the pandemic and other factors, including, for example, changes in App Tracking Transparency in version iOS14.

The State of Gaming App Marketing Report, 2020 Edition is based on a collection of anonymous data on 9.2 billion inorganic installations of a sample of 13,000 applications, each of which recorded more than 3,000 inorganic installations every month in 2020. When breaking down games into groups, the following categories of app stores were used: Hyper Casual, Casual, Midcore, Hardcore and Social Casino (hyper-casual, casual, midcore, hardcore and social casino).

2019

Mobile games account for 45% of the gaming market

The video game industry has experienced steady growth in recent years, especially thanks to mobile gaming, which at this time accounts for 45 percent of its total global revenue.

$88 billion amounted to revenues from games distributed under the freemium model

Freemium Revenue

Notes