AppMagic

Control Resonant Brings the Series Back After 7 Years

Released on September 24, 2026, seven years after the original Control, Control Resonant follows Dylan Faden through a reality-bending Manhattan.

How has it performed on Steam so far?

💰 $18M+ revenue
🎮 314K copies sold
👥 42K peak CCU

A strong opening for the sequel, and one worth watching as the launch window continues.

Source: the game stats on AppMagic.

From Scrolling to Game Ideas: What Developers Can Find on TikTok

9M downloads in its launch month, a spot in August’s Top 5 Hypercasual games, and it’s all built around squishy dumpling toys popular in social-media unboxing videos!

That’s the story of Mystery Dumpling: Unbox ASMR by Brocker Bus Studio, a game that basically turned the viral unboxing ritual into gameplay: unwrap, reveal, squeeze, and hope for a rare find.

And dumplings are only one example. Bracelet-making, mukbang, cleaning, and sticker-book decorating have all found their way from social feeds into mobile games, with some titles reaching over 40M downloads.

In our latest article, we explore:

- How Mystery Dumpling turned a viral toy trend into a Hypercasual hit, and why over 10 other dumpling-themed games launched in August alone.

- How developers translate crafting, eating, cleaning, and decorating videos into simple gameplay loops.

- What makes these ideas a good fit for both for Hypercasual games and catchy hooks for ad creatives.

Read the full breakdown.

Food Hunt: Pixel Puzzle Overcame Colony Flow! by Weekly Installs

Last week, we discussed the success of Colony Flow!, which added an ants design twist to the Pixel Flow! mechanic and gameplay.

This week we have a game that is at Colony Flow!’s feet. Food Hunt: Pixel Puzzle generated 1.67M installs last week overcoming Colony Flow!’s 1.4M 🚀

Interestingly, Food Hunt launched almost a month earlier and introduced the ant concept first, but its metrics grew more slowly than Colony Flow!’s. Marketing may have played a role: Colony Flow!’s top ad creatives generated more than 4x the impressions of Food Hunt’s.

In terms of revenue, Food Hunt is catching up at a slower pace, reaching $1M last week compared to Colony Flow!’s $1.9M. Let’s keep a close eye on whether Food Hunt can successfully monetize its growing audience and close the revenue gap with Colony Flow!.

Learn more about game’s performance at its AppMagic public page.

Clash of Critters: Bringing Plinko into the Top 4 Coin Looters

In less than 4 months since its release, Clash of Critters became №4 by monthly IAP revenue in the Coin Looter genre. The game generated $8.9M in August 2026, which is a 52% growth compared to the previous month.

Now Coin Looter genre, famous for its long-standing in duopoly of Monopoly Go! and Coin Master, has a newbie who might shake up the order. So, how did Farlight Games do it?

In our latest article, we break down:
💡 The Plinko-style gameplay design that helped Clash of Critters stand out in the genre.
💰 Its monetization strategy, leaning on simple formats like leaderboards and race-style challenges.
🌎 How it targeted audiences in regions that aren’t as strongly occupied by the long-standing hits.

Find all the details via the link.

Colony Flow! Became №4 in the Top Grossing Hybridcasual Puzzle Games Last Week with $1.65M in IAP Revenue

Colony Flow!, released by ABI Games in mid-June, has already generated $11M in IAP revenue and 7.6M installs for the lifetime 🔥

The game applies Pixel Flow’s familiar mechanic of dismantling an image piece by piece until it’s fully cleared, but swaps the conveyors for colorful ants.

Last week Colony Flow! reached the 4th position by revenue in the top grossing Hybridcasual Puzzles with $1.65M, but is still rather behind the leader, Pixel Flow!, with $2.4M.

Still, as of today, the game is the closest Pixel Flow competitor using the same mechanic. And it once again reminds us that you can make it in the market with an existing idea by spotting the trend early and adding an extra twist to make it distinct 😌

Learn more about Colony Flow’s metrics on its AppMagic public page.

Valheim Left Early Access 5 Years After It First Appeared on Steam

On September 9, 2026, the game finally exited Early Access. How did it perform in the first week?
💰 $2.8M
🎮 103K copies sold

To put this into context, the lifetime numbers are the following:
💰 $230.9M revenue
🎮 16.3M copies sold
👥 308.3K peak CCU

Find more details about the game's performance on its AppMagic page.

AppMagic Shortcuts: 3 Ways to Spot Trending App & Game Niches Early

Didn’t wake up with a killer app idea today either? No stress! While being a pioneer is great, it’s not the only way to create a hit.

You can also spot emerging trends before your competitors and launch while the opportunity is still hot. With this approach, timing is everything ⏰

To help you get your timing right, we’ve prepared three AppMagic shortcuts for trend spotting:

1️⃣ Ranking skimming + keyword search
2️⃣ Niche analysis + app comparison
3️⃣ Downloads growth comparison

A breakdown of these approaches with real-life examples, plus a bonus chapter, is already waiting for you via the link.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword just had a $15.7M opening week on Steam ⚔️

In its first seven days, the game:
💻 Sold an estimated 271K copies
🤝 Reached 84.8K concurrent players
💰 Generated $15.7M in estimated revenue

Learn about game’s performance on its AppMagic page.

Heartopia: The $130M Life Sim Redefining the Genre

Released this January, Heartopia by X.D. Network quickly entered the top 3 Simulator games, getting very close to long-held #2 Hay Day 🚀

The game did what no mobile Life Sim title could before: it raised the ceiling for a genre that had felt stagnant for years. Climbing straight past Aobi Island's $7.7M monthly milestone, it set a new genre record at $20M per month!

In this article we will break down this success story, covering:
💡 How a familiar concept, inspired by Animal Crossing, was adapted for the F2P mobile format
💰 How the game combines LiveOps formats and steady flow of content that feels highly exclusive
💵 What Heartopia’s revenue mix looks like

Our most observant readers might have already caught this article in last week’s selection of must-reads and dug into it.

But if you missed it, now’s a great time to take a deep dive ✨

See you at WN Conference next week

The Three Horsemen of AppMagic are getting ready to enjoy Cyprus’s sun and sea — but most of all, catch up with everyone on the latest mobile app market insights.

Come say hi at our stand to our:
✨ Global Director of Customer Success SMB, Alex Laptenok
✨ Head of Content, Andrei Zubov
✨ Head of Inbound Sales, Kirill Vaganov

Kirill will also take the stage with his talk, “Global Trends in Mobile Gaming.” We took a peek at what’s coming, and trust us, these are insights worth writing down!

Save the date:
🗓️ September 17
🕙 11 a.m.
📍Limassol, Cyprus

ASO Plus: Become More Visible Than Your Competitors

While so many of you were away at Gamescom, something really exciting happened! ASO Plus, powered by Sensor Tower, became available to AppMagic clients 🥳

Now, you can:
👀 Spot new keywords opportunities and connect them to growth in metrics.
💬 Automate analysis of user feedback to learn what your audience think.
⭐️ Learn which changes in your app affected your rating and in which countries.

Discover more about ASO Plus here.

Shift At Midnight has earned $13M+ by giving Steam players another night job… Oh, and this one comes with doppelgangers

Developed by Bun Muen and published by Kwalee, Shift At Midnight is a new indie co-op horror hit released in July 2026. The game had a strong launch, ranking #5 by downloads and #10 among the most wishlisted games on Steam that month. Since then, it has sold more than 1.7M copies and brought in $13M+ in revenue 🔥

The game puts up to three players behind the counter of a gas station, a setup that might sound familiar to anyone who played Roadside Research: restock shelves, take deliveries, keep the place clean and serve customers.

Except now every customer needs to pass an “are you actually human” check. Players inspect IDs (a little Papers, Please here, maybe some Quarantine Zone too) and watch for suspicious behavior to spot the doppelgangers. Get it wrong, and the quiet job sim switches gears into survival horror, complete with barricades, traps and hiding 👀

So, another niche simulator turning into an indie hit? Hardly a surprise. We recently looked at this trend across dozens of indie sims on Steam, including the overlap between simulation and co-op!

Want to see what else made the list? The full breakdown is right here 🔗

Winning Creatives: A Framework for Ideation and Testing in Mobile UA

Why does the creative you spent hours perfecting flop? While a throwaway lunch-break concept becomes a UA superstar.

To help you hit the bullseye with your creatives, we teamed up with Ramiz Trtovac, Head of UA at GameBiz Consulting, to create a step-by-step guide 🤩

Inside, we cover:
— How to organise your ideation process and balance safe and experimental concepts
— Where good ideas actually come from
— How to set up an effective creative testing loop

The guide is already available via the link — don’t forget to save it for your future projects 🚀

Top Freindslops Breakdown

Friendslop games aren’t slowing down on their hype wave, so to help you ride it, we teamed up with our good friend Anton Slashcev to create a breakdown of the top 8 friendslop games on Steam.

There you will discover:
🔄 Game flow breakdown
🖥️ UI windows
⚙️ Gameplay, core loop and features
🤝 Onboarding and friends invite
📊 Metrics, sales, wishlists

The full analysis is already available via the link.

AppMagic New Feature Alert: ASO Plus Is Now Available

How much of your app’s growth relies on organic search? We know you’re looking for a synonym for “a lot” 😉

To make sure a great app you’ve worked nights on gets easily found by your audience and help you outmaneuver your competitors, we launched ASO Plus, powered by the data engine and interface behind Sensor Tower’s enterprise ASO product.

ASO Plus allows you to:
🔎 Find the right keywords. Discover opportunities and track what your competitors rank for.
📈 Connect ASO changes to app growth. Link metadata and store listing changes with download trends.
💡Understand what users think. See what users love and hate without reading thousands of reviews manually.
⭐️ Learn what drives your rating. See why it changed, which version drove the change, and which countries are affected.

Learn more about ASO Plus and how it can help you improve your app’s visibility.

The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan Sparks Interest in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Driving Daily Revenue to $220K

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey hit cinemas in mid-July and left its mark not only on the director’s fans, but also on Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, sending the game’s daily revenue soaring to $220K on Steam. It’s a a whopping 22x increase compared to $10k on the same date in 2025 🤌

Ubisoft also timed a sales period with the movie’s release, offering up to 80% off the game starting August 3 and warming up interest with related social media posts, amplifying the effect even further.

The last time Assassin’s Creed Odyssey saw comparable revenue was in January 2025, when discounts of up to 85% may have been used most likely to re-engage players with the franchise ahead of the March 2025 release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Another interesting detail is the regional split of the 2026 spike. As expected, the US accounted for the largest share at 23%. But Australia stood out, contributing 6% of revenue, despite historically not being one of the game’s top markets.

This could be linked to The Odyssey’s strong performance in Australia. The movie had the third-biggest opening weekend for a Universal release in the country, potentially giving the game an additional boost there 💪

This is a great example of how events outside the gaming market can create unexpected opportunities for game developers. The key is to spot these moments early and move quickly with discounts, promotions, or other campaigns to capture the additional demand.

Learn more about Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s metrics on its AppMagic Public Page.

Smash Fest: From LiveOps Minigame to Chart-Smashing Puzzle Trend

The Hybridcasual Puzzle market keeps coming up with new trends. We’re still not over Arrows, and now we have Smash 🤌

In July 2026, Flow Game’s Smash Fest! rapidly climbed the charts, reaching #10 in Top Grossing and #4 in Top Free. As of today, the game has generated over $4M in lifetime IAP revenue and reached 16M installs.

With Advanced Search, we’ve already spotted 50 new games with “Smash” in their titles, launched after Smash Fest started climbing the charts in June. What is more, big players like Moon Active and Azur Games are already testing the mechanic in Splash Kingdom: Tower Blast and Hit Fest: Cannon Smash.

But guess what? The trend apparently came from Casual LiveOps! 👀

That’s exactly what we break down in our recent article, including:
— Which offers are driving Smash Fest!’s success
— How Royal Smash builds on the game’s core
— How Casual games are leveraging the trend through misleading ads

Don’t wait another moment, dive right in ✨

Last Asylum: Plague Reached a New Weekly Revenue High of $3.8M

After plateauing for several months, Last Asylum: Plague returned to growth at the end of June 2026, reaching a new weekly IAP revenue high of $3.8M last week August 10-16, 2026.

This helped the game climb to 6th place in the Midcore 4X Strategy market by IAP weekly revenue just five months after its release, overtaking Puzzle & Survival and Evony: The King’s Return, which generated $3.5M and $3.2M, respectively 🔥

The growth may be linked to the release of the game’s “Era of Revival” expansion in mid-July, which introduced new progression systems, content updates, and rewards.

Ahead of the content update, Last Asylum: Plague also ramped up its ad creative efforts, releasing some of the best-performing creatives in the game’s history. The game followed a trend we’ve recently spotted in leading Strategy titles like Whiteout Survival and Kingshot: opening with an AI-generated hook directly tied to the game’s plot before transitioning into other parts of the creative 💡

This approach helped boost weekly installs to 918K even before the content update was released — an 80% increase in just two weeks!

Learn more about trending mechanics in 4X Strategy games and other Midcore subgenres in our Midcore Insights 2026 report.

Midcore Insights Q2 2026: Market Leaders, Breakout Launches, LiveOps and UA Trends

Midcore generated roughly $16B in H1 2026. But behind that huge number are dozens of success stories, declines, and emerging trends shaping the market. To capture what’s changing right now, we zoomed in on Q2 and the latest shifts across the genre.

Our new report breaks down both the broader market shifts and the key trends across major Midcore genres, from Strategy and RPG to Shooters and Simulation:

• Which subgenres grew several times over, but still don’t signal a real market opportunity 🚀
• How Sort Puzzle mechanics made their way into 4X Strategies through LiveOps 🧩
• How AI and “tycoonization” are reshaping UA creative trends 🪵

Read our neat 20-slide report for a quick snapshot of what’s happening across the Midcore market today:

Download Report

Sensor Tower Tracker: Your Best Way to Track GTA VI Sales in Real Time

Save it and watch the numbers grow as they happen! 🤩

The market is getting ready for the next chapter of the legendary Grand Theft Auto franchise, with GTA VI set to launch this November and pre-orders already open since June 25.

We know you’ve already set up your PS5 or Xbox, pre-ordered GTA VI, and maybe even got a Netflix subscription just to catch every new trailer. So, what’s left?

Monitoring the sales in real time with a free Sensor Tower' tracker, of course! We checked it today, and GTA VI has already generated $421M in revenue from 4.3M copies sold since pre-orders started 🔥

GTA V gives us a glimpse of what might be coming. The 2013 release saw 7M pre-orders, followed by 11M units sold globally on launch day and 16M in its first week.

If you also can’t wait for the release and want to see how quickly GTA VI can catch up with its predecessor, make sure to save Sensor Tower’s GTA VI Sales Tracker.