AppMagic

Grok vs ChatGPT: Holding the top two spots in the market, these apps seem close. But in reality, they’re worlds apart:

This July, a new version of Elon Musk’s Grok was released with live web + X search and automatic LLM selection. But let’s be honest — the real buzz came from the anime assistant girl.

The buzz was so loud, that in just three days after launch, Grok’s daily revenue jumped 5x to $390K 🚀

Check out yourself!

Soon after, ChatGPT rolled out its own update with automatic model selection. Everything got smoother, smarter — and yes, finally no more confusing model switcher UI. The effect on revenue though was there: +11%, up to $7.3M daily.

Though both apps sit at the top of the AI Chatbot charts, Grok’s revenue is still 30x smaller 🤯

It’s clear ChatGPT was the first app to truly make AI mainstream — and breaking that dominance won’t be easy.

Mytona Arrived at $1B User Spending

In the past few years, Mytona has reached a steady IAP revenue plateau, averaging $4.5M a month.

Most of this revenue comes from two titles:

1️⃣ Seekers Notes: Hidden Objects — responsible for 58% of the publisher’s lifetime revenue. The game also ranks among the top two in the Hidden Objects genre, accounting for 14% of the market lifetime revenue.

2️⃣ Cooking Diary: Restaurant Game — contributes 39% of Mytona’s total revenue and 0.6% of the Simulation genre lifetime revenue.

Explore more on Mytona’s public page at AppMagic ✨

Singular Released Q3 2025 Trends Report Backed by AppMagic Intelligence

We’re glad to announce that our partners at Singular released their new quarterly report featuring some extra special insights on mobile apps and game genres — powered by AppMagic data 😉

Alongside the hottest genres, the report also uncovers:
— Global ad spend trends
— Regional trends in key metrics (CPI, CTR, COM, IPM)
— Monetization trends
— Singular ROI Index 2025

Smart insights for effective strategies of tomorrow await you here 💡

Casual Games + LiveOps: Two Must-Read Reports This August

The last few weeks were quite insightful for the industry, as AppMagic released two major reports.

If you missed them, here’s a quick way to catch up:

👉 Start with the Casual Report H1 2025 to find out which genres are on the rise and still have a low entry barrier

👉 Continue with the Casual LiveOps Report H1 2025 to learn which LiveOps mechanics showed the best results

So, if you’re already working in the Casual genre or just planning to enter it, you’ll get a handful of insights to successfully advance your game 😎

Top 10 Casual Subgenres H1 2025 Worldwide

In H1 2025, global Casual games revenue grew by 0.8% year-over-year (YoY), reaching $12B in net IAP revenue 🔥

Three genres — Puzzle, Casino, and Simulation — generated 80% of the total. Puzzle showed a confident 14% YoY growth, driven by mature hits like Royal Match and Candy Crush Saga, which together accounted for 30% of the genre’s revenue in H1 2025.

Casino saw a decline after the 2024 revenue peak of Monopoly Go!, with the genre now settling into a new normal as the game’s numbers stabilise 🧘

The fastest-growing genre among the top 10 was Arcade, up 26% YoY to $316M, powered by the 2023 release — Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon. In H1 2025, the game’s monthly revenue is already on par with the all-time favourite Gold & Goblins: Mining Games.

Learn more about Casual genre trends in our latest report 💡

Casual Report H1 2025: Growing, Declining and Hanging In There Genres

Last week, we released our staple mid-year report on the Casual games market 🔥

We know your time is precious, so here are three key insights to help you turn the Casual market to your advantage:

1️⃣ Match-3, Merge-2, and Farming genres keep growing — a proof that even mature titles can reach new all-time highs with the right LiveOps and monetization strategies.

2️⃣ Match 3D has declined after a major peak and is now stabilizing at revenue levels far below the Casual top tier.

3️⃣ Casual Casino is recalibrating after the explosive success of Monopoly Go!, settling into a new post-boom normal.

⭐️ And finally — there’s a new rising star among genres, with one of its subgenres growing 12x in revenue YoY!

Which one is it? We’ve got the answer in the report — go take a look 😉

Casual Games Report H1 2025: Three Genres Driving 80% of Revenue

We’re going strong for the second week with the release of our next mid-year staple — the Casual Games Report for H1 2025 🔥

What awaits you in the report:

1️⃣ A dynamic analysis of the three largest Casual genres: Puzzle, Casino, and Simulation.

2️⃣ Deconstruction of the leading Puzzle subgenres: Match-3, Merge, and Match-2 Blast.

3️⃣ A breakdown of the fastest-growing subgenres, including Hybridcasual Puzzle and Plinko.

This report will help you choose the right genre for your next title, see what’s trending among the top-performing games, and optimize your budget according to market shifts.

As always, we’re grateful for your feedback, and hope you’ll enjoy the read! 😊

Homescapes Reaches $6B in Lifetime User Spending

Homescapes ranks as the 4th top-grossing Match-3 game, contributing 10% of the genre's revenue up to date 💪

It also confidently takes second place in Playrix’s portfolio, contributing 28% of the company’s total lifetime revenue — second only to Gardenscapes!

While the game peaked at $69M per month back in 2021, it still earns a solid $26M monthly — ahead of most titles outside the Match-3 top 5 ⭐️

At the same time, downloads have dropped more noticeably than revenue, and if we check the RpD graph, we’ll see it keeps growing.

This reflects the game’s maturity and its success in retaining and monetizing a loyal user base — thanks to diverse LiveOps, a smart monetization mix, and an emotional storyline paired with a renovation meta, constantly supported by fresh content ✨

Explore more Homescapes metrics on its AppMagic page!

Casual LiveOps Report H1 2025 in Numbers

Last week we released our first full-format pdf report on Casual LiveOps strategies! Read it here 💡

The report is packed with both mechanic deep-dives and market analysis pages. Here are a few key numbers you don’t want to miss:

10% → Increase in the number of LiveOps in casual games quarter-over-quarter

82% → Casual games that launched at least one event in H1 2025

70% → Share of casual games using the Race mechanic in their LiveOps

⚠️ There’s a recent LiveOps mechanic that quickly became popular and is already featured in 11% of the casual games!

Which one? You will find the answer in the full version of the report 😉

Casual LiveOps Report H1 2025

Download the report here ✨

Across 70 slides packed with data and insights, we explore how LiveOps evolved in Casual games during H1 2025:

1️⃣ How the Casual genre and its subgenres performed in H1 2025 by revenue and downloads
2️⃣ The best and worst performing LiveOps mechanics: Plinko, Fishing, Racing, Digging, and more
3️⃣ A breakdown of LiveOps strategies across the top 4 casual subgenres: Casual, Puzzle, Casino, and Hybridcasual

These insights will help you navigate the key trends and innovations in Casual genre LiveOps—so you can evolve your growth strategies to your advantage 🤝

Enjoy the read!

AppMagic Nominated for Best Analytics Tool – Just a Few Days Left to Vote For Us!

We’re excited to share that AppMagic has been shortlisted by the leading industrial media Pocket Gamer in the ‘Best Analytics/Data Tool’ category! ⭐️

This nomination reflects the hard work our team has put into evolving our toolset and growing our team over the past year.

🏁 Only 3 days left — voting closes on July 31!

Help us take the top spot, cast your vote here.

Toy Blast Hits a New High with $2B in Lifetime User Spending

Toy Blast is the second top-grossing game in the Match-2 Blast genre, holding 23% of the market — just behind another Peak Games hit, Toon Blast.

It’s also the second highest lifetime earner in Peak Games’ portfolio, accounting for 33% of the company’s total IAP revenue🏅

While Toon Blast remains the star of the Peak Games’ portfolio, Toy Blast is a stable long-term revenue source — still backed by a loyal fan base thanks to a smart monetization system, a more relaxed gameplay, and frequent LiveOps and content updates.

Explore Toy Blast’s performance on its AppMagic Public Page.

Eggy Party’s From China to Global: The Tweaks That Made It Work

We partnered with NetEase and Duamentes to break down how very popular game in China, Eggy Party, was adapted for its global launch.

💡The key assumption before release was: ‘What works at home might fall flat abroad’.

That’s why, after testing, the team rolled out several strategic changes:

1️⃣ Lowered CPI by adjusting the app icon to better match genre tastes among Western players
2️⃣ Renamed the title from Eggy Go to Eggy Party to align with genre expectations
3️⃣ Boosted retention by reworking the FTUE to make tutorials more friendly and welcoming
4️⃣ Simplified the UI for a cleaner, more intuitive, and premium experience

🏁 Results
The global version reached $8.6M in revenue and 455K MAU.

Read the full case study to see all the localisation tweaks that made it work 🔥

Township by Playrix Hits $4B in User Spending

Township continues to dominate the Farming genre, taking 43% of its total revenue in H1 2025—well ahead of Hay Day (13%) and Family Island (11%) 🚀

The game shows strong momentum, with revenue up 25% YoY and hitting an all-time high of $43M in January 2025.

It remains a top 3 title in Playrix’s portfolio, accounting for 18% of total lifetime revenue and closing in on Gardenscapes🏆

Multi-layered gameplay, diverse LiveOps with passes and seasonal events, effective playable ads and promotions across Playrix’s portfolio — this smart mix allows the game to stay on top.

Explore more on its AppMagic public page!

Top 10 Games by Worldwide Revenue in H1 2025

Let’s continue our H1 2025 recap with the top games by iAP revenue – and this time, there were quite a few shifts 🎢

After a strong run, Monopoly Go! returned the top spot to the previous leader Honor of Kings, which brought in $1B with 2% year-over-year (YoY) growth.

Places two and three are now held by 4X strategy giants Last War: Survival and Whiteout Survival, showing skyrocketing 96% and 120% YoY growth 🚀

There’s one newcomer to the top as well: Pokémon TCG Pocket, released no later than the end of October 2024, and already reaching $478M in H1 2025⚡️

The only game to drop out of the top 10 was Honkai: Star Rail, with a 38% YoY decline in iAP revenue.

💡Learn more about 2025 leaders using AppMagic public Top Apps

New Free Feature: Live Store Rankings — Spot Best-Performing Apps by the Hour 

⚙️What is it?
Live Store Rankings lets you see Top Free, Grossing, and Paid apps in your chosen genre hour by hour — and it’s free for everyone!

💡 What can you learn?
Spot spikes from UA campaigns, in-game events, ASO updates, pricing changes, or new releases.

🎯 Why it matters?
— Benchmark against competitors in real time
— See the impact of your updates faster and adjust quickly
— Catch emerging trends or sub-genres early

⚠️ Where to find it?
1️⃣ AppMagic home page > Live Store Rankings in the left corner
2️⃣ Apps > Top Apps > Live Store Rankings

Or simply click here

50 IP Collaborations in LiveOps in H1 2025

To celebrate the mid-year mark, we prepared a little gift for you ✨

We wanted to help everyone in thoughts of doing an IP collaboration or planning LiveOps strategy for the second half of the year.

We’ve put together a list of 50 IP collabs is LiveOps featured in the top games such as:
 • Clash of Clans
 • Clash Royale
 • Coin Master
 • Dice Dreams
 • Frozen City
 • Gardenscapes
 • Toon Blast
 • Whiteout Survival
…and many others! 😉

The list is available in Figma via our magic link.

💡All these collabs were discovered using our own event database from LiveOps & Updates Calendar.

‘How to’ with Daria Melnikova: Spot Trends in Ad Creatives for Effective Marketing Strategy

Daria Melnikova is the CBDO at AdChampagne Games, with years of business development experience in performance marketing agencies.

🎯 One of Daria's key tasks is to come up with creative strategies based on emerging trends that will improve her clients’ CPI, CTR and ROAS.

To do this, she uses Ad Intelligence:

1️⃣ She tracks and compares impressions of creatives to spot genres with active competition for attention.

2️⃣ She checks networks split to discover the most effective networks within the genre.

This method helps Daria launch more effective creative strategies, quickly identify growth opportunities, and give clients quantitative proof that the strategy will deliver results.

Top Grossing Mobile Game Publishers in H1 2025

H1 2025 is behind us, which means it’s time to wrap up the results while sipping something iced 🏖️

Leading the chart is Tencent with $3.2B in iAP gaming revenue. Its top performers, Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile, brought in 42% of total revenue.

The fastest YoY growers are Century Games (112% YoY) and Funfly (90% YoY) — both newcomers to the top 10!

1️⃣ Century Games’ rise is driven by Whiteout Survival, recently joined by Kingshot, which hit $38M monthly revenue just 4 months after launch.

2️⃣ Funfly’s spike comes almost entirely from Last War: Survival, making up 98% of its H1 2025 revenue.

⚠️ Dream Games, while not new, also saw a strong boost of 28% YoY thanks to the growth of Royal Match.

Have a closer look at Top Publishers via the link.

Top 10 Midcore Subgenres in H1 2025

The first half of the year is behind us, so it’s time to look at some interim results 😉

Starting with the Midcore genre, where 4X Strategy remains the leading subgenre with $4.1B in IAP revenue, accounting for 22% of total Midcore revenue and growing 29% year-over-year (YoY). The two main drivers haven’t changed since last year: Whiteout Survival and Last War: Survival, which together contributed 41% of 4X Strategy revenue in H1 2025.

Number two and three are Team Battler and MMORPG with $2B and $1.5B in iAP revenue, respectively. Both subgenres saw a YoY decline — down 12% and 19% accordingly.

But there’s one subgenre to keep an eye on: Card Battler, which saw a massive 225% YoY growth, reaching $756M in H1 2025 — largely driven by Pokémon TCG Pocket 🚀

Learn more about leading Midcore titles using our Top Apps 💡