AppMagic

Mobile Market Landscape 2026

Our flagship report of the year is out 🎊

For the first time, it covers both gaming and non-gaming apps, offering a full view of the mobile market!

Across 96 pages, we analyze the entire 2025 landscape and highlight the key trends shaping 2026, including:

⭐️ Global and regional trends across mobile apps and games
⭐️ Gaming insights across three supergenres — Casual, Midcore, and Hypercasual — with detailed subgenre analysis
⭐️ Apps trends across 20+ categories, including Generative AI, Entertainment, and Social

This report is a must-read for anyone working in the mobile industry!

Dive right in

Hero Wars: Alliance Hits $1B in Lifetime IAP Revenue

Nexters (GDEV)’s flagship title, which accounts for 99% of the publisher’s revenue, has reached a major milestone — $1B in lifetime IAP revenue.

Launched back in 2017, the game now ranks Top 9 globally among Team Battlers by lifetime IAP revenue. In the past year, it continued to generate over $7M a month 💪

In 2025, Hero Wars also reached the number one position among Team Battlers by downloads! Both achievements were possible thanks to a strong mix of sustained monetization and UA, showing that these strategies still work even for mature titles.

Learn more about the game on its AppMagic public page ✨

Mobile strategy IAPs are going beyond the $0.99–$99.99 price range

4X Strategies are quietly reshaping top-tier pricing, and the $99.99 cap is no longer a ceiling!

In 2025, we’re seeing more 4X strategy titles confidently testing much higher price points and pushing the limits of how far mobile pricing can go:

— $149–$249 in Total Battle
— €119–€279 in High Seas Hero
— $199.99 in Puzzles & Survival

In our new article, we take a closer look at:
1️⃣ Why this shift is happening now
2️⃣ How conversion is built before studios test premium tiers
3️⃣ How Total Battle, High Seas Hero, and Puzzles & Survival approached this change

Read the full piece here

Top 10 Premium Steam Games by Copies Sold in 2025

We’re still wrapping up our yearly results — but one thing is already crystal clear from Steam data: players are craving social experiences more than ever.

Let us prove it 👇

1️⃣ Four-player co-op games have exploded in 2025, climbing straight to the top of the charts. Just look at R.E.P.O., PEAK, Schedule I, and RV There Yet?

2️⃣ Most of the remaining Top 10 is also dominated by social, multiplayer-first titles like Black Desert, Dead by Daylight, and Rainbow Six Siege.

This and many other insights on both Steam and mobile market we’ve already shared with our newsletter subscribers last week 😉

Want to be among the first to know? Subscribe here💡

Two Game-Changing LiveOps Mechanics to Watch in 2026

While working on our LiveOps Report 2025, we noticed two LiveOps mechanics in Casual titles that seemed like a next big thing in 2026. So we decided to dig deeper and learn more about them!

In our new article, you’ll find out:
1️⃣ What these two mechanics are and which genres they fit best
2️⃣ How these mechanics work and the best practices behind them
3️⃣ Why we believe they could deliver strong results in 2026

The article is already available on our website. Enjoy!

PGC Success Formula

How to make the most of these two days in London? Here’s the success formula our team plans to follow:

1️⃣ Explore our LiveOps Report 2025 and come ready to discuss the trends shaping the industry

2️⃣ Discover the latest industry insights at the PGC conference on Jan 19-20

3️⃣ Reset for a few hours at our Tap & Talk event today (Jan 19) at 5 PM GMT. Don’t forget to register

Then head home, wrap up in a blanket, and hide from people for a bit to restore your energy 😂

See you today, and wishing you the best time at PGC 💛

Our new LiveOps Report 2025 is out now!

It includes 60 pages packed with data-driven insights on the most effective LiveOps mechanics and strategies across Casual, Midcore, and Hybridcasual genres.

For each segment, you’ll find:
— Downloads and revenue dynamics across subgenres to spot the fastest-growing niches
— Changes in event activity, including emerging mechanics and those fading out
— Monetization insights and a closer look at player motivations

All of this is complemented by the deconstructions of selected events worth paying attention to in 2026!

Whatever LiveOps questions you have, chances are you’ll find the answers in this report 💡

Join Our Tap & Talk Event During PGC London

Together with Sensemitter, we’re hosting a quiet, invite-only warm-up event ahead of the main PGC party.

Who’s it for?
Mobile game developers, publishers, UA, and monetization professionals.

What to expect?
A few relaxed hours of meaningful conversations with industry leaders — away from the usual noise. Drinks and snacks are on us 🍹

When & where?
⏱️Jan 19 | 5:00–7:00 PM GMT
📍The Anthologist, 58 Gresham St, London

Fill in the form to join 💛

Spots are limited — make sure to register early.
We can’t wait to host you 😊

Top 10 Grossing Genres In 2025

This year saw a tectonic shift in the top three genres: Strategy overtook RPG, finishing 21% ahead in annual revenue 🤯

This performance was driven by the breakout success of Last War: Survival and Whiteout Survival, alongside the strong launch of Pokémon TCG Pocket and the epic comeback of Clash Royale.

Meanwhile, RPG revenue declined by 17% year-over-year. While the genre’s leading titles remain strong, the revenue peaks of Honkai: Star Rail and of Dungeon & Fighter are now easing, with no new breakout RPG launches emerging in 2025.

The Puzzle genre continues its steady growth, posting nearly a 11% increase in annual revenue. This momentum is driven by genre mastodons like Gossip Harbor: Merge Story, which already accounts for 6% of total puzzle revenue, alongside the rapid rise of Hybridcasual IAP revenue within the category 🔥

Explore more insights on the leading game genres of 2025.

Top 10 Grossing Publishers By Gaming Revenue in 2025

This year, the top three welcomed a new entrant: Century Games 🚀

In just one year, the publisher jumped 9 positions, delivering an 87% increase in IAP yearly revenue. Growth was driven by Whiteout Survival and the rising Kingshot, accounting for 64% and 11% of lifetime portfolio revenue.

Meanwhile, Tencent firmly holds the 1 spot, outperforming the second-largest publisher by 179%. Keep in mind that this ranking reflects only revenue generated by games published under Tencent’s own publisher account and excludes revenue from subsidiaries such as Supercell, Miniclip, Riot Games and others.

Scopely moved to 3rd place, driven by Monopoly Go!, which represents 44% of its lifetime portfolio 🎲

Dream Games continued to steadily approach the top three, rising from 5th to 4th place in 2025 and growing its annual revenue by 15%. Royal Match remains the main contributor, accounting for 94% of the publisher’s lifetime portfolio revenue, while Royal Kingdom emerged as the key revenue driver this year 💪

Have a closer look at the top grossing publishers list of 2025.

Dream Games is now just 1% behind Scopely. Do you think we’ll see a new top-3 entrant next year? 😱

Top 10 Grossing Games in 2025

This year, we saw one new game break into the top 10: Pokémon TCG Pocket, which generated over $670M in 2025 🚀

Meanwhile, Last War: Survival and Whiteout Survival — both entered the top in 2024 — continued to climb higher, increasing their annual revenues by 40% and 50%, respectively!

The leader remained unchanged, but threatened to lose its #1 spot: Last War: Survival is just a 7% behind Honor of Kings in annual revenue ⭐️

The only title that dropped out of the top 10 this year was Dungeon & Fighter: Origin. After peaking at $165M in monthly revenue in June 2024, the title has since slowed to around $27M per month.

Explore more insights on the top-grossing games of 2025 via the link

3 Trends Among 3 Pricing Tiers in Steam Games

Last week, we released our first research on Steam games, focusing on trends across the three key pricing tiers 💡

What methodology did we use?

• US region only
• Revenue from copies sold, no IAPs included
• Standard editions only, no deluxe or premium packages
• 90-day post-launch window

What did we found out?

1️⃣ Low price tier
For indie titles, this category includes prices from $0 to $29.99. However, most sales come from the top five price points ($9.99, $14.99, $19.99, $24.99, $29.99), and the choice between them directly impacts revenue.

2️⃣ Middle price tier
Driven by AA titles, prices lie within the $30.00–$49.99 range. The 9x GOTY-awarded Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 showed that mid-budget projects can achieve strong returns and outperform the industry leaders.

3️⃣ High price tier
The territory of two prices: $59.99 and $69.99. While $69.99 is already part of the market, this price is all about well-known franchises: among 25 games, only two are not IP-based.

Learn more about the dynamics across different pricing tiers and how even a small $5 step can define the success of your release 😉

Steam Pricing Research: From $0.0 to $69.99

Big day today — we’re releasing the first large research powered by our Steam Analytics. So, stay with us 🔥

Using the tool, we found that in the first three quarters of the year, Steam saw a 27.8% year-over-year increase in new game releases, totaling 18.5K titles!

Game pricing has long been considered one of the key aspects of a game’s release, as it shapes player expectations and defines your competitive landscape.

To help you better understand this process, we analyzed game pricing across three conditional segments:

💰Lower range: Primarily associated with indie projects, up to $29.99

💰Middle range: Typically used for AA games, priced from $30 to $59

💰Higher range: A natural fit for AAA releases, usually priced $59.99 or $69.99

All the details are available via the link.

Is Arrowslike a New Puzzle Subgenre?

It all started with Miniclip’s summer release Arrows – Puzzle Escape. A few months later, together with Gokhan Uzmez, we spotted 75 similar games — and at this point, it feels like more than just a fast-moving trend 🤝

Miniclip’s title still leads by lifetime downloads, with 4.6M installs in November 2025.

The next notable release was Wiggle Escape: Snake Puzzle by Paxie Games — an iteration on the same core mechanic, but with snakes (you don’t say 🐍). The game is now second by installs, reaching 2.8M downloads in November.

But what about the rest? Most titles are far behind the leaders in downloads and are barely monetizing.

Take a look for yourself 💡

Gokhan Uzmez believes this emerging subgenre could evolve through stronger level design, improved UI, and bigger UA budgets.

What do you guys think? Does Arrowslike stand a chance? 🚀