Using the AppMagic database, the editors of App2Top prepared data on the top-grossing mobile games of last year, and also found out that their total revenue fell significantly relative to the results of 2022.
Honor of Kings is the highest—grossing game of 2023
We remind you beforehand that when it comes to data obtained through AppMagic, revenue/cash means:
- cash receipts after deducting app store shares and taxes from them, and not user spending (for example, Sensor Tower, unlike AppMagic, usually leads to spending);
- receipts from micropayments, advertising revenue is not taken into account.
The highest-grossing games of the year
Top 10 highest-grossing mobile games of 2023
In total, the top 10 games earned $8.9 billion in 2023. This is $0.8 billion less than the top ten earned a year before. Overall, this is the lowest figure in the last four years. However, more than in the last year before the outbreak of the pandemic.
Almost half of the current revenue of the top came from the games of only two Chinese companies — Tencent and miHoYo. Their box office blockbusters (Honor of Kings, PUBG MOBILE, Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail) earned $4 billion in twelve months.
Curiously, it is also worth noting that for the first time since 2016, two new products (that is, two games whose release took place during the reporting period) got into the box office top 10 at once - Honkai: Star Rail and MONOPOLY GO!. Each company's revenue for 2023 amounted to more than $600 million.
The most downloaded games of the year
Top 10 most downloaded mobile games of 2023
Last year, the top ten had 1.5 billion downloads. This is about the same as it was in 2022 and 2021. From here, one can even hypothesize that this is the limit for the market. Perhaps now the top is no longer able to generate (against the background of new privacy policies and rising traffic costs).
If we talk about the dynamics of downloads, then it has been falling since 2021 (although this drop cannot be called significant, rather, we are talking about reaching a plateau). At the same time, to get into the top 3 in terms of installations, as three years ago, it is enough for the game to generate more than 200 million downloads in twelve months.
In terms of the names of the top downloads, there is little change now. It mainly presents projects that are more than five years old: Roblox, Subway Surfers, Ludo King, Candy Crush Saga, 8 Ball Pool, Free Fire, My Talking Tom 2.