The analytical company Sensor Tower told how things were with mobile genres in 2020. Hyper-casual games turned out to be the most successful in terms of downloads, but RPG projects got the most money again.
Download data
- The COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions have caused a surge in downloads in almost all genres of mobile games. But the unambiguous leader in the number of installations was hyper-casual games. Last year, one hundred top hyper—casuals collected 6.3 billion downloads – 123% more than they had in 2019.
- Also in 2020, gamers actively downloaded arcade games (4 billion installations), puzzles (3.7 billion installations) and simulators (2.9 billion installations).
The number of downloads of the 100 best games of different genres in 2019 and 2020The popularity of the hypercausal did not come as a surprise to analysts.
- According to Sensor Tower’s calculations, this genre has grown rapidly over the past few years. For example, in 2017, it accounted for only 12% of the downloads of thousands of the best mobile games. In 2018, the share of hyper-casual games has already grown to 20%, and in 2019 — to 27%. In 2020, hyper-casuals were responsible for almost a third of all downloads.
Download ratio among thousands of the best games of different genres in 2017-2020Indian gamers accounted for a significant portion of mobile game installations in 2020.
- Most often in India, arcade games (1.3 billion times), hyper-casual games (1.1 billion times) and shooters (750 million times) were downloaded.
- Analysts also looked at the preferences of Russian players. In Russia, the first place in the number of downloads went to hyperkazual (352 million installations). Puzzles are in second place (217 million installations), and arcades are in third place (204 million installations).
Top genres by number of downloads in different countries in 2020Income data
- RPG became the highest-grossing genre of the year again. The top 100 RPG games earned $18.7 billion in twelve months – an annual growth of 26%. This was largely achieved thanks to recent releases, such as Genshin Impact. The revenue of this game alone was $560 million.
- The simulators’ incomes grew the fastest. They increased by 56% year-on-year and reached $3.8 billion.
Revenue volumes of the top 100 games of different genres in 2019 and 2020Despite the fact that RPG has been a leader in the market for three years, its share in mobile is gradually decreasing.
- For comparison, in 2019, role-playing games accounted for 34% of the revenue of thousands of the best mobile games. In 2020, the share decreased to 29%.
- At the same time, the share of shooters and mobile casinos increased last year — by 2% and 1%, respectively. Games that were released long before 2020 mainly helped in this. For example, PUBG Mobile and Coin Master. Call of Duty: Mobile, released in September 2019, also performed well – its revenue by the end of last December exceeded $ 760 million.
Revenue ratio among thousands of the best games of different genres in 2017-2020Gamers from China, Japan and South Korea brought most of the earnings to the RPG genre.
- At the same time, Western players preferred to spend money in other genres. Mobile casinos have become the most profitable genre in the USA, puzzles in the UK, and strategies in Germany.
Dynamics of growth of the highest-grossing genres in different countries in 2020