This conclusion was reached by the analytical company Sensor Tower.
Vita Mahjong
Note that the Sensor Tower report provides data not worldwide, but only from 19 countries: the USA, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Spain, Indonesia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, Brazil, and Vietnam.
Below are some more opinions from Sensor Tower analysts regarding ad monetization in mobile games.
- In total, in 2025, ads in mobile games were shown 2.4 trillion times.
- Downloads of mobile games containing ads reached 24.6 billion last year. The highest number of downloads was in January, with 2.33 billion.
- The share of mobile games with ad monetization grew from 45.1% in July 2021 to 55.6% in May 2026. This occurred against the backdrop of stagnation in in-app purchase (IAP) monetization.
- As noted by Sensor Tower, in developing countries, the majority of mobile game revenue comes from ads, whereas in more mature markets it comes from IAP. For instance, in India, from January to May 2026, ads accounted for 70.3% of revenue, while in the USA during the same period, ads were responsible for only 22.1% of revenue.
- When it comes to game categories, from February to April 2026, casual and hyper-casual titles accounted for 40% of ad revenue each. Hybrid games generated another 16%, and mid-core games 4%.
- Puzzle games lead among mobile game genres in terms of ad revenue share. From February to April 2026, their share was 53%. Arcade games were in second place with a 13% share.
- In May 2026, 65% of ad revenue came from the AppLovin and AdMob ad networks. A year and a half ago, their share was slightly lower at 61%.
- The highest ad revenue from January to May 2026 was earned by the block puzzle game Block Blast!—$127 million. Also in the top three were Vita Mahjong ($89.8 million) and Candy Crush Saga ($81.1 million).
- Among publishers, the top three in terms of ad revenue for the first five months of 2026 were Hungry Studio ($131.2 million), Easybrain ($117.3 million), and Onesoft ($113.5 million).
*Meta Audience Network is owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia.