Recently, the analytics company Sensor Tower released a comprehensive report sharing insights on the global mobile app market from July to September 2026. Below are the main findings regarding games.
Gossip Harbor
Revenue Data
- According to analysts, the mobile gaming market is still stagnating in terms of revenue, but there is a slight improvement. This quarter, its IAP revenue amounted to $19.4 billion — although down by 6.9% compared to last year, it increased by 1% relative to April-June 2026. Previously, revenue had only been declining for several consecutive quarters.
- Mobile games generated the most IAP revenue from the App Store, earning $12.02 billion, marking a 9% decline. Their revenue on Google Play was $7.38 billion, decreasing by 3.4%.
- Strategy games continue to lead in IAP revenue, but puzzle games are closing the gap. In the third quarter of 2026, the revenue difference between these two genres was minimal: $4.15 billion for strategy games (-20%) versus $4.14 billion for puzzle games (+13%). According to Sensor Tower, the strengthening of puzzle games is primarily due to the success of the Merge games niche. For example, games like Gossip Harbor showed excellent results, with revenue surging by 69%, and Tasty Travels with a jump of 300%.
- Also rounding out the top five highest-grossing genres were RPGs ($2.99 billion, -15%), social casino games ($1.49 billion, -14%), and simulation games ($1.48 billion, +1%).
Download Data
- The situation with mobile game downloads is largely similar. From July to September 2026, their number reached 11.4 billion. This is 8% less than a year ago, but 0.9% more than the previous quarter.
- The distribution of downloads across stores is as follows: 9.64 billion from Google Play (-8.1%) and 1.74 billion from the App Store (-7.4%).
- The top spot in downloads has long belonged to puzzle games. Collectively, games in this genre were downloaded 2.59 billion times this quarter. Notably, among the top ten most popular genres, only puzzle and sports games saw an increase in downloads: the former at 8% and the latter at 11% (up to 523 million, securing the seventh place in the rankings).
- In addition to puzzle games, the top five genres of mobile games by downloads included simulation games (2.27 billion, -11%), arcade games (1.94 billion, -17%), lifestyle games (753 million, -15%), and action games (612 million, -5%).
Top 10 Highest-Grossing Mobile Games Worldwide for July-September 2026
1. Honor of Kings (-)
2. Gossip Harbor (↑2)
3. Whiteout Survival (↓1)
4. Royal Match (↓1)
5. MONOPOLY GO! (↑1)
6. Candy Crush Saga (↑1)
7. Kingshot (↑1)
8. Roblox (↑4)
9. Pokémon GO (↑12)
10. Coin Master (↓1)
Top 10 Most Downloaded Mobile Games Worldwide for July-September 2026
1. Roblox (↑3)
2. Garena Free Fire (-)
3. Block Blast! (-)
4. Subway Surfers (2)
5. Arrow Puzzle (↑9)
6. Ludo King (↑1)
7. Football League 2026 (↑13)
8. EA Sports FC Mobile Soccer (↑3)
9. WePlay (↑6)
10. Brain Puzzle 2: Logic Twist (↑26)