Sensor Tower analysts in a large report on mobile games separately talked about the situation in Russia in 2022. It wasn’t very good.
Spending by Russian gamers on mobile games began to fall seriously in the second quarter of 2022 amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. As a result of April-June, they immediately decreased by 68% compared to the first quarter. Over the past three quarters, the revenue of the Russian mobile gaming market has not exceeded $ 70 million, although at least since 2019 it has consistently been above $ 100 million, and at the end of 2021 it rose to $ 200 million. As a result, Russia failed to enter the top five largest European markets in terms of revenue — this happened for the first time in the history of Sensor Tower observations.
Downloads also fell, but not so much, so last year Russia continued to lead the European top in the number of downloads of mobile games. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Russians downloaded games 673 million times, which is 11% less in annual terms. In total, Russia accounted for 25% of mobile game downloads in Europe in the fourth quarter.
Recall that in March last year, Apple and Google stopped accepting payments from users from Russia in their stores. Also, many gaming companies, including Activision Blizzard, Supercell and Rovio, have announced their withdrawal from the Russian market.