The analytics company Sensor Tower published a comprehensive report on the mobile sector based on the first quarter of 2026. We have selected the main points related to games.
Honor of Kings
- According to the analysts, the revenue of the global mobile games market from in-app purchases (IAP) is stagnating. It has remained at roughly the same level for at least five consecutive quarters. This time, it totaled $20.4 billion, which is only 0.5% higher compared to January-March 2025.
- Most of the IAP revenue from mobile games was generated on iOS — $12.96 billion (-0.6%). IAP revenue on Google Play amounted to $7.39 billion (+2.2%).
- Meanwhile, mobile game downloads continue to decline. They have now fallen by 12% to 11.9 billion, marking the worst result for the first quarter since 2019.
- 9.95 billion downloads (-13.4%) were from Google Play games, while another 1.91 billion downloads (-3.5%) were from App Store games.
- Strategies traditionally led in IAP revenue, earning $4.9 billion (+3%). However, their income is growing more slowly. On the other hand, puzzles, taking second place, are doing much better. For the first time in the history of first quarters, they managed to earn over $4 billion from IAP (+21%), thanks to the popularity of sorting games and Match Merge 2 games.
- Puzzles also took the top spot in downloads — 2.5 billion. However, their installs decreased by 4%. Notably, Sensor Tower recorded a decline in downloads in all top-10 game categories.
- The highest-grossing game of the quarter was, for the sixth consecutive time, Last War: Survival. Only it and Honor of Kings managed to earn over $500 million from IAP between January and March 2026 — the exact amount was not specified by the analysts. Meanwhile, Block Blast! topped the downloads chart.
Top 10 highest-grossing mobile games in the world in the first quarter of 2026
1. Last War: Survival;
2. Honor of Kings;
3. Whiteout Survival;
4. Royal Match;
5. MONOPOLY GO!;
6. Gossip Harbor;
7. Candy Crush Saga;
8. Game for Peace;
9. Kingshot;
10. Coin Master.
Top 10 most downloaded mobile games in the world in the first quarter of 2026
1. Block Blast!;
2. Free Fire;
3. Roblox;
4. Subway Surfers;
5. Pizza Ready;
6. Vita Mahjong;
7. Ludo King;
8. Tile Explorer;
9. Paper.io 2;
10. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.