The other day, App Annie published its traditional review of the mobile gaming market for the month. This time for April. No surprises or discoveries: Clash of Clans, Puzzles & Dragons and Candy Crush Saga are still in the lead.
However, if we talk about the top publishers for iOS downloads, then there is something to be surprised about. Out of ten companies, there are five newcomers. But about everything in order.
The first place is consistently held by Electronic Arts with a base of 907 released games. Also, the third place remains unchanged, where King sits proudly, whose Candy Crush Saga demonstrates the full power of the match-3 genre.
But between them, in second place is Ninjafish Studios. Successful releases of three projects at once helped the company to jump 15 positions up: Dentist Office, Wedding Day Makeover and Movie Star Makeover. The growth of Princess Makeover has also contributed to such a tangible leap.
Gameloft rose 5 positions at once, ending up in 4th place, thanks to the launch of Iron Man 3 and Dungeon Hunter 4, in general, warmly welcomed by the gaming audience.
The fifth place in the top went to Sega. The company jumped 18 positions at once, making Sonic Dash (not a very neat clone of the Surfers Subwow) a free application.
Due to the fact that Fruit Ninja and Fruit Ninja HD were also free for part of April, Halfbrick Studios significantly rose in the top, taking 7th place.
But the highest jump was made by Singapore’s Orangenose Studios. The extremely successful release of the Hardest Game Ever 2 lifted the company by 189 positions, straight to the 9th place.
Also, the Korean LINE appeared in the top, whose games show very good results in Japan, as well as in Thailand, China and Taiwan.
In terms of leading companies in downloads on Google Play, everything is calmer. The most noticeable change is King’s rise by four positions.
App Annie analysts also note the following curious fact: 6 out of 10 companies represented in the top are based in Europe. Recall that until recently, Asian and American companies dominated this top.
Despite the strong changes in the top downloads, there are almost no changes in the box office iOS chart.
Supercell is in the first place, GungHo is in the second, King is now in the third. Gameloft and Zynga complete the top, as they did a month ago.
A little less calm in the box office top of Google Play, where Japanese and Korean companies continue to “order music”. No Europeans have been noticed here yet.
Yes, App Annie now separates LINE and NHN in its data. The first one earns well on match-3 LINE POP, LINE Bubble! project, and LINE WIND. NHN, in turn, is in the top 10 thanks to 피쉬프렌즈 (Fish Friends) for Kakao and 우파루마운틴 (Wooparoo Mountain) for Kakao.
April turned out to be an extremely busy month in terms of downloads and projects, if we talk about the App Store. There are only two projects left in the iOS tops since last month: Candy Crush Saga, which tops the list, and Real Racing 3, which is in sixth place.
Injustice: Gods Among Us from Warner Bros is in third place. The game started a couple of weeks before the release of the console title of the same name. Soft monetization, a line of heroes from DC, excellent graphics and simple gameplay have elevated it not only to the top of the free, but also the box office chart.
Iron Man 3, which Apple promoted on the homepage in more than 100 countries, started from the third position. The release of the game took place exactly between the French and American premieres of the third film about the adventures of Tony Stark.
The interest in these games is understandable, so more questions are raised by the appearance in the fourth position of the strictly child-oriented Dentist Office from Ninjafish Studios. It is also a mystery to us – the success of the next ideological heir of Elasto Mania – Draw Rider, created by our compatriot Anton Vashinsky.
On the other hand, the excellent performance of the project demonstrates that independent developers can still break into the tops on their own.
There were no new releases in the free top of Google Play games, but not without debutants in the chart itself.
Firstly, the budget Toy Truck Rally 3D showed good results, jumping 288 positions up straight to the 4th place. Secondly, having overcome more than 1000 titles, MANUGANU from the Turkish publishing house Alper Sarıkaya was in tenth place.
The box office top of iOS games would be completely uninteresting if not for the rise of MARVEL War of Heroes by five positions up. As we already know, in May the game firmly established itself in the box office top three. Yes, as we have already said, Injustice: Gods Among Us immediately appeared. It’s hard to say whether it’s a trend or not – but the world box office top was definitely influenced by comic book games.
The Google Play box office top table demonstrates the steady growth of Candy Crush Saga, currently leading it. Well started 쿠키런 (Cookie Run) for Kakao from Korean Devsisters is the sixth place at once. But, in general, as already mentioned – no surprises.
In general, we would highlight three obvious results of the study:
1. The frishness of previously paid games gives them a second life
2. Turkish projects (Real Basketball and MANUGANU) have appeared in good positions in the top – this is an occasion to take a closer look at this market, in general
3. IP American comics are actively going to mobile platforms (three games in the tops at once)