AppMagic: most downloaded and top-grossing mobile games of July 2024

Basing on data from AppMagic, the App2Top editorial team has prepared a report on the most downloaded and top-grossing mobile games of the past month — Zenless Zone Zero, Offline Games, and My Talking Hank: Islands.

Most Downloaded Games of July

There were five new names in the top most downloaded new releases. More about them later, but for now, let's highlight two points:

• Squad Busters, a newly released game from Supercell, disappeared from the free charts. Its monthly installs plummeted from 17 million in June to 5 million in July (which is slightly less than during its soft launch);
• The evacuation shooter Lost Light: Weapon Skin Treat from NetEase disappeared from the iOS chart, failing to cement its position.

Daily downloads of Squad Busters fell to 100,000

Now let's focus on the new releases.

Zenless Zone Zero

Zenless Zone Zero

Publisher: the Singaporean Cognosphere (a structure created by miHoYo for the international operation of its titles under the brand HoYoverse)

About the Game: a free-to-play narrative third-person action game featuring collectible gacha mechanics and RPG elements. The gameplay is divided into two components — the city and combat arenas. In the city, players visit places to receive boosts, interact with NPCs. In arenas, they fight monsters.

Observation: the project received a good initial boost — at launch, its daily downloads reached 1.7 million. However, by the end of the month, daily installs dropped to 50-60 thousand. Despite this, the game is doing well financially. We'll touch on this at the very end. It's also noteworthy that the game saw more installs on iOS than on Android (at least without considering Chinese stores).

Metrics:

• Total downloads in July — 12.5 million;
• Downloads from Google Play in July — 5.8 million;
• Downloads from the App Store in July — 6.7 million.

Offline Games

Offline Games

Publisher: Italian JindoBlu

About the Game: a collection of simple games (from Snake and Hangman to Solitaire and Tic-Tac-Toe, totaling about 30 mechanics at the time of writing), available to launch without an internet connection. Monetization is based on ads and their removal.

Observation: the project has a very high rating (4.9 on iOS). Players praise it for the lack of aggressive advertising, the ability to play without an internet connection, and the option to play certain games with friends on the same device. As for downloads, just like with another compilation by JindoBlu, released over five years ago — 2 Player games: the Challenge — the project has reached a stable plateau after promotion.

The project does not show a sharp decline in downloads

Metrics:

• Total downloads in July — 34.9 million;
• Downloads from Google Play in July — 29.6 million;
• Downloads from the App Store in July — 5.3 million.

My Talking Hank: Islands

My Talking Hank: Islands

Publisher: Outfit7

About the Game: a continuation of the game series that once began with Talking Tom. Players take care of a puppy named Hank. This new installment differs significantly from the usual games in the series. Players not only care for the puppy but also help him make friends with many inhabitants of a tropical island, feed them with a catapult, wash them in dirt, chop wood, and collect coins. In its current form, the project resembles a very simplified version of Animal Crossing.

Observation: in fact, this is the second part of the game My Talking Hank, whose global release took place in 2017. However, it's important to note that the new game replaced the original. This means that on the store page, where you could previously download My Talking Hank, you are now downloading My Talking Hank: Islands. At peak, the starting downloads of the second part fall short of the first part. While My Talking Hank had 14 million installs in January 2017, the sequel now has 12.7 million.

Two peaks eight years apart, but they pertain to two completely different games

Metrics:

• Total downloads in July — 12.7 million;
• Downloads from Google Play in July — 12.1 million;
• Downloads from the App Store in July — 0.6 million.

Heartopia (心动小镇)

Heartopia

Publisher: Chinese X.D. Network Inc.

About the Game: a free-to-play MMO variant on the theme of Stardew Valley. Players create an avatar, move into a house, and then furnish it and the surrounding area, while also getting to know the neighbors and exploring the game world. The developers call the project a "slow life simulator." Features include fishing and cat breeding.

Observation: in the spring, the game had an open beta test in China, with the release occurring in the second half of July. According to the iOS download chart, the game's campaign has a "distributed" nature with no standout peaks. Each day, the game is downloaded approximately 300-400 thousand times. It's possible the main purchasing efforts were observed within local Android stores.

By the way, a global version release is promised this year.

Metrics:

• Total downloads in July — 5.1 million;
• Downloads from the App Store in July — 5.1 million.

Need for Speed: Mobile (极品飞车：集结)

Need for Speed: Mobile

Publisher: Chinese Tencent

About the Game: a mobile free-to-play interpretation of the Need for Speed series with a nod to modern standards. The game features an open world, racing against both bots and real players, 150 real cars (plus a helicopter), and even a sports track constructor.

Observation: downloads of the game declined immediately after the end of the release campaign. During the launch month, the revenue-to-downloads ratio was at the unity level. Only when the installations saw a significant drop did this ratio increase slightly.

Dynamics of downloads, sales, and revenue-to-installs ratio for Need for Speed: Mobile in the Chinese market

Metrics:

• Total downloads in July — 3.7 million;
• Downloads from the App Store in July — 3.7 million.

Top-Grossing Games of July

A key change in the revenue charts is the emergence of Zenless Zone Zero. In its debut month, the new miHoYo blockbuster earned $60 million. This is as much as Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail earned together in July. However, it's important to keep the following two points in mind:

• miHoYo projects partially cannibalize each other (this happened again, with Honkai relinquishing its position in the top to Zenless Zone Zero);
• This is significantly less than what these projects earned in their debut months (Genshin Impact earned $172 million at launch, and Honkai earned $147 million).

Here you can clearly see both the cannibalization and the initial successes of Zenless Zone Zero compared to its predecessors

Elsewhere, changes in the charts are mostly cosmetic.