March analysis of the mobile games market by App Annie
At the end of April, App Annie published a detailed review of the mobile games market for March. According to him, the Japanese Puzzle & Dragons is still the highest-grossing game on iOS and Google Play. The Candy Crush Saga and Temple Run 2 projects are the leaders in downloads.
* the review is specifically about games and game publishers. That is, when we talk about top applications, we mean top applications in the category of games and so on.App Annie focuses on EA and King in its March review.
Only they are present in all the top 10 publishers of March according to the version of “Red Anya”. EA managed it thanks to Real Racing 3 and The Simpsons™: Tapped Out. King, in turn, owes its results to Candy Crush Saga.
EA held the first place in the chart for free downloads in March only thanks to the popularity of Real Racing 3. Rovio rose four positions due to the appearance of the free version on iOS of the classic Angry Birds and the release of The Croods, created based on the cartoon of the same name.
Rovio topped the top publishers for free downloads. Accordingly, the reasons are the same: the popularity of Angry Birds and the appearance of The Croods. EA only thanks to the release of Real Racing 3 jumped 48 positions up and took third place in downloads.
Fingersoft, a small Finnish startup known for Hill Climb Racing, has reached the 4th position in the top publishers on Google Play, successfully launching Benji Bananas.
The British Future Games of London studio performed well. Thanks to the release of Hungry Shark Evolution, the company entered the top ten publishers, jumping 325 positions up.
The top five has not changed since February. Supercell still earns the most money on iOS. GungHo is in second place in terms of money, EA has an honorable third position, King and Candy Crash Saga occupy the fourth place, GREE closes the top five box office leaders.
In the box office top of publishers on Google Play, everything is much more interesting, since there are fewer Japanese and South Korean companies. Of the ten positions, two belong to American companies, one to British companies.
The most downloaded app from the App Store in March was Candy Crush Saga by King. In second place in downloads was Real Racing 3. The third position was “staked out” by the German 4 Pics 1 Word. In the wake of the success of the latter, Icomania from Games for Friends, which is a division of LOTUM, showed itself well.
Thanks to the “App of the Week” promotion, Angry Birds in the top rose 531 positions up in the top downloads and entered the top ten gaming applications. However, the Flight Unlimited Las Vegas jump is much more impressive. The Flight Systems simulator rose by more than 1,000 positions in the top in March.
In the top five there are some familiar names: Temple Run 2, Subway Surfers, Candy Crush Saga, Fruit Ninja Free and Angry Birds. But the second five is much more curious. In sixth place is the Vector game from our compatriots from Nekki. On the eighth puzzle 4 Pics 1 Word. However, the main discovery is the Finnish endless runner Benji Bananas, which came in ninth place in March, although in February it was not even in the top thousand.
As with the iOS box office publishers, the top five box office App Store games have not changed since February. The first place goes to Puzzle & Dragons, which receives most of its income from its native Japanese market. In second place is Clash of Clans, in third place is Candy Crush Saga, in fourth place is another game from Supercell – Hay Day. Closes the box office top five – The Simpsons: Tapped Out. Of the newcomers in the top, only Real Racing 3 from EA, jumped 230 positions up to 7th place.
There are mostly minor permutations in the Google Play box office chart, but there is also one major change: The Simpsons™: Tapped Out entered the top ten. So now there are two whole Western games in the top. The second is Candy Crush Saga, which is not very fast, but is steadily moving to the top of the official Android chart (in December, the game was on the 29th place in revenue, in January – on the 10th, in February – on the 6th, and in March it is already on the 4th position).
