Mobile Games Index 2nd Edition

It’s not just mobile games that are interactive. Here are our latest rankings for the mobile gaming landscape.
Check the Ranks

Who’s on the Mobile Games Guestlist?

We weren’t sure if the mobile gaming industry in 2021 would match the explosive growth seen back in 2020. But with competition for developers to deliver on revenue, retention, and rankings stronger than ever, adjoe and Statista are giving you a global guide to games in the mobile ecosystem. With it, you can benchmark your app’s performance against the world’s most engaging mobile games – by vertical and region.

While we keep this report short (and sweet), you can discover which titles and categories are best at keeping their gameplay sessions long.

5 Top Key Takeaways

01.
Africa’s App Usage on the Up
While the rest of the world is spending less time playing mobile games, Africa is experiencing the exact opposite trend. According to our previous Mobile Games Index, users in Africa typically spent between 6 and 22 minutes on average per day in their favorite mobile games; this has since risen to between 6.6 and 26 minutes per day.
02.
Community Aspect Considered Crucial
Our Index is a testament to the fact that the top mobile games boost gameplay by building a strong community of users. Think of hardcore gaming apps, which incorporate multiplayer gameplay and an online community (such as the metaverse). It’s therefore also not surprising that board games are performing so well in the casual game category.
03.
Creators Gon’ Create (and Play)
Gamers don’t just want to play; they want to create. This edition of our Mobile Games Index exhibits the real power of simulation games – such as life simulation games or building simulation games – where app users are the creators. Simulation games are surging in popularity as part of the midcore gaming category in every GEO.
04.
China Holds the Financial Fort
With its strong app-based economy, China is the clear winner for mobile game revenue, raking in almost USD 90 billion. China’s ongoing clampdown on gaming is, however, causing uncertainty regarding the future of mobile games. Meanwhile, the US and Japan score second and third place at around USD 60 and 50 billion, respectively.
05.
China and India Dominate Downloads
While ranked second for revenue, the US is positioned under its APAC counterparts India and China in the downloads charts at just seven billion downloads. To put things into perspective, China is home to an impressive eight times more downloads than the States, and India is home to almost two times more downloads.
METHODOLOGY

Rankings: Why Look at Time Spent?

Time spent in apps has long been a key metric for adjoe. That’s because when we look at time spent in mobile games, we know this heavily influences retention rates, user engagement, and ad revenue – among other important KPIs.

When we talk about the rankings in the Mobile Games Index, we mean the top Android gaming apps in terms of time users spend in them. adjoe uses its first-party data to identify the apps with the highest numbers of installs. It then converts this into the rankings you see here by daily app usage.
Data set taken from: 01/4/2021 – 01/2/2022
Hypercasual
Casual
Board, Card, Educational Games, Puzzle, Trivia, Word, Sports Games, Casual
Midcore
Adventure, Simulation, Action, Arcade, Racing
Hardcore
Strategy, Role-Playing
Social Casino
Casino (not real money)

What’s the Story with Categories?

Five categories, five GEOs, five age groups, and different genders – we explore how much time users really spend in mobile games. Find out who’s engaging most with each mobile gaming category to visualize the game faces behind the screens.
Hypercasual
Casual
Midcore
Hardcore
Social Casino
Time Spent by GEO
Europe
6.7 min
APAC
7.2 min
LATAM
5.8 min
North America
5.4 min
Africa
6.6 min
Time Spent by Gender
6.4 min
Female
6.2 min
Male
Time Spent by Age
0-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50+
Time Spent by GEO
Europe
23.7 min
APAC
21.0 min
LATAM
18.8 min
North America
15.0 min
Africa
26.0 min
Time Spent by Gender
22.8 min
Female
19.0 min
Male
Time Spent by Age
0-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50+
Time Spent by GEO
Europe
18.0 min
APAC
16.4 min
LATAM
14.1 min
North America
15.4 min
Africa
17.5 min
Time Spent by Gender
17.5 min
Female
15.1 min
Male
Time Spent by Age
0-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50+
Time Spent by GEO
Europe
19.7 min
APAC
16.5 min
LATAM
13.9 min
North America
18.1 min
Africa
13.8 min
Time Spent by Gender
15.4 min
Female
17.4 min
Male
Time Spent by Age
0-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50+
Time Spent by GEO
Europe
19.9 min
APAC
21.4 min
LATAM
12.9 min
North America
11.4 min
Africa
17.1 min
Time Spent by Gender
16.9 min
Female
16.2 min
Male
Time Spent by Age
0-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50+

Map the Apps: Top Titles by GEO

We looked at data from a grand total of over 10,000 titles from 85 million users around the world and aggregated this data, so you can compare top placements on a global scale.

Industry Insights from Statista

Let’s now pass on the baton to Statista. The next part of our Mobile Games Index builds on Statista’s primary research, bottom-up modeling, market data from third-party sources, and their very own Statista Global Consumer Survey.

Here, their analysts focus on three different streams of revenue: revenue from in-app purchases (IAP), advertising, and paid apps. They also investigate the number of mobile game downloads and provide their own forecasts for the coming years.
63%
The revenue share of mobile games with respect to all mobile app categories in 2021
57%
The increase of mobile game revenue worldwide from 2019 to 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic
67%
The revenue share of mobile gaming with respect to all gaming platforms including console and PC
24%
The share of the worldwide population that played mobile games in 2021
46%
The percentage of mobile game revenue generated from in-game advertising in 2021

Mobile Games: Forecasting the Financials

Last year was another big year – a multibillion-dollar-revenue year – for mobile gaming. When it comes to app monetization, in-app purchases and in-game advertising are unmistakably the two most dominant sources of revenue for mobile games. Looking into the future, revenue is set to climb by 20 percent between now and 2025.
Estimated Global Market Development in Billion US Dollars (by Revenue Source)
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
In-App Purchase
Advertising
Paid App
CAGR: Compound Annual Growth Rate / Average Growth Rate Per Year
Mobile Game Revenue in Billion US Dollars
As of October 2021, China finds itself top of the leaderboard in terms of mobile game revenue at almost 90 billion US dollars, followed by the US and Japan.
China
United States
Japan
Korea
Germany
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
Check out the Statista App Market Outlook to learn more
Revenue Forecasts in Billion US Dollars
Data from late 2021 reveals that China and the rest of the world are currently ahead of the US and Europe when it comes to mobile game revenue.
China
2021
2025
9.3%
Rest of the World
2021
2025
12.5%
United States
2021
2025
12.6%
Europe
2021
2025
11.9%
Check out the Statista App Market Outlook to learn more
Mobile Game Downloads in Billion Downloads
China is not only vastly outperforming other countries for revenue but also for downloads. At 58 billion downloads, China is far in front of its APAC counterpart India, at 13.5 billion downloads.
China
India
United States
Brazil
Russia
Indonesia
Mexico
Turkey
Check out the Statista App Market Outlook to learn more
Download Forecasts in Billion Downloads
As of October 2021, China surpasses the rest of the world when it comes to mobile game downloads. Though the US ranks second in terms of mobile game revenue, its number of downloads is comparatively much lower.
China
2021
2025
-10.9%
Rest of the World
2021
2025
+12.3%
United States
2021
2025
+9.2%
Europe
2021
2025
+8.3%
Check out the Statista App Market Outlook to learn more

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