Mobile game downloads are increasing every single year as more and more games are added into the mobile app stores on their respective platforms. Leading research firm App Annie recently put out a report that shows which games were the most downloaded across both Android and iOS for the second quarter of 2019, and the results may be surprising.
It’s also worth noting that the information provided does not specify which games in the ranking were downloaded on which platform, so it’s likely that the most downloaded games for Q2 of this year were across both Android and iOS platforms and not just one or the other. In addition, the downloads ranking is a list from one to ten and is contrasted with the changes in the very same list for Q1 of this year as well as being measured globally and not just in one region.
Coming in as the most downloaded game for Q2 is Stack Ball, which is likely a relatively unfamiliar game to a wide variety of users, though it was obviously familiar enough to be the number one downloaded game across two platforms worldwide. App Annie attributes this meteoric rise to the increasing popularity of Hyper Casual games, which are games that don’t require a lot of focus and aren’t meant to be played hardcore like MMOs or competitive games such as Call of Duty MOBILE.
The more surprising detail might be that games such as Subway Surfers are still ranking in the top ten. This isn’t to say that Subway Surfers isn’t a game worthy of being a top downloaded game, it’s simply a very old game title and it has managed to stay in the top downloads for years. That being said it has been moved down one spot from three to four compared to its ranking on the list in Q1.
Meanwhile, popular titles like PUBG MOBILE have dropped four spots on the rankings list this past quarter compared to the first quarter of the year, now sitting on the list as the number eight downloaded game worldwide across Android and iOS when it used to be the number four downloaded game.
Despite this drop in the ranking for the number of times it’s been downloaded, PUBG MOBILE is still the game with the highest average monthly active users, keeping its spot in the ranking at number one from Q1 to Q2. It’s also moved up on the rankings list for consumer spend, breaking into the top ten, sitting at the tenth spot on the list.
The top game on the rankings list for consumer spend is Fate/Grand Order at number one followed by Tencent‘s popular Honour of Kings, which was released as Arena of Valor in the US, and Candy Crush Saga at number three. All three of these games were in the exact same spots for consumer spend in the first quarter of 2019, showcasing that player interest in spending money on micro transactions within these games is still very high.
Overall games downloads were significantly lower than the number of apps downloaded on both platforms in the same quarter, though games did make up 35-percent of the total of downloaded items from Google Play and the App Store. Games also accounted for a much higher amount of consumer spend when compared to apps, sitting at a total of 75-percent from the overall dollar amount of $22.6 Billion. In short, games are big business.