Global Mobile Games in May: Uma Musume Pretty Derby Tops Among All ACGN-themed Games by Revenue

[Abstract] Pokémon saw a peak revenue in 2022; Lilith Games' new game delivered excellent performance

With the aid of its App Intelligence and other modules, SocialPeta sorted out the top 20 global mobile games by revenue, download, and advertising in May 2022, hoping to be of help to more people in the mobile app industry who try to understand the changing trends of the global mobile market.

The overall performance of global mobile games in May:

• Due to its delayed update, [Genshin Impact] dropped out of Google Play's top 20 by revenue for the first time.
• [Pokémon GO] generated a peak revenue in 2022.
• [Apex] released in mid-May was ranked among the Top 5 on both Android and iOS.
• LGs that were about ants differed widely in advertising, [Ants] was massively advertised while [AntWars] dropped out of Top 20 by advertising.

Top 20 by Revenue

In terms of global mobile games' revenue, due to the major global economic trends, a few mobile games reported an obvious decline in revenue.

For example, [Roblox] recorded an MoM decrease of about 36.6% in revenue on the App Store, and an MoM decrease of about 13.3% in revenue on Google Play. [PUBG Mobile] generated $19.2 million in revenue on the App Store in May, down 40.6% MoM.

However, a few Japanese ACGN-themed mobile games reported an upward trend in revenue. Among these, Niantic's RPG [Pokémon GO] showed the most remarkable revenue growth. The game moved up 6 spots on the App Store revenue chart and up 9 spots on the Google Play revenue chart. It raked in $45.2 million in revenue on Android and iOS combined, up 14% MoM. The game released updates frequently in May, including "A Mega Moment", "Flying Pikachu", "Water Festival", "Alola to Alola", and other events, which had driven sharp revenue growth for the game to reach a peak revenue in 2022.

Cygames' mobile game [Uma Musume Pretty Derby] moved remarkably up the rankings of both Android and iOS, moving up 10 spots on the App Store revenue chart and 1 spot on Google Play revenue chart. The game grossed $63.1 million in revenue from Android and iOS combined, up 17.1% MoM.

Top 20 by Download

In terms of global games' downloads, hyper-casual and parkour games comprised a large proportion of downloads, and the Indian market contributed the most to the downloads of casual games.

Voodoo launched its casual game [Deliver It 3D] in March. Thanks to its very interesting gameplay featuring parcel delivery, the game achieved 3 million downloads from the App Store, moving up 7 spots on the rankings to surpass the casual game [Fill The Fridge!]. It achieved 14.2 million downloads from Google Play, with 45.8% of its downloads from India, Indonesia, and the US.

A few hard-core games started their global public beta in May. Electronic Arts' major franchise [Apex] was released on 17 May for mobile devices. Available for 145 countries/regions on the App Store, [Apex] topped the free game charts of 47 countries/regions including the US and Japan, and was ranked among the top 2-10 on the free game charts of 46 countries/regions including the UK, France, and Germany. The game achieved 19.7 million downloads from Android and iOS combined in May.

Lilith Games' new card RPG [Dislyte] was officially released on 10 May. With its well-established gameplay, high-quality art graphics, and strong publishing team, the game was quickly ranked among top 10 most downloaded games in 14 countries/regions on the day of its release.

Top 20 by Advertising

Let's move to the advertising of global mobile games in May. SLGs still topped the advertising of global mobile games, with business simulation games standing out. The ant-themed SLG [The Ants] remained its strategy of mass advertising, placing about 7700 deduplicated creatives on Android and iOS combined. But [AntWars], which topped the advertising chart in April, dropped out of Top 20 by advertising on iOS with nearly 3200 deduplicated creatives in May.

A few SLGs saw significantly increased advertising efforts in May, including [Puzzles & Survival], which reported the biggest advertising growth with over 6300 deduplicated creatives on Android and iOS combined in May. The game cooperated with the famous film series "GI Joe" in May and its new creatives were mostly related to that cooperation. IM30's apocalypse survival mobile game [Rise of Empires] became popular again thanks to its updates and advertising strategy. The game had about 4700 deduplicated creatives on Android and iOS combined in May.

Two business simulation mobile games were newly ranked among Top 20 by advertising on iOS in May. One was Century Games' [Family Farm Adventure], a girl's game about farm management that was released to Europe and America and had about 1700 deduplicated creatives on iOS, and the other is Eworld's 歡樂大東家, a game with ancient Chinese background that was released to Southeast Asia and had about 1800 deduplicated creatives on iOS.

That's all for the revenue and downloads of global mobile games from the App Store and Google Play and the advertising insights into global mobile games in May 2022.