Top 10 worldwide mobile games by revenue and downloads in May 2026

Last War: Survival ranked No. 1 worldwide by revenue in May, with about $121.4 million. Honor of Kings followed at roughly $120.4 million. The gap was thin enough that the more interesting question is not who won by a few hundred thousand dollars. It is how they got there.

Last War did not look like a one-market spike. It appeared in the revenue top 10 across 12 of the 16 country markets in the dataset, the broadest footprint among revenue leaders. Its store split was also fairly balanced: about 58% of global revenue came from the App Store and 42% from Google Play. That is a healthier shape than a title leaning almost entirely on one store or one country.

The game also generated roughly $30 in revenue for every download recorded in the ranking data. That is not cohort ARPU, and it should not be treated as one. Still, it tells us the game is monetizing existing and mid-core players, not simply collecting new installs. The App Store version history around May included alliance markers, radar task improvements, battle report updates, and monster display changes. Those are not flashy acquisition hooks. They are maintenance work for people who already play often.

Honor of Kings had the opposite shape. Its May revenue came from China iOS in this dataset, with around 1.01 million downloads and $120.4 million in revenue. That puts revenue per download at a very high level, which makes sense for a game driven by seasons, heroes, skins, battle passes, and an enormous returning player base. Its S42 season opened in late March with Da Yu, battle pass changes, ranked updates, and system revisions. By May, that season cycle was still doing work.

Royal Match ranked third with $102.4 million and 4.09 million downloads. It is a quieter machine than the big strategy games, but it may be the cleanest example of content cadence turning into revenue. In the United States alone, Royal Match led the revenue chart with more than $60 million. Its May 11 App Store update added 100 new levels and the Swan Pavilion area. That sounds plain. For a mature match-3 game, plain can be enough if the cadence is reliable.

Kingshot is the one I would keep watching. It ranked fourth by global revenue, but had 6 million downloads, the highest among the global revenue top 10. It also appeared in 10 country revenue top 10 charts and had more than 85,000 tracked ad signals. The shape is familiar: easy-to-sell creatives at the front, a much heavier strategy economy underneath. The late-April update added a Master System and march skin improvements, which points toward long-term progression and status display rather than a short burst of novelty.

Block Blast! stayed at the top of the global download chart with about 25.7 million installs. It also entered the download top 10 in 12 of the 16 country markets. The product is built for that kind of spread: daily puzzles, an 8x8 board, offline play, and endless score chasing. You do not need a character roster, a season story, or a clan commitment to understand it.

Its revenue in this dataset was tiny compared with its download scale. That does not mean the business is weak. It means the ranking data is better at showing IAP than ad monetization. Block Blast! had nearly 487,000 tracked ad signals, far above most titles in the chart. A more reasonable read is that the game is built around distribution, low CPI, ad monetization, and large daily audience scale.

Roblox was the odd one out in the download chart. It ranked third by downloads and still produced about $45.1 million in revenue. It also reached the download top 10 in 10 country markets. Roblox is not a normal content game. It behaves more like a platform, which helps explain why it shows up in Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the United States at the same time.

Free Fire and Royal Kingdom show that download leaders are not always low-revenue titles. Free Fire ranked sixth by downloads and generated $37.2 million. Royal Kingdom ranked eighth by downloads and generated $37.5 million. Both have simple enough front doors for broad acquisition, but stronger monetization once users stay.

Across the 16 selected country markets, the United States and China were almost tied on top-10 game revenue. The U.S. top 10 generated about $373.1 million. China generated about $369.0 million. This is not total market revenue. It is the sum of the top 10 grossing games in each market.

The U.S. chart was more mixed. Royal Match, MONOPOLY GO!, and Last War filled the top three, covering match-3, board/casino-style loops, and strategy. The market can support several high-revenue models at once because payer capacity is high and ad competition is deep.

China was more concentrated. Honor of Kings, Game for Peace, and Delta Force took the top three revenue spots, all under Tencent. The driver is not simply stronger user acquisition. It is the combination of big daily audiences, cosmetic content, weapon skins, seasons, and battle pass style systems on iOS.

Japan looked different again. Monster Strike ranked first, SD Gundam G Generation Eternal ranked second, and Puzzle & Dragons ranked third. Japan still rewards domestic IP, old franchises, and collection-heavy systems. Last War made the chart, but it was not the center of the market.

South Korea was even more specific. Lineage M led revenue, followed by Mabinogi Mobile and MapleStory: Idle RPG. The download top 10 in South Korea added up to only about 1.9 million installs, while the revenue top 10 reached roughly $29.3 million. That is a high-spend market with a strong MMORPG and legacy-IP bias.

India, Brazil, and Indonesia sat on the other side of the map. India had 32.9 million top-10 downloads but only $19.4 million in top-10 revenue. Brazil had 11.7 million top-10 downloads and $18.4 million in revenue. Indonesia had 18.2 million top-10 downloads and $18.2 million in revenue. These markets can deliver scale, but the IAP math is not the same as the U.S., Japan, or Korea. Free Fire, Mobile Legends, and Roblox show up often for a reason.

In the global revenue top 10, strategy games took three spots and generated about $320 million combined. Puzzle games also took three spots, with about $212 million. Both categories were strong, but they were not doing the same job.

Strategy revenue came from deeper systems: alliances, heroes, gear, resources, cross-server pressure, and leaderboards. Once a player reaches the middle of the game, they are not just playing a session. They are protecting a position. That is why Last War, Kingshot, and Whiteout Survival show up across so many countries.

Puzzle revenue was steadier and less dramatic. Royal Match, Gossip Harbor, and Candy Crush Saga rely on levels, events, bundles, progression friction, and large returning user pools. They do not need to look loud to earn well.

The puzzle games on the download chart were a different breed. Block Blast!, Arrows - Puzzle Escape, and Arrows GO! looked more like traffic products. They were easy to install, easy to explain in an ad, and not especially visible in IAP revenue. Their question is not whether they can acquire users. It is how much of that audience can be monetized after the install.

If you only look at downloads, May belonged to Block Blast!. If you only look at revenue, it belonged to Last War, Honor of Kings, and Royal Match. The useful read sits between those two charts.

Users still download simple games at huge scale. The money still flows toward long-term systems, strong IP, seasonal content, and live ops that bring players back. New users matter, but in 2026 they are mostly the start of the story. The revenue chart is decided later, when a game gets people into alliances, seasons, battle passes, skins, levels, or social loops they care enough to return to.

That is why Last War and Kingshot are worth watching. It is why Royal Match remains dangerous. And it is why Block Blast! being No. 1 in downloads should not be confused with being No. 1 in revenue.

May said the quiet part plainly: traffic is still available, but traffic alone is not very expensive. The expensive user is the one who has been organized, retained, and brought back more than once.