Top Mobile Games by Downloads and Revenue in August 2026

• Tencent's open-world newcomer Gangstar Mirage City ramped up quickly, reaching roughly 11.7 million Google Play downloads in August and jumping straight to No. 8 on the global download chart.
• Fate/Grand Order saw a revenue surge thanks to its 11th-anniversary event, generating around USD 19.4 million on the App Store alone in August, up a sharp 548.9% month over month, and re-entering the global revenue Top 20.

App Store Download Leaders

GOODROID’s Arrow Cube Escape recorded about 2 million downloads in August, soaring 126.6% month over month to No. 13. Launched in March, it centers on 3D cubic arrow elimination: players rotate the cube, judge arrow directions, and clear them in the correct order, adding spatial-puzzle elements to the already crowded Arrow Puzzle category.

VoyagerOne's Merge-2 title Hollywood Merge recorded about 2 million downloads in August, up 101.2% month over month, entering the App Store global download Top 30. The game combines merge-2, dress-up, and Hollywood romance storytelling, kept updating story chapters in August, and rolled out limited-time content such as Surfing Pass and Camping Time. Compared with its earlier same-genre match-3 title Hollywood Crush, after VoyagerOne shifted to merge-2, Hollywood Merge has kept gaining traction this year.

Google Play Download Leaders

Gangstar Mirage City, an open-world action newcomer published by Tencent's Level Infinite, recorded about 11.7 million downloads in August, jumping straight to No. 8 on the Google Play global download chart. The game launched on August 20 across Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe, after pre-registrations had already reached 30 million.

Brocker Bus Studio's Mystery Dumpling: Unbox ASMR recorded about 10.9 million downloads in August, debuting at No. 9 on the Google Play download chart. The game taps into the recently popular Squishy, blind-box, and ASMR unboxing trends: players open bamboo steamers to collect mystery dumplings of varying rarity. The gameplay is extremely light, and its cumulative Google Play downloads have now surpassed 10 million.

App Store Revenue Highlights

Fate/Grand Order was among the products with the most dramatic movement on the August revenue chart, generating around USD 19.4 million on a single platform, surging 548.9% month over month to No. 17. August marked the game's 11th anniversary, and the publisher rolled out new five-star Servant Hassan-i-Sabbah (Azrael), a Beast Order summon, and two Destiny Order summon events.

Century Games's Merge-2 title Tasty Travels: Merge Game brought in around USD 20.7 million on the App Store in August, up 7.8% month over month, ranking No. 14. The game revolves around world travel, cooking, and Merge-2, and launched a new album event, Autumn Dream, on August 25.

Google Play Revenue Highlights

Last Z: Survival Shooter generated around USD 14.7 million on Google Play in August, up 3.6% month over month, ranking No. 17. During the month the title kept pushing seasonal operations and launched the limited-time event Heartbound Twin Foxes, maintaining paying users through limited skins, gachapon wheels, and Battle Pass content, while also boosting community engagement and lapsed-user returns via social-media UGC and redemption-code campaigns.

NEXON's MapleStory: Idle RPG brought in around USD 11.1 million on Google Play in August, up 61.7% month over month, rising to No. 23. On August 13 the game rolled out a major update covering class balance, a free class-change event, a new growth system “Journey's Treasure,” and improvements to offline rewards, membership effects, and dungeon convenience. As an idle RPG on the MapleStory IP that launched in November 2025, it reached the top of the best-seller charts in markets such as South Korea, Taiwan (China), and Singapore after launch, and its August revenue rose noticeably again.

• Lightweight gameplay drives download growth. Merge-2, puzzle, and ASMR titles such as Arrow Cube Escape (+126.6%), Hollywood Merge (+101.2%), and Mystery Dumpling (debuting at No. 9) became the download engines.
• Revenue is lifted by IP events and season operations. Fate/Grand Order surged +548.9% on its 11th anniversary, and MapleStory: Idle RPG rose +61.7% after a major update—limited-time events clearly boosted revenue.
• New launches capture downloads fast. Tencent's Gangstar Mirage City went live across multiple regions on August 20 and hit roughly 11.7 million Google Play downloads, reaching No. 8—validating the open-world action track.
• Sub-gameplay UA sustains long-term acquisition. Titles like Last Light and Plants on Fire scaled quickly via sub-gameplay hooks plus concentrated buying, showing that advertising and gameplay design stayed tightly aligned this month.

The global mobile games in August 2026 reflect a clear convergence of aggressive advertising, accessible gameplay design, and effective localization strategies. Sub-gameplay user acquisition, light competitive titles blending tower defense with auto battlers, and casual formats such as merge-2, ASMR unboxing, and puzzle elimination are emerging as key drivers of growth in advertising, revenue, and downloads across both the App Store and Google Play.

To understand how advertising execution supports this scale, we also examined the top mobile game ad creatives and campaign trends behind August's leading titles.

By tracking both maximum download performance and revenue outcomes, publishers can better align UA strategies with monetization goals across the App Store and Google Play.