Let's continue with games and get the full picture. In addition to downloads, this week I also crunched the numbers and ranked the highest-earning games in the US, where the money is.
Subway Surfers wasn't the highest-earning game in December, but crowd favorite and incumbent Candy Crush was.
Candy Crush was the highest-earning game in the US in December, adding $130M of net revenue to its bottom line, according to our app intelligence. And that's after King paid Apple and Google their share.
Much like TikTok and Subway Surfers, Candy Crush was the highest-earning game in the US for most of 2022, 9 of the 12 months, but its trend changed. Up until November, Candy Crush's revenue was growing month after month. In December the total went down. Not too much, but still down.
Let's see what happens in January.
The usual suspects, which include Roblox, Royal Match, Pokemon GO, and Coin master round out the top 5. Many of you have asked for directional indicators next to apps I rank, so I added them to this chart for you to see how things are flowing.
While most apps moved, they mainly shifted around, something that's expected at the top.
Together, the top 10 highest-earning games earned a total of $432M from the US in December. Like downloads, that's higher than November. Not by as much, but higher is better.
December saw a curious split: downloads dropped 2% while revenue sat at $1.3B. ChatGPT and TikTok dominated both charts as the mobile industry enters a new maturity phase.
Wall Street bet $2 billion on Polymarket, and downloads surged 1,172% in December. The prediction market banned in 2022 is now where Wall Street looks for signals.