Heypercasual Games Get Ready for the Summer - The Most Downloaded Games in the World

Ariel Ariel
4/14/23

This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Millions of Downloads. Check out the full article for more insights.


I rounded up the numbers and ranked the most downloaded games in the world, now that March is done, and I have to start this one in reverse because the numbers tell a story.

In March, our estimates show that the top 10 most downloaded games saw 125M collective downloads from the App Store and Google Play worldwide. Comparing this to last March, that's roughly 40M downloads lower. That's 24%, which isn't a small number.

Games are heavily driven by ads, especially the hypercasuals, and this is another reminder of the earthquake that is App Tracking Transparency and possibly why French regulators are starting to investigate its impact.

On to the list!

Subway Surfers was the most downloaded mobile game in the world in March. The long-term king of this list made its way into 20M new iOS and Android devices in March, according to our App Intelligence. It's worth noting Subway Surfers was the most downloaded game on the App Store and on Google Play in March.

If you go through the winners every month over the last year, which you can do here, you'll see the balance shifting away from hypercasual titles to incumbents as advertising budgets shift.

Speaking of incumbents, Roblox and Candy Crush Saga follow Subway Surfers with 14M and 13M downloads, respectively, according to our estimates.

Two hypercasual titles follow behind rounding out the top 5. There are more hypercasual titles in this list than I expected to see but then I remembered spring break is in March and it made more sense.

App Intelligence for Everyone!

The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.

Are you a Journalist? You can get access to our app and market intelligence for free through the Appfigures for Journalists program. Contact us for more details.

All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.


Related Resources

It Finally Happened! The Highest-Earning Apps in the World in October
Insights
It Finally Happened! The Highest-Earning Apps in the World in October

I'm going to start this in reverse because the thing we've been waiting to happen has finally happened. If you've been f...

A Few New Faces! The Most Downloaded Apps in the World in October
Insights
A Few New Faces! The Most Downloaded Apps in the World in October

October is behind us so we crunched the numbers and ranked the most downloaded mobile apps in the world. While I don't h...