Last month I hinted that demand for mobile games, which has been inching up in the last few months, should be growing in December thanks to the holidays.
We now have all the data we need to see if that's the case and who's leading.
Demand for mobile games rose 15% in December and you'll never guess what was the most downloaded mobile game in December. Well, if you've been following the series you can definitely guess - it was no other than reigning champion Subway Surfers.
Our estimates show Subway Surfers added 21M new downloads in December from the App Store and Google Play. A whopping 31% higher than November's haul.
Roblox came in second with 17M downloads - a modest 13% increase from the previous month, but for Roblox that's great. Downloads have fluctuated a lot this year.
Block Blast! rose two spots to rank third in December with 17M downloads as well, just a few downloads shy of second place.
Outlets Rush and 8 Ball Pool round out the top 5.
Like the last few months, China's dominance was again on display in December.
Two China-only titles made it into the top 10 list on the App Store in December - 元梦之星 (Fall Guys), the most downloaded game on the App Store in December with 6M estimated downloads, and 蛋仔派对 (Eggy Party), which came in 4th, also with 6M downloads (when rounded).
The reason these stand out is because both titles are only available for download in China and they're getting more downloads than rivals that are available for download worldwide.
Another highlight for December is the Netflix version of GTA: San Andreas, which managed to snag 3rd place in our App Store ranking.
GTA is a well-recognized brand and Netflix did a good job revamping the game for mobile. That success can be the springboard Netflix needs to get more eyes on its Apple Arcade-like games collection which includes nearly 100 titles.
Check out my breakdown of Netflix's game portfolio.
Together, our estimates show the top 10 most downloaded games in the world saw 144M downloads in December from the App Store and Google Play. And as per usual, Google Play gave developers more than double the number of downloads than the App Store.
I think it's fair to say that ChatGPT is AI for many. Especially those not in tech. How can I say that so nonchalantly?...
Telegram decided to pick on Signal this week and Elon Musk took a stab at it too, and that led me to look at how the two...