I crunched the numbers and ranked the most downloaded mobile games in September, which was one of the busiest months in terms of chart movement! To help see the nuances better I extended the figures a decimal point. It's needed here.
Let's start at the top, because nearly every game shifted in our rankings for September.
Roblox was the most downloaded mobile game in September, just like in August. It's one of four games that didn't shift. but while it stayed put, its downloads didn't. The post-summer slump resulted in just 18.5M downloads, according to our estimates - down 17% when compared to August.
Subway Surfers and Block Blast came in second and third, just like August but with fewer downloads.
Prison Master, Vita Mahjong, Clash Royale, and FPS Strike Ops all rose in our September ranking while Pizza Ready and Ludo King both dropped.
Hyper casuals are on full display on the Google Play side of things while bigger titles are dominating the App Store. That's Prison Master on the Google Play side, which came out of nowhere and landed 3rd with 10.2M estimated downloads while Supercell's Clash Royale climbed all the way to #1 on the App Store with 5.2M estimated downloads.
All this momentum is good news for game publishers, even if downloads are lower for the bigger names.
According to Appfigures Intelligence, the top 10 most downloaded mobile games in the world saw 113M downloads from the App Store and Google Play in September. A 7% decrease from August, but that's to be expected post-summer.
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.