2020 is coming to an end, and boy, what a year this was for games. With everyone stuck at home for long periods, mobile games quickly became the go-to. We saw the role the pandemic played in generating demand for business apps (👋 Zoooooom), now let's look at which games were most in demand this year.
Yes, Candy Crush is on this list, and so is Subway Surfers. But, there are a few new faces here. Yes, I'm looking right at you, Among Us! and Brain Out.
And while the list itself may not surprise you, the sheer number of downloads should. The Top 10 Games overall brought in an estimated 2,000,000,000 downloads across the App Store and Google Play this year, up 73% from the Top 10 games in 2019.
One fairly noticeable difference this year is the absence of hypercasual titles. Is this the beginning of a new trend?
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New to the scene, kind of, is Among Us!, an indie title that rose to the top of the charts at the end of August, nearly two years after its release. Group play, a free download, and lots of love from Twitch streamers made Among Us! into the game everyone played.
Since taking off, the game was downloaded by more than 230 million iPhones and Android worldwide, according to our estimates. Comparing this massive haul to pre-viral days is just plain wrong, so we won't do it. If we did... it'd be an increase of 1,700% over 2019.
With downloads came revenue, too. In the US, the game's biggest market by revenue, the title grossed an estimated $33.6M in 2020. Not bad for an indie title!
Playrix, the only developer with multiple titles in the top 10, also had a fantastic year.
Between Gardenscapes and Homescapes, Playrix added more than 352M new downloads in 2020, an increase of more than 38% over last year's haul of 254M. The majority of downloads came via Google Play, where India is responsible for roughly a quarter of all downloads.
Revenue in India also grew in 2020, from grossing an estimated $2.5M in 2019 to more than $5.36 in 2020. That's more than double! But... India's haul was just about 10% of Plarix's largest market by revenue, which is by far the US.
Based on our estimates, the two titles grossed more than $541M so far in 2020. This is a massive increase over last year's $346M of net revenue, 56% to be more precise.
What do you expect to see in 2021?
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