This Week in Apps - Netflix Blockbusters
This Week in Apps is a short, no-fluff, round-up of interesting things that happened in the mobile industry. Here are our top highlights.
US Revenue Index (vs. 30 days ago)
Insights
1. Squid Game Unleashed Hits 3M Downloads in under Two Weeks
A new season of one of Netflix's best original shows, Squid Game, just dropped and with it a new mobile game called Squid Game: Unleashed.
Squid Game: Unleashed is a multiplayer battle royale type game that integrates with the new season, and unlike all of Netflix's other mobile games, doesn't require a Netflix subscription to play. That could be an interesting development for Netflix's massive game portfolio in the new year.
But here's the real question - did anyone download the new title?
Well, yes. Quite a few people in fact.
According to Appfigures Intelligence, Squid Game: Unleashed was downloaded 3M times from the App Store and Google Play since it was launched on December 17th.
Here's something interesting - more than half of the game's downloads, 54%, came from... the App Store! It's usually the other way around with games, but not here.
The US led with more than 540K downloads with India and Brazil behind it. While the big three starred, we show downloads from 100+ countries including more than 100 downloads from Iceland.
While season 2 itself has viewers divided and the game has received mixed reviews from critics, players seem to like the game, rating it more than 21K times since launch with over 85% of those ratings being positive.
Side note: This isn't a great DPR (135), but it's a branded game so the expectation isn't high.
This new title comes at a time when Netflix's game portfolio has stagnated following the massive release of the GTA trio last year, rejuvenating downloads growth. Netflix also seems to be experimenting with in-app purchases in this game which means Netflix may start monetizing their 100+ games directly in 2025.
2. Apple's Not Going to Like This - Meta Quest Sales Jumped 18% this December
I've been following the Meta Quest for several years now, using downloads of its companion app as a proxy for unit sales, which spike on Christmas.
Downloads hit an all-time high in 2022 but dropped significantly in 2023. Could it be the Apple Vision Pro that's taking all those users?
Now that the AVP is out I was curious to see if Apple managed to drop Quest sales even more. Can you guess without looking at the chart?
According to Appfigures Intelligence, downloads of Meta Horizon, the companion app to the physical Quest, rose 18% year over year to 6.6M in 2024. That's more than a million new downloads compared to 2023.
This rise doesn't make up the difference lost between 2022 and 2023, which we estimate to be roughly 3M, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.
But just looking at the totals isn't enough to really draw a conclusion, so I dug in deeper using our competitor comparison report and the answer is interesting.
When looking at the downloads by month and comparing downloads from the App Store and Google Play, it does look like something's going on because even though total downloads rose vs 2023, downloads from the App Store actually dipped while downloads from Google Play rose sharply.
Our estimates show downloads from the App Store dropped from 4M to 3.7M year over year while downloads from Google Play rose from 1.6M to 2.8M. Not a huge loss from the App Store, but considering the AVP isn't going to be under every kid's tree, it makes sense.
If you've been following the release of the Apple Vision Pro this year you know that it was pretty lackluster given its price and small ecosystem, which isn't even focused on games like the Quest. From that perspective, the growth in Android downloads makes a lot of sense. I also imagine Meta targeted this group via ads throughout the year.
The little drop in Apple users could be related to the promise of a cheaper Vision coming in the future which has some users holding off on buying a VR headset considering the cost.
I think there's more future in AR, but we're not quite there just yet.
FYI - If you're a journalist and want the more granular dataset I used for this analysis please let me know.
3. Is 3D Printing (Finally) Going Mainstream?
I got into 3D printing maaaaany years ago, and if you've done that too, you know how much tinkering is required. As much as I like to tinker, a few months ago I switched to the printer many hail as the iPhone of 3D printers - the Bambu Lab X1C - and the tinkering (mostly) stopped. It really is a different experience.
Less tinkering makes 3D printing more accessible, and if it's more accessible it means it has the potential to become more mainstream.
Did it?
A great way to see that is by looking at the trend of sales of Bambu Lab printers, which we can proxy by looking at downloads of Bambu Handy, the mobile app companion for all Bambu Lab printers.
According to Appfigures Intelligence, Bambu Handy was downloaded a little over 700K times from the App Store and Google Play since its launch back in 2022. That's a bit more than I expected, which is great.
Zooming in to answer our question, we can see that more than 91% of those downloads, or 645K, happened in 2024 - even though these printers have been around since 2022! That's already a strong signal that demand is growing faster than before.
And here's what's most interesting - This December was Bambu Handy's best month of downloads with 170K estimated downloads - about 24% of that big total we started with. In a single month.
I'm sure there are at least a few of you reading this very newsletter who received or gifted a 3D printer recently. If so, congratulations and welcome to the club.
3D printing isn't mainstream just yet, but having 3D printers that require less tinkering and are consistently reliable is certainly what 3D printer companies need in order to grow. Creality, a competitor to Bambu Lab, is following in its footsteps after having manufactured 3D printers that require tinkering for many years. Creality's companion app doesn't get many downloads though, so I didn't include it in this analysis.
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4. Infinity Nikki's Global March
Infinity Nikki, a new dress-up RPG from Papergames (which goes by Infold outside of China), has been turning heads ever since its launch. Tapping into the Nikki franchise and expanding beyond its core audience, the game has managed to carve out a sizable following worldwide.
The title arrived on mobile in early December with a built-in pedigree. The Nikki series has long been a favorite among dress-up enthusiasts in Asia โ particularly in China โ but has been expanding into new regions over recent years.
Now, Infinity Nikki's blend of role-playing and fashion-forward gameplay is catching on with a broader, global audience.
Since launch, Infinity Nikki has amassed 2.6M downloads worldwide and generated more than $7.5M in consumer spending, according to Appfigures Intelligence.
China accounts for 41% of the downloads and 68% of the revenue, making it the most lucrative market. The United States follows with 14% in both categories, while Brazil, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia round out the top five in terms of downloads. Notably, these relatively strong showings in multiple regions signal a broader international appeal.
According to Appfigures Intelligence, on average, Chinese players spend $4.90 per download, reflecting a robust appetite for in-app purchases. US players are a bit more conservative, spending $3 per download on average, which is lower but still represents a promising second pillar for Infinity Nikki.
While not exactly identical, I was curious to see how this launch stacks up against the heavyweight in the gacha/RPG space - Genshin Impact. Our estimates show that Genshin Impact's launch resulted in 13M new downloads and $55M in consumer spending. By comparison, Infinity Nikki's start is more modest, but it's still notable for a new entry without Genshin's massive AAA push.
The Nikki IP is well-known in Asia but has yet to become a global entertainment brand on the scale of Genshin's developer, miHoYo.
Even so, Infinity Nikki's foothold across Asia and early traction in the West aligns with a broader market trend: casual-to-midcore hybrid games with strong social or creative elements tend to achieve robust growth, particularly if they deliver high production value and keep live operations fresh.
Beyond that, Infinity Nikki's early achievements in the West hint at an expanding appetite for dress-up and fashion-themed RPGs. The more Papergames refines the game's events, promotions, and localized content for Western audiences, the more it can carve out a new niche in regions that traditionally favor action or strategy titles. For developers, this underscores an emerging opportunity: fresh thematic twists and strong cultural localization can unlock new revenue streams.
5. Netflix is Getting into Sports and It's Paying Off
Last month Netflix tried something new. The platform known for great shows such as Stranger Things streamed a boxing match! Although very different than what Netflix normally does, the fight gave Netflix's app the biggest spike of downloads in more than four years.
Peacock has grown its user base by streaming sports, so this isn't a new approach. But Netflix's scale is bigger.
Last week, Netflix did it again. The platform streamed two Christmas Day NFL games for the first time.
Did it help downloads?
Absolutely!
According to Appfigures Intelligence, Netflix saw 713K downloads the day before Christmas, 960K downloads on Christmas day, and 934K downloads the next day for a total of 2.6M new downloads. That's more than twice the number of downloads it gets on average between Tuesday - Thursday.
The majority of the downloads came from the US followed by India and Brazil, where downloads from Google Play outpaced downloads from the App Store by a multiple of two.
This is Netflix's biggest spike of daily downloads in more than four years, only second to the Tyson vs. Paul fight in November, which our App Intelligence shows brought 2.7M new downloads in the day before, day of, and next day period.
The streaming race hasn't stopped. Instead, it has shifted away from the direct-to-streaming releases, augmenting original content with live sports. Peacock has been doing it for a while now and managed to capture more than 18M downloads this year, inching close to 100M total downloads.
I said it last month and I still firmly believe that we'll see more sporting events make their way into mainstream streaming apps in 2025.
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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.
