Recent years have witnessed a remarkable growth in the number of mobile phone users, followed by the surge of mobile gaming around the world. Over the years, mobile games became the most significant revenue stream of the leading app stores, with impressive growth in the number of downloads.
According to data gathered by GoldenCasinoNews, Google Play games hit 10.35bn downloads in Q1 2020, a 20% increase year-over-year.
Mobile Games to Generate 82% of Google Play Revenue This Year
At the beginning of 2017, Google Play gaming apps hit 6.9bn downloads globally, revealed the Statista data. By the end of the next year, the number of downloads jumped to 7.2bn. The strong upward trend continued in the following year with the number of Google Play games downloads rising to 8.5bn in Q4 2019.
However, with millions of people kept inside their homes due to coronavirus lockdown, the last few months have witnessed a remarkable growth in the number of downloaded Android games. Since December 2019 till the end of March 2020, the number of Google Play games downloads increased for 1.8bn globally, or 17% more compared to the Q4 2019 figures.
In 2019, Google Play hit $29.3bn in the worldwide app revenue and mobile games accounted for 85% of that amount. The Statista and SensorTower data revealed mobile games are expected to generate 82% of Google Play app revenue this year. Social, entertainment, and productivity Google apps follow with a 2% share of the total income each. Statistics showed that sports and lifestyle apps are forecast to generate only 1% of the entire Google Play app revenue in 2020.
Coin Master, Candy Crush Saga and PUBG Mobile are Top-grossing Android Games
Statistics show Coin Master is the leading Google Play game, with $91.28 million profit and more than 2 million downloads globally in March. With $44.43 million in revenue, Candy Crush Saga ranked as the second most-profitable Android game in the Google Play store.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds mobile- 2nd Anniversary ranked third with $38.64 million in revenue. The popular Tencent-backed mobile shooter was downloaded 3 million times in March.
Gardenscapes and Pokémon GO ranked as the fourth and fifth most-profitable Google Play games in March, with $36.5 million and $26.6 million in revenue, respectively.