Top Grossing Games (2023)

Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store host over one million games collectively on their stores, spanning all genres from the classic puzzle, role-playing and action to the newly formed hypercasual, merge, and simulator, which have developed for mobile.

At launch, both of these stores prioritized paid-for games, with some of the pioneers on the platform being Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, and Tap Tap Revenge. All three of these popular titles recognized the value of the touchscreen, accelerometer, and other sensors to provide users with new experiences.

After a few years, paid-for games were overlapped by titles that offer in-app purchases to skip or make levels easier and purchase new items from cosmetics to more content. Most free-to-play games also rely on advertising to cover the initial development and future maintenance of a game.

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Candy Crush Saga, Cut the Rope, and FarmVille were all part of this new wave of freemium games, which in some way push the user towards in-app purchases. For Candy Crush Saga and Cut the Rope, players can pay to skip levels or purchase more levels, while FarmVille has a time-lapse mechanic which meant users have to wait hours for an item to be ready or pay for instant access.

With revenues increasing year-on-year, video game publishers such as Electronic Arts, Tencent, and Ubisoft started to invest heavily in the space. It is common for publishers to now have divisions solely responsible for mobile games, which also work on mobile porting for popular PC and console releases.

Improvements to iPhone and Android phones hardware, from high-definition screens to faster processors and more RAM led to online experiences being possible on mobile, such as Clash of Clans and Honor of Kings in China, which borrows heavily from Riot Games’ League of Legends.

This would be stretched even further in the late 2010s with the launch of Fortnite and PUBG on mobile, which are “battle royale” games that have 100 players in one lobby. Another new venture was the launch of Pokemon Go, which established a new location-based gaming genre that includes Minecraft Earth and Harry Potter: Wizard’s Unite.

In the past few years, both Apple and Google have launched subscription-based services that bundle hundreds of games for a monthly cost. Most of these games are highly-rated, paid-for experiences, with the list curated by Apple and Google monthly to give subscribers something new.

We have collected data and statistics on the top grossing games. Read on below to find out more.

Top Grossing Games Key Statistics

• PUBG Mobile was the top grossing game of 2021, with the vast majority of its income coming from its Chinese version, Game for Peace.
• Roblox was the top grossing game in the US and UK, reaching top spot in both countries for the first time
• The vast majority of revenue came from China, with PUBG Mobile, Honor for Kings, and Genshin Impact all receiving more than 60% of their income from the country

App Data Report 2022

Want to learn all about the app industry? Our App Data Report covers revenues, downloads, and number of apps across the Apple App Store and Google Play, alongside the top grossing and most downloaded individual apps.

Top Grossing Games by Country

China, Japan, and the United States are responsible for the majority of in-game spending on mobile games, with some of the highest grossing games on iOS and Android solely played in China or Japan.

Top Grossing Games 2021

PUBG Mobile was the top grossing game in 2021, with $2.01 billion revenue. It is the third year in a row that PUBG Mobile has held this title.

Sources: AppMagic, Sensor Tower

Top Grossing Games 2021 (United States)

Roblox was the top grossing game in the United States, generating $588 million in 2021. Candy Crush Saga wasn’t far off in second, with $556 million revenue.

Sources: AppMagic, Sensor Tower

Top Grossing Games 2021 (United Kingdom)

Roblox was also the top grossing game in the United Kingdom, generating £42 million. Coin Master by developer Moon Active was second with £33 million revenue.

Sources: AppMagic, Sensor Tower

Top Grossing Games 2021 (India)

Garena Free Fire was the top grossing game in India, taking the position PUBG Mobile held in 2020 before it was banned by the Indian government.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Games by Platform

In this section, we will break down the top grossing games by the two most popular mobile platforms: iOS and Google Play.

Top Grossing iOS Games 2021

Seven of the 10 games on the list generate revenue primarily from China. Roblox is the exception, with more popularity in the West than Asia-Pacific.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Google Play Games 2021

As Google Play is not available in China, the total values for top grossing Google Play games are lower than iOS.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Games by Category

The mobile gaming market has expanded to feature almost every category of game, with new genres like hypercasual coming directly from mobile.

Top Grossing Puzzle Games 2021

Candy Crush Saga was the top grossing puzzle game in 2021. Playrix’s Homescapes and Gardenscapes came in second and third, generating a combined $1.2 billion for the company.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Strategy Games 2021

Alibaba’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms took top spot in strategy games, the e-commerce giant’s first mobile title. Clash of Clans was number one in 2019, but sunk to fourth place in 2021.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Shooter Games 2021

PUBG Mobile generated over $2 billion revenue, putting it far ahead of all other shooters. Garena Free Fire came second, grossing $832 million.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Role-Playing Games 2021

Honor of Kings, the MOBA inspired by League of Legends, was the highest grossing game of 2021 with $1.6 billion revenue. Genshin Impact, which is popular in China and Japan, came second, grossing $1.2 billion.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Adventure Games 2021

LifeAfter was the top grossing adventure game of 2021, with $184 million made in the 12 months. Minecraft, which has been out on mobile for over a decade, generated $161 million.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Casino Games 2021

Moon Active’s Coin Master was far ahead of other casino games in revenue, generating $933 million in 2021. The rest of the pack are more traditional slots, poker, and vegas games.

Source: AppMagic

Top Grossing Simulation Games 2021

Playrix’s Township was the top grossing simulation game in 2021, a farming and city building game in the style of Zynga’s FarmVille.

Source: AppMagic