On December 20, Sensor Tower released the top ten list of global most popular mobile games in November 2023. Following Tencent’s ‘Warzone!’ re-taking the global mobile game sales champion’s crown, I feel very pleased. However, in November 2023, ‘Genshin Impact’ also returned to the list, rising to second place. It generated 45.6% of its revenue from the Chinese iOS market, 22.4% from Japan, and 10.2% from the US. On November 8, the game released version 4.2, updating the map and introducing new characters and items. These activities led to a significant increase in the game’s revenue, which topped the list of revenue growth.
Following the return of ‘Genshin Impact’ to the list, I noticed that ‘Boku no Hero Academia: The Quantum Railway’ (Boku no Hero Academia: The Quantum Railway) performed differently. Despite winning the Google Play 2023 Best Game of the Year, App Store 2023 iPhone Game of the Year, and TGA 2023 Best Mobile Game, it did not enter the top ten in November 2023. This may be the game’s first time not making it into the top ten since its beta launch. From April, the game was available on all platforms, and in May and June, it ranked second and first in the revenue charts, respectively. In July to October, it ranked seventh, third, eighth, and fourth, respectively.
Previously, there was a saying that ‘Genshin Impact’ fell, and ‘Boku no Hero Academia: The Quantum Railway’ benefited. According to what I know, over one-third, and even nearly half, of ‘Genshin Impact’s’ revenue was contributed to ‘Boku no Hero Academia: The Quantum Railway.’ Recently, the ‘Genshin Impact’ and ‘Boku no Hero Academia: The Quantum Railway’ streams have also been playing ‘tug-of-war.’ ‘Genshin Impact’ saw a 50% and 26% increase in revenue in November, while ‘Boku no Hero Academia: The Quantum Railway’ saw a 56% and 55% decrease.
Notably, Tencent’s ‘PUBG Mobile’ (including the revenue from ‘Peace Elite’) ranked third on the list. It generated 59.4% of its revenue from the Chinese iOS market, with 8.8% from the US, and 3.1% from Saudi Arabia.
In the top ten list, there are also a few titles from the casual games category. For instance, the popular Monopoly game ‘Monopoly GO!’ by US mobile game developer Scopely, and the puzzle game ‘Royal Match’ by Turkish company Dream Games, performed well. ‘Monopoly GO!’ has been a breakout hit in the global mobile game market this year, while ‘Royal Match’ was launched in February 2021 and earned over $10 million in revenue in May of the same year, breaking $600 million in revenue within two years. In 2023, the game also frequently appeared in Sensor Tower’s list of the top ten global mobile games by revenue.
In November 2023, global mobile gamers spent a total of $6.1 billion on mobile games on the App Store and Google Play, a slight increase from the same period last year. The US remains the highest revenue market for mobile games globally, accounting for 30.2% of the total global revenue. The Chinese iOS market ranked second, with 19% of the global revenue, while the Japanese market ranked third, with 15.5% of the global revenue.