AppMagic

Castle Busters: A New Game-Changer in the Artillery Shooter Market Castle Busters by Voodoo started showing the first signs of future success back in February and, through continuous growth, reached $4M in monthly revenue in April 2026. As its name suggests, the game truly busted the Artillery Shooter market, growing the subgenre 4.6x year-over-year and accounting for 72% of its revenue in April 2026 🤩 The last time the market saw similar growth was back in 2022 with the release of DDTank Adventure (弹弹堂大冒险), which peaked at $14M in monthly revenue before quickly declining afterwards. Voodoo previously experimented with Artillery Shooter titles, with Archery Clash! reaching $4.9M in lifetime revenue since 2023. This time, however, the company shifted from Hypercasual to a more Midcore gameplay approach. Today, we continue watching Castle Busters climb the Midcore weekly grossing chart, reaching №66 last week. Would it be able to sustain its growth? Let’s keep an eye on it 😉

Love and Deepspace: Pulling $1B User Spend On Gacha Events A relatively young title released in January 2024, Love and Deepspace by Paper Games was just one step away from entering the top 10 grossing Midcore titles of 2025. In China, it climbed to №9 by IAP revenue in 2025, right alongside titles from multi-billion-dollar players like Tencent, NetEase, and Century Games. So, how did they do it? The answer lies in its gacha events ✨ In our latest article, we break down: — How the core gameplay design supports gacha monetization — A breakdown of the all 5 types of gacha events in the game — Love and Deepspace’s top-performing offers and how they form the overall revenue mix Get your notebooks ready: there’s a lot Midcore teams can learn from Love and Deepspace’s success. And a lot of beautiful screenshots to check out! 🤭 Here goes the link.

AppMagic Is Acquired by Sensor Tower, Becoming Its Dedicated SMB Market Intelligence Solution Since its inception, AppMagic’s goal has been to help studios just starting their path in mobile app development scale faster while avoiding costly mistakes. Staying true to this vision, we eventually managed to gain the trust of numerous companies across the globe, expand our capabilities, and grow beyond mobile. With the acquisition by Sensor Tower, this goal doesn’t change. In fact, we see this as an opportunity to double-down on our mission to best serve small and midsize studios. But now, we can do it with new resources and expanded data capabilities. It’s a new chapter in AppMagic’s journey and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for all of us together! Yours truly, AppMagic team 💛

How EVADAV Turned Data Into Two Revenue-Generating Products With AppMagic In 2025, EVADAV, a traffic monetization and performance marketing company that also builds its own apps, was looking for a way to cut through market noise and identify app ideas with strong product-market fit. That’s where AppMagic came in 🦸 Using our platform, the team was able to: — Identify niches that matched their growth model — Compare similar apps and analyze revenue distribution — Evaluate monetization through revenue, downloads, and RpD — Review traffic sources and ad activity across target markets This resulted in the launch of two new apps, Pure AI Note and Pet Coach, that already proved their market fit and started generating revenue. It also allowed the team to create a data-driven analysis framework for scaling existing apps and launching new ones ✨ Learn more about the AppMagic tools EVADAV uses in its app idea generation process and the insights this analysis provides.

How to Detect Mobile App Trends: 5 Data-Driven Ways for Games & Apps Mobile app trend analysis sounds simple, until you realize the segment growth came from a different subcategory, the market is already overcrowded, or the ‘hot trend’ peaked months ago 🥲 In our latest article, we break down 5 approaches to identifying mobile app trends while accounting for the key peculiarities of app market analysis: 1️⃣ Spot categories driving segment growth, like AI chatbots generating 93% of Gen AI revenue 2️⃣ Identify emerging subgenres early, like Wool Screw Puzzles in 2025 3️⃣ Discover trend-setting titles like Pixel Flow in Hybridcasual Puzzles 4️⃣ Analyze growth distribution and find out that ChatGPT accounts for 77% of Gen AI revenue 5️⃣ Validate IP-based opportunities to learn why Squid Game Season 2-inspired ASO and LiveOps outperformed new game releases Learn more about these approaches and how we get to the core of emerging trends using AppMagic on real market examples.

Top 10 Grossing Games in April 2026: Worldwide, Tier-1 West & Tier-1 East Let’s start May with a big recap of changes in the grossing games rankings 👀 Worldwide 🌍 • Honor of Kings showed the strongest revenue growth among the worldwide Top 10, increasing revenue 3.6% MoM. • Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story became the fastest-growing game by downloads worldwide, increasing installs 11% MoM. Tier-1 West 🇦🇺🇨🇦🇫🇷🇩🇪🇬🇧🇺🇸 • All Top 10 grossing games in Tier-1 West experienced mild revenue declines in April. • Coin Master showed the strongest download growth in the region, increasing installs 8% MoM. Tier-1 East 🇨🇳🇭🇰🇯🇵🇰🇷🇹🇼 • Delta Force increased revenue 41% MoM, most likely driven by a major content update and the Fiery Owl Hunt event. • SD Gundam G Generation ETERNAL became one of the fastest-growing games of the month, increasing revenue 236% MoM, most likely due to its major 1st Anniversary event. • Roco Kingdom: World (洛克王国：世界), officially launched in China on March 26, generated $33.6M in April alone, reaching the Top 10 grossing games in Tier-1 East and #28 worldwide. Learn more about global and regional metrics of the top-performing games via the link 🔗

How To Build a Successful Idle Game for Steam in 2026 Over the past few years, Steam has seen a wave of Idle titles. Some, like Cast n Chill and The Farmer Was Replaced, didn’t just achieved strong results, but influenced how Idle games are built today 🤩 So, what should you keep in mind when building an Idle game for PC today? 1️⃣ Hybridisation opens room for growth. Combining traditional Idle mechanics like passive progression with RPG elements like IdleOn or simulation loops like Cast n Chill adds a strong competitive edge. 2️⃣ Quick-to-grasp concepts help hook and hold the audience. A cat on the taskbar like in Bongo Cat or a farm that runs on code like in The Farmer Was Replaced is easy to understand and sustain over time. 3️⃣ Small teams have an edge in this genre. Idles rewards unique idea and readable systems without the need for heavy production or constant content updates. Learn more about modern Idle design approaches and top-performing cases in our latest article.

200+ Social LiveOps Mechanics From Top Mobile Games Our good friend Anton Slashcev put together a massive list of social mechanics used in LiveOps, broken down by type, including: 👥 Clans & Teams 🤝 Friends 🏅 Leaderboards & Rankings 🥇 Tournaments 📆 Weekly Contests 🤝 Co-Op Goals ⚔️ PvP Tournaments 🔗 Partners 🏁 Race Tournaments 💰 Heist / Raid / Attack ... and more Find your inspiration via the link 🔗 Want to go deeper? Explore how these features impact game metrics with our LiveOps & Updates Calendar.

Idle Games in 2026: Home, Steam Home It seems Idle games took a back seat a while ago: few new mobile hits emerged, and the genre never quite returned to its 2023 peak. But while things stayed quiet on mobile, the genre has unexpectedly reinvented itself on Steam! Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a wave of new titles that continue to grow. Cast n chill, Scritchy Scratchy, The Farmer Was Replaced, IdleOn — all of them are reshaping what we know about the genre, realising ideas that were piling up from the early days of web and mobile Idle games 💡 In our latest article, we break down: — How the genre is evolving on Steam and which elements it borrows from mobile — What types of idle games exist and why they resonate with players — How to find ideas that can succeed in the growing idle market Get a clear view of what works in Idle game design today via the link ✨

Delta Force Reached a New Daily Revenue High of $7M In April, Delta Force delighted players with one of its biggest updates of 2026. The developers introduced two new maps, a new operator, weapon updates, and the Fiery Owl Hunt limited-time event. The event takes place in Space City 2.0 and requires a paid entry ticket. Completing its questline unlocks the exclusive Executioner melee weapon. This update likely became a major driver behind the game’s daily revenue, which peaked at $7M on April 17. The title has also demonstrated strong year-over-year growth, with Q1 2026 revenue increasing almost 6x compared to Q1 2025 🤌 Since Q3 2025, the game has ranked №2 in quarterly revenue, right after PUBG Mobile, and has maintained this position ever since. To date, it accounts for 2% of the shooter market’s lifetime revenue and 14% in Q1 2026 alone. One of the easiest ways to spot which events drive similar revenue spikes in other games is to use our LiveOps & Updates Calendar 🕵️

PC Games to Mobile: To Port or Not to Port? Bringing a proven PC or console concept to the massive mobile audience sounds like a million-dollar idea. And sometimes, it actually is. Games like Slay the Spire, Balatro, and Limbo prove it well. But what about AAA titles played by millions on PC and console? They should blow up on mobile too… right? Well, not quite. The iPhone 15 Pro opened the door to high-end mobile gaming back in 2024, making it technically possible. We’ve seen titles like Death Stranding, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Resident Evil arrive on mobile — yet AAA gaming hasn’t exactly taken off there 😞 So what’s going on? In our latest article, we break it down: — How AAA titles have actually performed on mobile — Why indie games often outperform AAA in terms of monetisation — The most effective approach to scaling your game to mobile Find all the answers via the link 💡

Can You Compete With Top-Tier Merge-2 Games That Run 100+ LiveOps Events Per Month? If your first reaction was to think of Gossip Harbor and say “no”, let us try to prove you wrong. Recently, we spotted an interesting case: a relatively new game, Haunted Merge, showing a smart way to approach the “event race” for smaller-tier titles ✨ Instead of running 30 events at once, Haunted Merge built a simple LiveOps layer around its core loop, including: — Album event with AI-generated cards — Paid Pass — Side-board event mirroring core merge mechanics — Fishing-themed event — Race event — Digging + Merge-2 mechanics event — Lava Quest event This approach helped maintain a solid level of engagement first. Once that was secured, the team could comfortably experiment with new formats, without risking budget or player loss from too many low-quality events. So, can you actually compete? Yes, but do it smart. Focus on covering core LiveOps needs with high-quality events first, then scale experimentation in formats and volume 🤌 To simplify the process, use our LiveOps & Updates Calendar to explore competitors’ best practices.

Tasty Travels: Merge Game Becomes Number Two by Monthly Revenue in the Merge-2 Market It’s been a long minute since we last saw a change in the top three grossing Merge-2 games. More specifically, the last time this happened was in June 2024, when Merge Mansion briefly took third place for a month! Tasty Travels grew its monthly revenue by 71% since December 2025. For comparison, Gossip Harbor grew 17% over the same period. By March 2026, Tasty Travels already accounts for 10% of total Merge-2 revenue, with Gossip Harbor at 48%, Travel Town at 9%, and Seaside Escape at 7% 🤯 Tasty Travels was published by Century Games, well known for its 4X strategy hits Whiteout Survival and Kingshot. The publisher had previously experimented with the Merge-2 genre, releasing two other titles which, however, didn’t achieve the same level of success. Do you think we might soon see a major market shift, like in 2023 when Merge Mansion was dethroned? Or will the game follow the path of Travel Town and Seaside Escape, constantly growing, but still staying in the shadow of the genre leader? 🤔 Learn more about Tasty Travels’ metrics on its AppMagic public page.

Top 10 Publishers by Games Revenue in Q1 2026 This quarter, the unbeatable top three remains unchanged. Tencent showed +15% QoQ revenue growth, driven by the return to growth of its key titles like Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile 🔥 Century Games delivered +49% YoY revenue growth, while almost stabilising QoQ. However, the publisher saw a growing user base, increasing by +20% QoQ and +77% YoY, driven by Kingshot and Tasty Travels: Merge Game. Dream Games kept revenue relatively stable both QoQ and YoY, while continuing to scale its user base: downloads grew +28% QoQ and +53% YoY. Notably, Royal Kingdom surpassed Royal Match in downloads in March, reaching nearly 1.5x higher installs. This quarter, the game became the driver of the company’s metrics, which would have otherwise declined. One publisher that showed notable results across both revenue and user base acceleration is Microfun. Revenue increased by +16% QoQ and +115% YoY, driven by strong growth of Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story. The same title also fueled +50% QoQ and +46% YoY growth in downloads 💪 Discover more insights on top publishers’ dynamics via the link.

Top 10 Midcore Games by IAP Revenue in Q1 2026 Today’s spotlight is on the Midcore genre, with the Top 10 welcoming a new contender this quarter — MapleStory: Idle RPG. The game peaked at $47M monthly revenue just three months post-launch, before cooling to $37M in March. As of April, it leads the Idle RPG genre by revenue. It also became the top-grossing MapleStory title in Nexon’s portfolio — and the highest-grossing game overall for the company in March 2026 🤯 Four more titles showed strong growth this quarter: ✨ Honor of Kings returned to №1 after a December 2025 dip, hitting a new all-time high of $188M monthly revenue. ✨ PUBG Mobile rebounded from its October dip, growing 128% QoQ, driven by a major 8th anniversary update. ✨ Delta Force also recovered after December, peaking at $59M in February before returning closer to December levels in March — partly driven by rising shooter demand in China, its key market. ✨ Kingshot continues to hold strong at $80M monthly revenue, with a slight dip to $72M in February. As of March, it remains 35% behind 4X leader Last War: Survival. Find out how MapleStory: Idle RPG achieved its success in our latest article.

Top 10 Casual Games by Revenue in Q1 2026 We continue analysing the results of Q1 2026, focusing on the top Casual games. Most of the growth is still driven by the same players 😏 Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story climbed the charts, increasing revenue by 172% YoY and 6% QoQ. Downloads grew slower YoY (+74%), but accelerated QoQ (+69%), indicating a potential shift toward user acquisition this quarter. We also have a new entrant to the top — Royal Kingdom. The game first appeared in the charts in Q3 2025 and hasn’t left since. This quarter, its revenue growth slowed to 6% QoQ (down from 22% QoQ previously). At the same time, after a slight cooldown in downloads in Q4 2025, the game picked up pace again, with downloads growing 26% QoQ 📈 Find more insights on the Casual genre and its leaders in our latest report!

Top 10 Games by Revenue in Q1 2026 Worldwide This quarter brought several notable shifts. Honor of Kings reclaimed the №1 position, reaching a new all-time high in monthly revenue in January 2026 at $188M. This marks a strong comeback for the game, especially after one of its sharpest revenue dips in December 2025, when it fell to $83M 👑 Another standout this quarter is PUBG Mobile, which returned to its Q1–Q2 2025 revenue levels after an October dip, growing 128% QoQ. One of the key drivers was a new version release, one of the game’s major updates, launched in March to celebrate its 8th anniversary. Last but not least, Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story continues its strong upward trajectory. The game reached a new all-time high in monthly revenue of $101M in March 2026 and accounted for 47% of the Merge-2 market revenue in Q1, maintaining its leadership position. It also hit a new peak in monthly downloads in January, reaching 8.9M 🚀 Learn more about top grossing games’ metrics via the link.

MapleStory Idle RPG: Old IP, New Heights More than 20 years after its original PC release, NEXON expanded its MapleStory mobile portfolio with a new hit — MapleStory: Idle RPG. Launched globally in November 2025, the game quickly reached №1 in the RPG top-grossing chart. In just a few months, it generated $164M in IAP revenue and 7.6M installs 🚀 Notably, even as downloads declined and UA slowed, the game’s revenue continued to grow! In our latest article we explore: 1️⃣ The secret behind game’s monetisation model 2️⃣ Effective MapleStory: Idle RPG’s LiveOps strategy to learn from 3️⃣ How NEXON reworked core mechanics compared to MapleStory M: Fantasy MMORPG Find all the insights via the link 🔗

Last Asylum: Plague — The Strongest Start in 37Games’ 4X Strategy Portfolio 37Games is best known for its 4X strategy portfolio. Its title Puzzle & Survival ranks among the top 10 games by lifetime revenue in the subgenre. Last month, the publisher released one more 4X game, this time in a dark fantasy setting ⚔️ Last Asylum: Plague got off to a strong start. It reached a peak of $323K in daily revenue and is now down to $260K. Installs hit 368K by mid-March. However, downloads have already started to decline. Interestingly, the game is showing stronger early performance than some of 37Games’ top titles. This includes Puzzle & Survival, Puzzles & Chaos: Frozen Castle, and Ant Legion: For The Swarm one month post-launch 🔥 Last Asylum has also already secured the second position in the publisher’s 4X Strategy portfolio by daily revenue. It’s currently behind Puzzle & Survival by 2.3x. Explore more Last Asylum: Plague’s metrics AppMagic public page.

Subway Surfers City: A New Chapter in the Franchise Miniclip’s Subway Surfers City launched globally this February and hit 15M downloads in just one month, significantly outperforming any previous spin-offs 🚀 The new game offers a variety of unique mechanics in core gameplay, multi-character upgrades, new game modes, and more ad-focused monetisation model with early interstitials and lots of rewarded ads. Despite this strong start, Subway Surfers City is already showing signs of a downtrend, dropping to around 222K daily installs. A normal situation for any noticeable release with strong organic interest, so it’s too early to say how the sequel is holding up 💪 Still, the game is far less likely to fade away like other franchise entries, as it’s not just another puzzle experiment but a true successor to the original. But whether it will become Miniclip’s flagship, only time will tell. If you want to check Subway Surfers City’s metrics in more details, here you are ✨