Worldwide gross revenues from games on the App Store and Google Play grew to $11.9 billion in Q1 2017.
According to a Sensor Tower report, the figure marks a 53% year-on-year from the $7.8 billion generated in Q1 2016.
The app measurement company said games continue to be the dominant category in terms of monetisation and represented nearly 80% of all revenue generated on the App Store during Q1 2017.
Games took an even larger piece of the pie on Google Play, making up more than 91% of revenues.
App Store game revenues grew 35% year on year to an estimated $6.6 billion during the period. Google Play revenues rose 83% to approximately $5.3 billion.
Top downloads
Total downloads on both stores meanwhile totalled nearly 8.8 billion during the last quarter, up 15% from the 7.6 billion downloads in Q1 2016.
Kiloo’s endless runner Subway Surfers was the most downloaded game during the quarter across both app stores. It was also top of the Google Play rankings.
Tencent’s Honor of Kings (also known as King of Glory) meanwhile was the most downloaded title on the App Store, making fifth spot in the overall downloads.
Sensor Tower said the game was the only top 10 title last quarter that was not in the Q4 2016 list, having ranked at 31st previously.
Top grossing
Monster Strike was the top grossing mobile game in Q1 across both app stores, both combined and on individual marketplaces, retaining the spot it had in the previous quarter.
Sony’s Fate/Grand Order meanwhile, which is getting a release in the US and Canada this summer, was the second top grossing game.
Of note however is the lack of Netmarble’s Lineage 2 Revolution in the top 10, which generated $176 million during its debut month despite only being released in South Korea.
A Sensor Tower spokesperson told PocketGamer.biz that, according to its data, the title came in at 19th in terms of mobile game revenue for Q1 2017. In terms of total app revenue, Lineage 2 came in at 20th, just above messaging service Line.
