The Unity Runtime Fee debacle is one we’re all familiar with by now, raising questions of legality, sowing distrust and even causing a developer rebellion.

With the removal of the platform’s terms of service only stoking the disgruntled fire, it sounds like voices of discontent are only growing louder.

Unity’s service is one used by many in the industry, from developers big to small. And of the biggest games out there, data.ai has identified 71% use at least one Unity SDK.

Getting numerical

Overall, 53 of the 100 biggest revenue earners in mobile gaming are running on Unity’s engine, data.ai has found, with approximately $16 billion in estimated consumer spending between them in 2023 so far. This makes up just over half of the $30 billion total consumer spend on the top 100 this year, and naturally means a big sum of money will be heading Unity’s way if it goes ahead with the Runtime Fee in 2024.

Even more games have used Unity’s software development kits - over two-thirds of them, in fact. 71 of the 100 biggest mobile games have been developed with at least one of Unity’s SDK, and represent $22.2 billion of the $30 billion consumer spend. This is in fact overly representative - if only marginally - in terms of overall earnings, with the 71 of 100 accounting for 74% of spending.

data.ai senior director of market insights Randy Nelson summarised: "As data.ai’s Game IQ data shows, the Unity engine’s use is prolific among the world’s top-earning mobile games. More than half of the top 100 grossing titles are built on it. Those games account for more than $16 billion - 50% - of all consumer spend on the top 100 so far this year. 71 of the 100 have incorporated at least some degree of Unity software."

While the likes of Candy Crush and Roblox have escaped a Runtime Fee fate, many of mobile’s biggest names are indeed running on Unity. Among them are Royal Match, Monopoly Go, Pokémon Go and Coin Master.