To give our readers better insight into the global mobile games industry, we’ve teamed up with market data firm Sensor Tower to bring you exclusive weekly charts from key countries.
These rank games by free downloads, paid downloads and the top grossers across the App Store and Google Play. Each week we’ll be covering the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China (iOS only) markets.
This week's charts cover the period from May 20th to 26th.
US charts
The App Store free download rankings welcomed a number of new entries this week, including Green Panda's Idle Roller Coaster, Tastypill's Bottle Flip 3D and Habby's Archero.
Voodoo's Blocksbuster topped the App Store chart, while Bottle Flip 3D took pole position on Google Play.
Over on the top grossing charts, Tencent's PUBG Mobile solidified itself at the summit of the Google Play rankings, while King's Candy Crush Saga claimed top spot over Epic's Fortnite on the App Store.
One of the big movers of the week was Zynga and Small Giant Games' Empires & Puzzles, which leapt into 6th place on Android.
Great Britain and Ireland charts
New on the download charts in Great Britain and Ireland t his week were Green Panda's Idle Roller Coaster, Tastypill's Bottle Flip 3D, Five Bits' Fit The Fat 3 and Kwalee's Jetpack Jump.
Idle Roller Coaster hit second on the App Store, while Bottle Flip 3D landed straight in second on Google Play, both just behind 101 Digital's Color Hole 3D.
Few games manage to topple Minecraft on the paid rankings, but Sports Interactive's Football Manager 2019 managed the feat this week, scoring first place on Android.
The top grossing charts once again remained largely stable, but much like in the US, Empires & Puzzles rose through the Google Play rankings to sixth spot, just below the rising Guns of Glory from FunPlus.
China charts (iOS only)
Tencent's PUBG Mobile replacement Game for Peace fell down to seventh this week in the download rankings, but maintained its position as China's second top grossing title on the App Store just behind stalwart Honor of Kings.
The success of Tencent's new hits this year, which include the aforementioned Game for Peace and also Perfect World, has seen NetEase's co-dominance of the chart fade.
As recently as February NetEase had as many as five games in the top 10. For the week of February 18th, these included Invincible, Ghost, Westward Journey, Onmyoji and Fantasy Westward Journey.
For the week of May 13th, NetEase had just two games compared to Tencent's seven. These were Westward Journey in seventh and Fantasy Westward Journey in fourth.
For the week of May 20th, NetEase again had just two games in the top 10, Invincible and in eighth and Fantasy Westward Journey in third. Tencent meanwhile had six games in the chart.
The publisher does not appear to be feeling the heat in its financials however, having recently reported Q1 2019 sales up 29.5 per cent year-on-year to $2.7 billion.
It put the successful quarter down to mobile games such as Night Falls: Survival, Invincible, Knights Out and Identity V, as well as the impressive performance of battle royale game Knives Out in China.
You can meet with many of the companies mentioned in these charts at our Pocket Gamer Connects events. The next conference will take place in Hong Kong on July 17th and 18th. Head here for further details.
