Data & Research

Candy Crush Saga still crushing it on the US top grossing chart

Crunching the data with App Annie

Candy Crush Saga still crushing it on the US top grossing chart

This is part of our ongoing series of data-driven articles from PocketGamer.biz and App Annie highlighting trends in the mobile games sector. 

This week, we’re considering what’s going on in the largest mobile game market in the west, the US.

As we’ve seen over previous weeks, Activision (and Tencent’s) Call of Duty: Mobile remains nailed to the top of most downloaded game chart.

Nintendo’s Mario Kart Tour is in the top 10 too, but the rest of the chart is completed by various hypercasual titles.

Most active users

When we look at the weekly engagement charts, the picture is very different; all of the games are very well known.

Over three years on from its launch, Niantic’s Pokemon Go remains incredibly successful; it’s still the most played game in the US, even more so than King’s Candy Crush Saga.

It’s also interesting to see the continuing power of what we could call classic casual games reflected in the chart. PeopleFun’s Wordscapes and Zynga’s Words With Friends are in the top 5 with MobilityWare’s Solitaire at #10. All of these games are particular favourites in the US market.

This isn’t to say that new games can’t break into this chart though. Call of Duty: Mobile is at #4 and Mario Kart Tour is a #6.

Hey, big spenders

What’s more significant, however, is how few of the games that feature on the download and engagement charts find their way onto the top grossing chart.

Call of Duty: Mobile and Mario Kart Tour are nowhere to be seen for example.

Instead, we get a good idea of the products that can monetise their users at a high level. For example Candy Crush Saga is #1 while Pokemon Go - despite having higher engagement - is at #6.

Indeed, there are four match-3 games in the top 10, including Homescapes and Gardenscapes from Playrix, which is the only company with two games on the US grossing chart.

It’s interesting to see there are two cross-platform games - Fortnite and Roblox - on the chart, demonstrating the power of games with large audiences that work across different hardware.

Finally, there are two games - Coin Master and Slotomania - from the social casino space.

It’s also worth pointing out that of these top grossing games in the US, only Candy Crush Saga, Pokemon Go and Homescapes feature on the global top grossing chart. That’s dominated by Asian RPGs and action games.

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Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.