Hot Five: Golden Week 2025, web shop advancements, and Tripledot to acquire AppLovin’s games business
To help get you primed and ready for another week in mobile gaming, we’ve curated the biggest stories you need to know from the last seven days.
1) Tripledot to acquire AppLovin’s games business in transformative deal
Tripledot is set to acquire AppLovin’s games business for $400 million in cash, while AppLovin will pick up a 20% ownership stake in the company.
The figure included $150m to be paid at the close of the transaction, with a $250m secured promissory note to be issued by Eton Games Inc.
Golden Week 2025 saw the 10 most lucrative mobile games earn a combined $81 million in Japan, up from just $44.9m in 2024.
The top performer was Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, which earned $18.7m in Japan over the week. Last year’s top game, Fate/Grand Order, fell to eighth place in 2025.
3) Xsolla acquires Ludo to boost player engagement and revenue growth for developers
Xsolla has acquired community engagement platform Ludo to integrate the latter’s questing tools with its own web shop and rewards solutions.
The expanded Xsolla Rewards ecosystem will add loyalty and questing features, aiming to turn player engagement into lasting growth.
4) Appcharge launches Payment Links for iOS developers to monetise outside the App Store
Direct-to-consumer platform Appcharge has launched Payment Links, a new web shop solution allowing iOS game developers to accept direct payments outside the App Store.
Payment Links is capitalising on recent US court rulings demanding that Apple must allow iOS publishers to direct players to external websites for purchases.
5) Unity reports Q1 2025 revenue of $435m, down from $460m in Q1 2024
Unity's revenue fell to $435m in Q1 2025, down from $460m in Q1 2024.
Its Create Solutions revenue decreased to $150m from $164m, while Grow Solutions revenue fell to $285m, down from $297m.
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