Hot Five: Pokémon Go’s ninth anniversary, Clash Royale’s Merge Tactics mode, and China's domestic licence changes

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) Pokémon Go celebrates ninth anniversary and $8.8bn in gross player spending

AR flagship Pokémon Go celebrated its ninth anniversary on July 6th with a total of $8.8 billion in lifetime player spending according to AppMagic estimates.

This marked marginal spending growth between Google Play and the App Store in year nine, at $827.6 million, though was far from the almost $1.5bn generated during Go’s best year, year five.

2) Supercell releases major Clash Royale update with new game mode Merge Tactics

Supercell has added a new game mode, Merge Tactics, to Clash Royale in a major update to the popular title.

Available via the Game Mode Switcher, Merge Tactics consists of turn-based battles between four players who each pick from the same card pool and send merged Troops into combat.

3) Clash Royale hits post-pandemic record of $3.8m daily revenue with new mode Merge Tactics

Shortly after Merge Tactics’ launch, daily player spending in Clash Royale hit a near four-year high of $3.8m.

According to AppMagic estimates, this was the highest in-game spending recorded since December 20th, 2021. It’s also followed four months of growth, with major overhauls in April appearing to snowball into accelerated spending.

4) Habby's Wittle Defender hits $10m in gross player spending

Habby’s roguelike tower defence title Wittle Defender has generated more than $10m in gross player spending, $9.7m of which was made during its first month globally.

That’s according to AppMagic data which doesn’t include any revenue generated from ads - which its 3m players are encouraged to watch to unlock in-game rewards.

5) Overseas studios to be eligible for domestic licences in China for games developed in Shanghai

The Shanghai Municipal Government is planning to pilot a new programme that will treat foreign-funded studios’ games developed in Shanghai as domestic titles.

After 1,306 domestic licences were granted in 2024 compared to just 110 foreign games, more studios having their games treated as domestic could mark a dramatic change in total approvals seen moving forwards.