Hot Five: Rollic’s 1,000 ideations per month, Coin Master - Board Adventure soft launch, and Uma Musume: Pretty Derby’s post-expansion performance

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) Uma Musume: Pretty Derby trots to $6.6m outside Japan after 18 days

Cygames’ horse girl racing game Uma Musume: Pretty Derby generated $6.6 million outside of Japan in 18 days following its global expansion.

The figure was achieved across Google Play and the App Store, according to AppMagic estimates, with the US contributing 65% of overseas revenue thus far.

2) Moon Active takes on Scopely with Monopoly Go-like Coin Master - Board Adventure

Moon Active has soft-launched a Monopoly Go-like game called Coin Master - Board Adventure, the first expansion in the Coin Master IP.

The new release is currently available on Google Play in the Philippines with Monopoly-esque board and dice roll mechanics.

3) How Rollic scored a $100m hybridcasual hit by ideating 1,000 games a month

Zynga’s Istanbul-based subsidiary Rollic ideates 1,000 games per month and tests hundreds of prototypes to find the strongest core mechanics, leading to hits like $100m maker Color Block Jam.

Rollic vice president of gaming Utku Erdinç shared with us: "Now that the game has a certain number of levels and obstacles to explore, we plan to reward level completion a lot more through seasonal events, keeping our players engaged with fresh mechanics and boosting eagerness to complete a very hard level."

4) Tencent gives Age of Empires the Last War treatment on mobile

Listed on the Google Play store in Puerto Rico and the US, Tencent’s Age of Empires: Survival has given the popular strategy series the Last War treatment.

The title looks to be using the same merge of 4X strategy and hypercasual gameplay as seen in First Fun’s hit, though with a medieval theme and a city builder on the side.

5) MENA-3 games market set to reach $2.8bn by 2029

Games revenue in the MENA-3 region including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt is predicted to reach $2.2 billion in 2025 and $2.8 billion by 2029.

According to findings from Niko Partners, the market already increased by more than 5% year-over-year to $2bn in 2024.