Hot Five: The Digital Fairness Act, Umamusume’s $2.5bn milestone, and Steal a Brainrot sets new industry record
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) Umamusume: Pretty Derby hits $2.5bn after most lucrative day in four years
Cygames’ Umamusume: Pretty Derby has surpassed $2.5 billion in lifetime player spending on mobile.
According to the latest AppMagic estimates, the milestone was reached on September 24th, less than three months on from global launch. The majority of this revenue was generated during its years of popularity in Japan, but the worldwide rollout gave spending an extra boost.
2) Roblox’s Steal a Brainrot becomes first game to surpass 25m concurrent players
Steal a Brainrot has hit 25.4 million concurrent users, a new record for a single Roblox title and the games industry at large.
Just six weeks ago, Steal a Brainrot became the second Roblox game ever to surpass 20m concurrent users. Now, it has dethroned Grow a Garden as the most concurrently played experience of all time.
3) "Catastrophic" and "another IDFA moment": The games industry reacts to potential EU regulations
The Digital Fairness Act may bring new regulations to the free-to-play games market in the EU, spurring a public statement from Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen highlighting his concerns.
Others like Turborilla CEO John Wright have since spoken up, envisaging a law that treats every in-game coin or token like a bank transaction and calling the idea potentially "catastrophic".
4) ESA survey claim just two-thirds of people primarily play games for fun
The ESA’s latest survey claimed that just 66% of people consider "fun" their top driver for playing games.
Meanwhile, 77% believe games boost creativity, 64% feel they reduce loneliness, and 43% said games have influenced their career path or education.
Our Mobile Mavens added their thoughts on the Digital Fairness Act following Paananen’s letter, concerned new regulations could "kick the legs out from under the free-to-play model".
Among them, marketing consultant Matej Lancaric said: "This is another ATT moment, but this time, it’s political. The spirit of fairness is commendable, but the mechanics of enforcement are not realistic for live-service ecosystems."
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