Hot Five: Top grossing games of 2025, Nitro Games promotions, and New York’s mental health warnings for social media

To help get you primed and ready for a new year in mobile gaming, we’ve curated the biggest stories you need to know from the Christmas period.

1) The top grossing mobile games of 2025

Honor of Kings was the world’s top-grossing mobile game in 2025, its fourth consecutive year on top.

It was followed by Last War: Survival and Roblox, according to AppMagic estimates, while eight of the top 10 games all generated over $1 billion globally.

2) The most downloaded mobile games of 2025

Hungry Studio’s Block Blast achieved 356.2 million installs between the App Store and Play Store in 2025, making it the year’s most downloaded game. This marked a rise from second place in 2024.

The top 10 games all reached over 100m installs over the course of 2025, while the whole games market’s installs increased by 4% year-over-year.

3) NetEase head of interactive entertainment departs after 23 years

NetEase executive VP and head of the interactive entertainment group Yingfeng Ding departed the company on December 31st, 2025.

After 23 years at NetEase, Ding has retired but will continue to act as a consultant for the publisher.

4) New York to require mental health warnings for social media platforms

A new law will require social media platforms to display mental health warnings in New York.

Platforms offering "addictive" feeds, auto play or infinite scroll will be forced to display warning labels to young users upon first use and periodically thereafter, which cannot be bypassed or clicked through.

5) Nitro Games appoints new COO and CPO

Nitro Games has promoted two long-term team members to the roles of chief operating officer and chief people officer.

Antti Ruonala has been promoted to COO after first joining the company in 2014, while Milka Tarkiainen has stepped into the position of CPO after joining in 2017.