January 2026 mobile game charts: Clash Royale falls, PUBG Mobile rises, and Microfun breaks into the top 10
| Date | Type | Companies Involved | Key Datapoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 17, 2026 | chart | Hungry Studio Microfun Miniclip Supercell Tencent | January 2026 game charts |
- Clash Royale revenue fell 49.4% month-on-month in January 2026.
- PUBG Mobile player spending increased by 93.2%.
- Gossip Harbor developer Microfun broke into the list of the world's top 10 grossing mobile games publishers by App Store and Google Play revenue.
Below you can see the latest top games and companies by downloads and revenue for January 2026, as well as the big stories and trends from the last month. Data is provided by AppMagic.
Check out profiles of the world's top publishers in the Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2025 list. Meet them in person at events like Pocket Gamer Connects Summit San Francisco on March 9th.
Note that these estimates are based on gross revenue from player spending across the App Store and Google Play only. It does not feature estimates from alternative marketplaces or direct-to-consumer platforms.
The Top Grossing Mobile Games
The big stories: Clash Royale's big crash
Last year was Clash Royale’s big turnaround. The title picked up an estimated $646.8 million in gross revenue in 2025, a rise of 148.5% year-over-year.
Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen highlighted just how well the game did in his latest annual blog post, which saw the company generate near-record revenue of €2.65bn. Product and game design consultant Jakub Remiar has previously broken down the reasons behind Clash Royale’s revenue surge here.
Meanwhile, Twitch streamer Jynxzi, who has 8.9 million subscribers, called out the company last week for failing to give credit to content creators for helping increase the title’s popularity. Paananen has since issued a swift apology.
Despite a stellar year, Clash Royale has fallen in 2026. Player spending fell by 49.4% from December to $37m in January, but still ranking as the 26th most lucrative mobile game in the world. February is currently trending behind last month, too.
Paananen noted in his blog post that the Clash Royale community is “frustrated” with some recent changes to the game, which the team is working to address.
Can Supercell revive its fortunes once again?
The big stories: PUBG Mobile is back on the up
Tencent’s PUBG Mobile returned to form in January after a significant revenue decline at the backend of 2025. In October 2025, the title accumulated $60.2m in player spending from the App Store and Google Play - its worst month since April 2019.
By December, revenue rose to $76.1m. In January, player spending increased 93.2% to $147m. The surge saw PUBG Mobile rank as the world’s sixth top grossing title and the world’s most lucrative shooter.
It’s worth noting that these estimates don’t include sales on Android marketplaces in China.
We previously asked Niko Partners director of research and insights Daniel Ahmad for some insights into the game’s decline.
"Peacekeeper Elite, as with most mobile games, often sees its revenue vary on a weekly basis, with spikes primarily driven by in-game updates and events,” said Ahmad. “We believe the main reason for declining iOS revenue is increased competition at this point, and note there was a similar revenue decline followed by recovery in December 2024.”
Other notable stories:
- Honor of Kings is back on top for the first time since October.
- Tasty Travels, a new merge title from Century Games, is rising, ranked 50th in the revenue rankings. It was the third top grossing merge game in January.
- Gryphline’s Arknights: Endfield launched in January and entered the top grossing charts in 39th place.
- Valorant Mobile had its best month to date in January, picking up $33.6m.
- Playrix’s Township had its best month ever in January, generating $57.4m.
- Royal Kingdom continues to scale with a record $51.9m last month.
- Nexon’s Maplestory Idle RPG, launched in November 2025, hit $62.8m in January.
- Florere’s 4X strategy game Last Z: Survival Shooter is another title continuing to scale, reaching $70.2m last month. It ranked as the 12th top grossing mobile game in the world.
The top grossing mobile games for January 2026
The world’s top grossing mobile game on the App Store and Google Play in January was Tencent’s Honor of Kings, which racked up $246.2m, a rise of 118.6% from December..
In second was Scopely’s Monopoly Go with $174.9m, followed by FunFly’s Last War: Survival in third with $162.4m.
Overall, the mobile games market generated $6.75 billion from worldwide player spending across the App Store and Google Play in January 2026, a 5% decline Y/Y, but a 5.2% rise M/M.
Most Downloaded Mobile Games
The big story: Block Blast gets some competition
Hungry Studio’s Block Blast, the world’s most downloaded game in January, could be getting some competition as Chinese publisher Ivy Mobile has begun scaling the very similar looking Color Block: Combo Blast.
The title picked up 9.4m installs last month, ranking 19th in the world for downloads. That puts it far and away from Block Blast’s 28.1m, but marks a sharp rise from 1.6m installs in November. Interestingly, the title seems to have first appeared in 2019, which would predate Block Blast.
It’s not clear, however, what guise the app took previously. According to the app ID, it may have also operated under a different name: Puzzle Bricks Legend.
Other notable stories:
- Dream Games’ Royal Kingdom had one of its best months for downloads in January at 10m, but seemingly without the big backing of that famous celebrity marketing campaign.
- X.D. Network’s multiplayer life sim Heartopia ranked 11th following its launch on January 7th with 12.2m installs last month.
- As Playrix’s Township hit record revenue, it had its best month for downloads since June 2020 - when the world was reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.
- Microfun’s Gossip Harbor, now the world’s most lucrative merge game, had its best month for installs in January with 8.9m downloads.
Most downloaded mobile games for January 2026
The most downloaded mobile game in January was Hungry Studio’s Block Blast, picking up 28.1m installs. Garena’s Free Fire took second with 25.8m, while Roblox accumulated 22.6m downloads.
Overall, the global mobile games market generated 5.5bn downloads in January 2026, up 2.8% Y/Y and 3.2% M/M.
Top performing mobile games publishers by revenue
The big story: Microfun is now a top 10 grossing publisher
Chinese publisher Microfun is now the dominant force in the merge games space. Such is Gossip Harbor’s rise, it picked up four times as much revenue as Moon Active’s Travel Town in January, totalling $114.5m in player spending.
It also has the fourth top grossing merge game in Seaside Escape, while Flambé: Merge & Cook ranks seventh.
Overall, Microfun accrued $149m last month across its portfolio, breaking into the world's top 10 grossing mobile games publishers for the first time.
That means there were four companies officially from China in January's top grossing publisher chart: Tencent, Century Games, Microfun and NetEase. Meanwhile, FunFly, which ranked sixth, is listed as based in Singapore, with Türkiye's Dream Games ranking fourth as publishers based in Asia outmuscled their European and US rivals.
The Top grossing mobile publishers for January 2026
As ever, Tencent ranked number one for games publisher revenue at $774.6m in January. Century Games took second spot with $288.9m, while Scopely rounded out the top three with $203.3m
Rounding out the top five were Dream Games in fourth with $201.3m and Playrix in fifth with $175.2m.
Top performing mobile games publishers by downloads
The big story: Miniclip is the king of installs
You have to go back to August 2020 to find the month when Azur Games didn’t top the monthly games publisher download rankings (it was Voodoo).
So it’s perhaps a surprise to see that Miniclip toppled the publisher in January 2026 after five-and-a-half years unbeaten with 103m downloads for the month.
So what happened? Well, 2025 release Arrows - Puzzle Escape has been pumping up the downloads, securing 11.7m installs last month.
Head Ball 2, meanwhile, had its best month for downloads to date, accumulating 5.6m installs. The title was first launched in 2018.
Top mobile game publishers for downloads in January 2026
As noted above, Miniclip took top spot in January with 103m downloads. Azur Games placed second with 100.4m installs and Voodoo ranked third with 89m.
BabyBus took fourth with 87.4m downloads, while SayGames ranked fifth with 79.9m.
Companies
