Mobile Mavens' games companies of the year 2025: Microfun, Supercent, Homa, Supercell, and more
As the year comes to a close, we've been taking a look back at the top games and trends of the year, reflecting on a year of change in the industry.
As part of our 2025 retrospective, we asked our Mobile Mavens - a collection of games industry experts - a few questions about the year gone by.
Here we ask:
What was the most notable games company this year and why?
Don't forget you can check out the winners of the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2025 here, as voted for by members of the industry.
You can also check out the Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2025 list, as well as the editorial team's own games of the year.
Alina Zlotnik
It’s hard to pick just one, but for us it would probably be Microfun, the team behind Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story and Seaside Escape among several other merge-2 games.
Last year, many developers were still looking at Monopoly Go and Royal Match as their main live ops references. In 2025, that changed. Gossip Harbor’s revenue grew 2.3x year over year, firmly securing its place as the top title in the merge-2 niche. And yes, we also have research about it.
The game keeps growing thanks to constant updates and improvements. For example, its live ops and monetisation schedule became roughly twice as dense compared to last year.
At the same time, the merge-2 market generated $1.2 billion in revenue in 2025. Today, it’s one of the most dynamic casual genres, and Gossip Harbor is a game the whole market is watching closely.
Vladimir Markov
For me, it’s Voodoo – they are masters of turning simple hypercasual ideas into games with real progression and big spending potential.
Mob Control and Cup Heroes drive huge downloads and record player spend, and they’re even branching out into apps like BeReal. The team knows how to adapt and stay ahead in a tough mobile market.
Diana Korkina
I would highlight several of them. Tencent Games remained the largest company by revenue, continued its growth, and kept setting a high bar for game quality.
Microfun also stood out, as the company found a strong formula for growth and scaling, not only with Gossip Harbor, but also with its other titles, Flambé and Seaside Escape.
Gil Tov-Ly
For me, it has to be Supercell. I’m sure this isn’t the most original or surprising choice(!), but in this industry, you can’t overlook the brilliance of making your mature games return to glory and record revenues.
Every single game in their portfolio grew, which is incredible. Plus, the decision to kill Squad Busters was brave – and well executed. Treating their players well – letting players who purchased stuff swap their currency for currency in other portfolio games – was very well done.
Günay Azer
Homa Games really stood out this year. They’ve been growing rapidly, expanding into new genres, and successfully operating across both ad-monetised and IAP-driven titles. It’s impressive to see how consistently the team executes while scaling their portfolio.
Wenfeng Yang
Hungry Studio. In a year dominated by “AI, AI, AI”, they chose to put 500 people on one game and not let AI replace that human capacity.
That’s pretty insane, but in a good way. It’s a very strong bet on human creativity and on building something so ambitious that you simply can’t automate it.
Christian Lövstedt
I would say the most interesting game companies in 2025 are Landfall and Supercell. Landfall for consistently delivering great games while still remaining a small indie developer, and Supercell for its disciplined approach to game development and its ability to keep titles popular for so long.
Alisa Akifeva
Epic Games stands out this year.
Their legal win against Google in the US is a hugely important moment for the industry. Epic has had an enormous impact on pushing the mobile ecosystem toward more openness and fairness, and this result benefits far more than just one company.
Kian Hozouri
The studio that deserves the spotlight this year is Supercent. Their amazing team has continued to be one of the most dynamic publishers, using a unique data-driven approach to both publishing and growth that has consistently produced top charting hits throughout the year.
Vladimir Nikolsky
I’d point to Turkish game studios. They had a strong breakout a few years ago, and now a new generation of teams is carrying that momentum forward. There’s a lot of fresh thinking coming from the region, with many teams creating interesting new products.
Kelly Vero
In a year where the industry still felt like a bonfire of layoffs and “strategic realignments” from the mess of 2024, it was the indies who kept making things: supported only by their communities and sheer spite. That was the real headline.
Jernej Česen
Honestly, the ones that made me stop scrolling and actually say “this is cool”. Companies that didn’t just chase downloads but tried something new, through collaborations, cross-genre experiments, or simply clever ideas, deserve the spotlight. It was the mix of boldness and genuinely good games that grabbed my attention this year.
2025 also saw the industry take its next step towards consolidation. Some big companies merged, and to be honest, I’m a bit sorry about that, because many companies are slowly losing their identity and culture.
On the other hand, new types of culture are emerging. It’s interesting to see how the industry is blending together, while at the same time entirely new types of market players are growing.
For me personally, one particularly interesting player stepping into the casual mobile gaming market is NCSoft. I see them as an important force that could really mix things up.
Besides them, Netflix is definitely a player we’re all watching closely to see how they’ll leave their footprint on the gaming sector.
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