Supercell, Supercell, and Supercell: The most read news stories of 2019
Another year has passed, and once again it's time for us to look back on the stories that caught out reader's attention the most over the last 365-ish days.
It's been an exciting year for mobile games, with subscription models launching on the App Store and Google Play, big brands leaping over to mobile with vigour, and Supercell dominating the news cycle whenever they so much as raise an eyebrow in the direction of a new game.
Yes, you'll find plenty of stories you'd expect in here - the announcement of Rush Wars, the continued rise of Clash of Clans, the immediate fall of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite - but there might well be some news buried within that you entirely forgot about or simple weren't aware of at the time.
But that's why we're here to remind you, and remind you we shall. Grab your reading glasses, get comfy in your favourite chair, and let us take you back through 2019 through the lens of our most-read news stories of the past year.
#10: Drodo Studios soft-launches DOTA Auto Chess standalone version on mobile
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Drodo Studios soft-launches DOTA Auto Chess standalone version on mobile »If you'd have asked anyone at the tail-end of 2018 what the next big thing in games would be, auto chess would be their response.
And, at the time, they might not have been wrong - it's evident in how many people were intrigued by the soft-launching of Drodo Studios' mobile take on the genre it kickstarted.
There have been other auto battlers since then - Valve got into the game with DOTA Underlords, while Tencent went with Chess Rush - but the genre as a whole hasn't made quite the impact people were expecting.
Will 2020 see a resurgence of the auto battler? Probably not. But hey, the world may yet surprise us.
#9: Nutaku opens new Android adult gaming store
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Nutaku opens new Android adult gaming store »Look, we're just straight-laced business people at PGBiz. This is the last website in the world where you're likely to see anyone get "horny on main", as the kids might say.
But you simply can't ignore the rise of adult gaming firm Nutaku, especially when it pitches a tent right on Android with its own marketplace.
Previously, players would have to scour the browser store and sideload APKs to get their kicks, but the new service makes it easier than ever for fans to download playable smut.
And hey, we can't help it if our readers are into this kind of news. We're not here to yuk your yums. But just know that when you read these things in your droves, some poor shmuck has to try and write 150 words about it at the end of the year without making hundreds of sex jokes on a business site. And that's just not fair.
#8: Call of Duty: Mobile soft-launched in India and Australia
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Call of Duty: Mobile soft-launched in India and Australia »Regular readers and industry members will probably know PGBiz as the home of the Soft Launch list, an enormous collection of games that have been made available in limited markets ahead of a full release.
So when a game like Call of Duty: Mobile gets tested in a few territories, we're on it like bloodhounds - as were our readers, it seems.
Tencent's Timi studio led development on the title, which takes some of the best-loved maps of the main series and ports them over to smaller screens for frenetic, multiplayer shooter action.
It appears to have worked, too - the full game launched in October and generated almost $60 million in revenue during its launch month. Whether it'll become a mainstay on the mobile scene, however, is another question entirely.
#7: Why tens of millions more Android gamers are playing PUBG Mobile than Fortnite
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Why tens of millions more Android gamers are playing PUBG Mobile than Fortnite »Fortnite exploded onto the gaming scene back in September 2017 and hasn't stopped growing since. While PUBG may have been the originator of the battle royale genre, Epic's take was the one that really did the business.
But on mobile, it seems like PUBG might have the edge. That's largely down to the fact that Fortnite requires a pretty hefty device to run effectively - PUBG Mobile was built for the platform, and can easily be played on a budget phone.
And because of that mobile-first focus of PUBG Mobile, tens of millions of Android players are likely to be playing it over Fortnite, according to data from Newzoo.
OK, so "can" and "are" aren't exactly the same thing, but don't let a good headline get in the way of interesting data - 98 per cent of Android devices in the world can play some variant of PUBG Mobile, and that's a lot more than can handle Fortnite.
#6: Clash of Clans had its best revenue month for two years in June
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Clash of Clans had its best revenue month for two years in June »Clash of Clans makes at least a billion dollars every year, and is consistently one of the highest-grossing games worldwide every single month. You'd think it wouldn't have room to grow in that regard. And you'd be wrong.
In fact, the game's biggest month of its life so far happened in June this year, when the game amassed over $76 million in revenues.
How did it manage this feat, you ask? Well, we'll have more on that a little later, but let's just say it had something to do with a season pass subscription for now.
Gosh, I wonder if Supercell will feature again in this list? You'll just have to keep going to find out...
#5: Subway Surfers dives past 2.5 billion downloads worldwide
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Subway Surfers dives past 2.5 billion downloads worldwide »Subway Surfers is a game that just keeps on going and adding more players, and 2019 was no different.
As you may have already guessed, the plucky little endless runner has now accrued over 2.5 billion downloads worldwide, which is about a third of the world's population (if my maths still holds up).
Not only that, App Annie later crowned the game the most downloaded of the entire decade, beating out competition from titles like Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans.
How did it achieve this huge milestone? We asked SYBO Games CEO Mathias Gredal Nørvig the exact same thing, so go check that interview out instead of wondering aloud to yourself.
#4: Battle royale Garena Free Fire generated $90 million in Q1 2019
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Battle royale Garena Free Fire generated $90 million in Q1 2019 »Never heard of Free Fire? You should probably brush up - not only is it one of the top five grossing battle royale shooters on mobile in the world, but it isn't looking likely to stop raking in cash any time soon.
In Q1 2019, the game generated $90 million alone, up $16 million on its previous (and best) quarter. And a lot of that money came from Brazil - 31 per cent of it, as it happens.
The Garena-published title has proven so popular this year that it's now cleared over $1 billion in revenue after just two years of operation. That makes it the 23rd game to do so, by our count.
Battle royale may be dominated by Fortnite and PUBG on other platforms, but there's clearly room for other big players on mobile. Only time will tell how big Free Fire can really grow.
#3: Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is already in sharp decline
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Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is already in sharp decline »Remember how great Pokemon GO was when it first launched? Niantic's location-based game was like lightning in a bottle, and continues to be a big money-spinner for the developer to this day.
Niantic's next trick, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, hasn't fared well in comparison. Five months after first launching, the game has reportedly only generated $22 million in revenue.
Now for any other developer, that'd be a pretty neat turnaround. But for a huge, licensed title like Wizards Unite, with an enormous marketing campaign behind it, this... is not good.
What happened? We may never know, but we can certainly show you the data - Wizards Unite generated just $10 million in its last four months, and only gathered up an additional 2.6 million downloads in that time. It may yet bounce back, but right now, it looks pretty much dead in the water.
#2: Clash of Clans revenue jumped 72% to $71 million in month after Gold Pass introduction
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Clash of Clans revenue jumped 72% to $71 million in month after Gold Pass introduction »OK, so we've already had a "Clash of Clans makes a lot of money" story in this list, but our readers simply love to see it, so here we go again - Clash of Clans made a lot of money in 2019.
Following the launch of both the Gold Pass and Season Challenges in April - two elements which reportedly generated over $27 million for the game in their first week - data from Sensor Tower suggested that Clash of Clans' revenue managed to grow 72 per cent for the month overall.
May 1st also saw the game rake in $6.9 million in 24 hours, its best single day of revenues since Christmas 2015, and a figure that is honestly mind-blowing even within the context of a Supercell game.
As the race to the $10 billion revenues mark grows hotter, Clash of Clans looks like it could smash through this monstrous achievement in less time than you might think. Maybe even in 2020? Stranger things have happened...
#1: Supercell teases new mobile game Rush Wars
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Supercell teases new mobile game Rush Wars »Like we said at the start, when Supercell makes even a vague mention of a new game, the world goes wild. And that was exactly the case this year when the developer started teasing Rush Wars.
Combining elements of Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, and Brawl Stars, Rush Wars certainly looked like it would take over the world just like the games it cribbed from - but it wasn't meant to be.
Just four months after being soft-launched, Supercell killed Rush Wars dead, deciding that no matter how much the studio tweaked it, the game would simply never be fun enough for a wide release.
It's not hugely surprising - Supercell is known for killing far, far more games than it ever even shows the world - but we're interested to see what the team will learn from this "failure" for its next big hit.