Pokemon GO was the top trending game of 2016 on the Google Play store in the UK, according to Google itself.
The Google Play team released its top five lists for everything available on its services. Rather than listing in order of downloads, its games are sorted by their trending status.
The top trending games for 2016 on Google Play in the UK were:
- Pokemon GO (Niantic Labs)
- Clash Royale (Supercell)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing (Bandai Namco)
- Dream League Soccer (First Touch)
- Slither.io (Lowtech Studios)
The success of Pokemon GO is no surprise. The game has garnered at least over half a billion downloads and is estimated to have generated over $600 million in revenue.
Best of the rest
Clash Royale is also an expected entry. It was tipped to be the biggest game of 2016 until the surprise launch of Pokemon GO, and one that could help boost mobile eSports.
Naruto Shippuden is a hardcore action title with a niche audience, so its inclusion is slightly unexpected. Dream League Soccer is a UK-developed title released in April 2016.
Slither.io was a wildly popular title when it first launched, though with little monetisation in the game, there were concerns that it wasn't generating anything close to what it could've been earning revenue-wise.
Google Play also stated that over 65 billion apps have been downloaded globally in the last year. People in 190 different countries download apps every day, and the store has over one billion 30-day active users.
