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Sensor Tower: US puzzle game spending increased 4.2% to $5 billion

Decline in downloads witnessed across the board

Sensor Tower: US puzzle game spending increased 4.2% to $5 billion

US consumer spending on mobile puzzle games reached $5 billion between April 1 2021 and March 31 2022.

According to Sensor Tower, this represents a 4.2 per cent increase over the previous year which generated $4.8 billion in player spending.

During the period, the highest grossing game was Candy Crush Saga, which generated $845.5 million. The second highest grossing title was Homescapes, followed by another from King, Candy Crush Soda Saga.

Of the 11 puzzle game subgenres, "classic match-three" was the highest grossing subgenre with $1.6 billion in consumer spending, a rise of 12.3 per cent year-over-year.

"Other match-three" was the fastest growing subgenre in terms of revenue which grew 103.3 per cent year-over-year to roughly $106 million. Examples of "other match three" games are Angry Birds Blast and Zen Match.

Match-three marches ahead

Despite the increase in consumer spending, US downloads decreased by 19.9 per cent year-over-year to 554 million. The decrease in downloads but rising revenue indicates that allow player numbers are declining, engagement is high.

The most downloaded puzzle game during the period was Project Makeover from Magic Tavern which accumulated 14.5 million instals. Project Makeover recently announced a cross-media partnership with Queer Eye to bring the Fab Five into the game.

The second most downloaded puzzle game was Wordscapes followed by Candy Crush Saga in third.

The leading subgenre for downloads was "other puzzle" - games such as Woodoku or Brain Test - which accumulated almost 164 million downloads. All puzzle genres suffered a decline in downloads during the period with the smallest decline seen in "other match-three" at 2.2 per cent year-over-year.

According to a recent report from data.ai, anime mobile games make up 20 per cent of all games consumer spending on app stores, generating $17 billion in 2021 alone.


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