Hot Five
Hot Five: Uma Musume’s $22.8m overseas launch, Krafton’s record-breaking H1, and casual games’ strong market growth
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Staff
Aaron Astle
Job Title
News Editor
About Aaron is the News Editor at PG.biz and has an honours degree in Creative Writing.
Having spent far too many hours playing Pokémon, he's now on a quest to be the very best like no one ever was...at putting words in the right order.
Articles by Aaron Astle
New Games
New release roundup: Kingdom Rush Battles, Wargroove 2, Settris, and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Atari Acquisition
Atari offers $5.1m in bid to acquire Thunderful Group
If approved by shareholders, the deal will see Atari acquire approximately 82% of outstanding shares and votes in the company
Pubg Plan
PUBG 2.0 will broaden from battle royale to UGC and games platform
Krafton is "speeding up the process" of reworking the game with wide-ranging modes
Pgc Barcelona
Tilting Point’s Sylvain Etard talks rewarded platforms, retargeting and the "UA jungle"
Etard spoke at PGC Barcelona 2025, revealing insights into reaching users
Accidental Artwork
Pokémon TCG Pocket removes two illustrations after "incorrect materials" used in latest expansion
The card production team mistakenly provided the artist with the wrong documents
Record Revenue
Krafton generates $1.1bn revenue in record-breaking H1 2025
Mobile accounted for 62% of the total sum, though performed better in Q1 than Q2
Football Fiends
EA surpasses high-end guidance range with $1.3bn net bookings this Q1
This marked a 3% Y/Y increase driven mainly by full game sales
Revenue Race
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby makes 50.3% revenue outside Japan in first global month
Japan, the US and Canada are currently the anime gacha’s top markets
Ai Ahoy
Playful.AI kicks off first Game Jam with a $7,000 prize pool, where AI features are must-have
The winner will receive $4,000 and a launch partnership opportunity
Revenue Rise
Take-Two’s mobile portfolio accounts for 52% of $5.6bn net revenue in latest fiscal year
Mobile spending was up 7% Y/Y, driven by Match Factory and Toon Blast
Spending Surge
Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond daily revenue spikes 786% with first new card set Infinity Evolved
Cygames’ latest card game has generated $66.7m in its first six weeks on mobile
Acquisition Aftermath
Napster Corp lays off staff after "overlaps" post-acquisitions
The number of redundancies is unknown, but the company continues to employ hundreds of full-time staff
Loads Of Layoffs
Layoffs to cost 100,000 years of collective games industry experience
As veterans leave the games sector, Amir Satvat calculates the years of experience lost since 2022
Hot Five
Hot Five: Soolra’s iPhone controller case, Netflix’s gaming investment plans, and EU reportedly likely to greenlight App Store changes
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: Pokémon Friends, Metal Slug Tactics, Rollercoaster Racer and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Data Dive
H1 2025 genre analysis: Mobile strategy games surge to $10.6bn as RPG revenue tumbles
We analyse AppMagic data to determine the top genres globally and in the US, comparing rising stars with stumbling giants
Bringing Back Buttons
Soolra iPhone case doubles as retro controller: "Mobile gaming has been held back by touchscreens for too long"
The company also has its own emulator with open source, properly licenced and public domain games preloaded
Celebration Is Coming
Game of Thrones: Legends celebrates first anniversary and $23.6m in lifetime player spending
Ned Stark was the most-used Champion of year one, though he died 110m times
Pgc Barcelona
FunPlus’ Guillaume Colomb talks narrative, theme and how to "feed the brain"
Colomb spoke at PGC Barcelona 2025, revealing insights into three key elements of a deep game experience
Pokemon Portfolio
Pokémon Champions gets release window as slew of mobile games land updates
The latest Pokémon Presents gives a deeper look into the competitive battle game coming in 2026
Pokemon Puzzles
Pokémon Friends shadow dropped as new puzzle game on mobile
The title is available now on Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch
Staff Stats
Nintendo hires at least 455 full-time staff as total headcount surpasses 5,600
Nintendo has 3,855 male full-time employees while 1,775 are female, with the largest disparity in Japan
Sleepy Spending
Pokémon Sleep sleepwalks to $182.8m in two years
Revenue yawned in year two, reaching 77% of its year-one sum, but Legendary events continued to drive strong surges
Ambitions And Aspirations
"We had no idea what we were doing": Herman Narula on Improbable's early years and its future
The Improbable co-founder and CEO discusses the UK company's journey, industry trends, and advice for founders
Hot Five
Hot Five: Rollic’s 1,000 ideations per month, Coin Master - Board Adventure soft launch, and Uma Musume: Pretty Derby’s post-expansion performance
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: My Talking Tom Friends 2, Coin Master - Board Adventure, and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Hybrid Hit
How Rollic scored a $100m hybridcasual hit by ideating 1,000 games a month
Utku Erdinç suspects that "in the history of mobile gaming, a very small number of studios have experienced this much growth in only one and a half years"
Revenue Race
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby trots to $6.6m outside Japan after 18 days
Cygames’ flagship was Japan’s top-grossing mobile game in 2021 and 2022, and expanded into the West on June 26th, 2025
Strategy Spending
Whiteout Survival hits $3bn in player spending in under 2.5 years
Century Games’ strategy title has been among the five highest-earning mobile games every month this year
Hot Five
Hot Five: Pokémon Go’s ninth anniversary, Clash Royale’s Merge Tactics mode, and China's domestic licence changes
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: DC Worlds Collide, Subnautica, Raising Reincarnated SwordMage, and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Roguelike Revenue
Habby's Wittle Defender hits $10m in gross player spending
Habby’s tower defence title launched worldwide on Android and iOS on June 9th
Building And Bolstering
French dev Million Victories secures almost $40m in funding from Haveli Investments
The studio’s flagship mobile game Million Lords: World Conquest has 100,000 monthly players
Data Diligence
The IAB updates its Diligence Platform to educate data suppliers in "increasingly regulated environment"
The update follows after the IAB’s new Gaming Measurement Framework, outlining ad formats for games
Revenue Royale
Clash Royale hits post-pandemic record of $3.8m daily revenue with new mode Merge Tactics
Daily player spending has reached its highest since 2021
China Changes
Overseas studios to be eligible for domestic licences in China for games developed in Shanghai
The Shanghai Municipal Government will test this in a pilot programme
Moving To Mobile
Global Worldwide closes funding round led by Bitkraft Ventures in mobile manoeuvre
The oversubscribed round was "tough" in the current AI landscape, according to chairman and CEO Will Harbin
The Power Of Pokemon
Pokémon Go celebrates ninth anniversary and $8.8bn in gross player spending
Total earnings are likely even higher when including alternative stores, Go’s web shop and more
Victorious Valorant
Valorant Mobile hits 40m pre-registrations in China
Riot Games opened pre-registrations on April 21st, exclusively for the Chinese version
Hot Five
Hot Five: Zenless Zone Zero's $442m year one, King reportedly loses 10% of staff, and Toca Boca hit by layoffs
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: Angry Birds Bounce, Mo.co, Goat Simulator 3 and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Zenless Celebration
Zenless Zone Zero celebrates first anniversary with $442.1m, just 23% of Genshin Impact’s year one
HoYoverse’s latest gacha game generated nearly one-third of its lifetime mobile revenue in its launch month
Pgc Barcelona
The value of retargeting players and when to do it
RTB House gaming account director Vera Manhoso talks data preparation and integrating an MMP at PGC Barcelona 2025
Marketing Merge Mansion
How Metacore cracked Japan's mobile market with Merge Mansion
Shuhei Watanabe discusses advertising campaigns, cultural differences in Asia, and Merge Mansion’s successful marketing strategy
Refund Round
FTC distributes $126m in refunds to "tricked" Fortnite players charged for unwanted purchases
Players are able to file for a refund until July 9th, 2025
Roguelike Reimagining
Angry Birds Bounce game lead talks brick breaker genre, development under Sega and "a great deal of interest on Apple Arcade"
Bryan Cook reveals all from the ideation phase, prototyping, design decisions and creating the first Angry Birds game since Rovio’s acquisition by Sega
For The Throne
Game of Thrones: Kingsroad surpasses $1m on mobile after 36 days
Netmarble’s action-adventure RPG has taken a slower road to seven figures than Legends, Slot Casino or Conquest
Hot Five
Hot Five: Kingshot and SD Gundam G Generation Eternal shoot past $100m, and Grow a Garden hits 21m concurrent users
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: Marvel Mystic Mayhem, Uma Musume: Pretty Derby, Lego Fortnite Expeditions and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week