Horse Girls Are Here
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby launches globally today after racing to $2.6bn on mobile in Japan
Cygames’ horse girl game has launched in English more than one year on from reveal, and four years after release in Japan
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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
Candy Crown
King crowns 2025 Candy Crush Saga All Stars champion and dishes out $1m prize pool
Tiago P from Portugal won this year’s tournament, claiming $500,000 in prize money
Portfolio Prowess
FreePlay surpasses 2bn lifetime installs after expanding into hybridcasual
The developer and publisher’s games are available in more than 175 countries, with standouts including Count Masters, Twerk Race 3D and Zombie Apocalypse
Google Games
Google quietly launches HTML5 games hub Instant Games on select Android devices
The new app allows users to access a selection of games without downloading them separately
Roblox Record
Roblox’s Grow a Garden hits industry record 21.3m concurrent users, surpassing PUBG, Fortnite and more
The Roblox experience more than doubled its 8.9m record set in May
Sequel Strategy
Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond surpasses $20m in first week
Cygames’ strategy card game sequel quadrupled the original Shadowverse’s week one earnings
Major Milestone
Kingshot surpasses $100m in just 117 days
Century Games has blended strategy and survival genres once again, leading to another hit game growing month-over-month
Moshi Monsters Mobile
Mind Candy CEO talks Moshi Monsters comeback: New mobile game, toys and merch are "all on the table"
Christianne Amodio reveals the value of fan feedback and the "outpouring of support" since the Moshi Monsters comeback Kickstarter was targeted with fake pledges
Eternally Earning
SD Gundam G Generation Eternal surpasses $100m in two months
Bandai Namco’s recent release peaked at $3.5m in daily player spending
New Name
Honor of Kings rebrands to Honor of Kings Plus with "biggest version update yet"
Tencent’s flagship is the highest-grossing mobile game in the world, with a revamp coming shortly after record revenue
Hot Five
Hot Five: Fortnite’s Blitz Royale, Moshi Monsters’ comeback Kickstarter sabotaged, and UK Government launches £30m games industry fund
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: Fortnite Blitz Royale, Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond, What Duck. and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Root Raising
Social platform Root raises $9m in seed funding ahead of closed beta
Funding was led by Headline Ventures and Konvoy Ventures
No Deal
Tencent denies Nexon acquisition reports
The idea of a Chinese company purchasing South Korea-founded Nexon sparked backlash from the Korea Game Society
Finland's Foreign Workers
Finnish Aliens Act amendment gives international talent just three to six months to find new employment
"We must not close the door on the very people who help make Finland thrive," says Finnish games trade association Neogames
Phoney Pledges
Moshi Monsters’ comeback Kickstarter sabotaged by "malicious actor" who made multiple fake pledges
It was previously believed that the campaign reached its £250,000 goal in less than 24 hours, before fake pledges with "clear intent" to mislead were discovered
Prize Pool
Dunk City Dynasty’s first competition Community Bash has $10,000 prize pool
Winning teams in Southeast Asia and North America will net $2,300 each
Solitaire's Secret Sauce
Why are the world's top games publishers making solitaire games and has Playtika already won?
As solitaire installs rise for seven consecutive years to a record-breaking 347m, we ask game design consultant Jakub Remiar for further insight
Moshi Monsters Mobile
Moshi Monsters to make mobile comeback after £250,000 Kickstarter target reached in one day
The 2000s web browser game is getting a follow-up on mobile, expected in 2027
Anzu And Amex
Amex Ventures invests in in-game ads firm Anzu
The investment will help Anzu scale faster in key segments
Hot Five
Hot Five: New Apple Games app, SAG-AFTRA strikes ending, and Zynga founder forms Playful.AI
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: 10 Second Ninja X, Sonic Blitz, Lost in Play+ and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
The Birds Are Back
Angry Birds Bounce launches in July as series’ first game developed under Sega’s ownership
Sega completed its acquisition of Rovio in August 2023, 18 months after the last mobile Angry Birds game released
Finding Funds
Former Tacticool devs at Nice Plans Studio secure $3m for 3v3 shooter Ricochet Squad
Studio claims day one player-to-payer conversion rate is 4% to 5% in soft launch
Strong Soft Launch
Nice Plans Studio's ambitions to independently scale a new shooter in a challenging mobile market
Co-founder and CEO Roman Malakhov talks metrics, ambitions and becoming a "fully independent studio"
Building Brands
Supercell hiring in multiple roles to grow brands outside of games
A "whole slate of unannounced projects" are already in development
Jobs Roundup
June 2025’s Movers and Shakers: Unity CTO exits, Embracer appoints new CEO, Roblox gets a CFO, and more
Our regular roundup of the mobile games industry's movers and shakers
Switch 2 Success
Nintendo Switch 2 breaks records with 3.5m unit sales in four days
The original Switch reached 2.7m unit sales in 29 days
Origin On The Way
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin launching this year after Grand Cross surpasses $1bn
The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross generated its first $1bn on mobile in under five years
Download Deluge
Fortnite lands 2.8m new installs on App Store in US
Epic Games’ flagship remains the country’s most-downloaded mobile game for 19 days running, but has been beaten by ChatGPT for most-downloaded app
Squad Slump
Squad Busters makes $472,000 on Chinese App Store as version 2.0 is slow to ignite global fortunes
The global version has generated $1.8m in almost a month since the major overhaul
Hot Five
Hot Five: Wuthering Waves makes $317m in first year, Scopely closes $3.5bn Niantic deal, and Epic Games Store hits 40m mobile installs
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: Trinity Trigger, Helix Jump+, Crystal of Atlan, and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Floodgates Open
Wuthering Waves celebrates first anniversary with $317.3m on mobile and Los Angeles celebration
Kuro Games’ gacha RPG quickly sailed to its first $100m and has found a second wind since Version 2.0’s release
Switch 2 Release
Nintendo Switch 2 is out now: Hardware specs, launch games and an $8bn industry opportunity
The Nintendo Switch 2 is finally here, with a bigger screen, 120fps and GameChat functionality
Summer Special
Albums, battle passes and milestones: Mobile’s top event types to introduce this summer
AppMagic analyses the three summer event formats that can fit "seamlessly" into almost any live ops schedule
Community And Culture
Socialpoint’s Akshay Bharadwaj talks striving to surprise and "the Barcelonian collaborative spirit"
The Barcelona-based studio has been maintaining Dragon City, Two Dots and Monster Legends for over a decade
Store Strategy
Epic Games Store hits 40m mobile installs and eyes 70 by the end of the year
Epic web shops are planned to launch in July
Lauding Legislation
Tim Sweeney: "Revenue is shifting away from useless gatekeepers and middlemen"
Epic Games’ CEO celebrates legislative changes at State of Unreal 2025 and promises to "keep fighting" for developers worldwide
Surfing In The Sun
Subway Surfers heads to Barcelona in new World Tour event
The in-game setting has been chosen for the 201st World Tour, and happens to coincide with PGC Barcelona 2025
Web3 Way
Quranium secures Animoca Brands investment with focus on web3, AI, metaverse and games
Mobile games will be a key focus, as will security against present and future threats
Ceo Change
Turborilla hires ex-Kwalee John Wright as new CEO effective immediately as Tobias Andersson steps back
Andersson has stepped back into a board member role as the company enters its "next chapter"
Growing Gamers
Roblox game Grow a Garden beats Steam with record concurrent user high of 8.9m
Steam’s highest concurrent users in a single game was achieved in 2018, with 3.2m players in PUBG: Battlegrounds
Done Deal
Pokémon Go under new ownership as Scopely closes $3.5bn Niantic deal
Pokémon Go, Monster Hunter Now, Pikmin Bloom and their associated development teams have officially been acquired
Hot Five
Hot Five: Apple’s dedicated gaming app, Minecraft's mobile revenue surge, and earnings per install rise industry-wide
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Sweet Solitaire
Candy Crush Solitaire has "surpassed internal business expectations"
King business director of new games Anna Busquet talks development, design philosophy and "rigorous testing" behind the company’s first global launch in five years
New Games
New release roundup: Puzzle & Dragons 0, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, Summoners War: Rush, and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Million Milestone
Dunk City Dynasty achieves 1m downloads in first five days
This latest NetEase Games title has topped App Store charts in the US, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and more
Dynamic Dtc
DTC evolving fast after App Store ruling as web shops alone leave "a lot of untapped potential on the table"
Appcharge chief marketing officer Gil Tov-Ly talks Epic vs Apple, the implications for DTC and the latest tools bolstering conversion
Square Settlement
Square Enix and HK Ten Tree settle copyright lawsuit over Metal Storm
The pair were previously working together on Front Mission 2089: Borderscape