Finance
Weak mobile and browser game performance led to a poor 2019 financial year for Square Enix
Solid releases couldn't sway the tide against slower-than-expected mobile and MMO performance
Winner Winner
Battle royale games have surpassed $2 billion on mobile
NetEase’s Knives Out leads the way
Financials
Japan success helps propel NetEase sales to $2.7 billion in Q1 2019
Chinese publishing giant also knocking it out the park at home
Finance
Ubisoft’s mobile bookings grew nearly 75 per cent in a record year for the French publisher
Mobile might be a minor part of Ubisoft's business, but it's only going to become more important in the coming years
Financials
Tencent hopes Season Passes will help revitalise games growth after decline
Publisher is now clear of China's licensing freeze
Mobile Future
NCSoft wants more from its legacy RPG franchises on mobile as sales decline
Mobile still makes up more than half of the company's sales
Covet Profits
Glu Mobile’s return to profitability dampened by share price drop
Crowdstar powers sales as Design Home and Covet Fashion lead the way
That’s A Twist
Detective Pikachu captures biggest weekend opening ever in US for a video game film adaptation
$58 million made from American Pokemon Trainers
Korea Stars
Brawl Stars takes $50 million in South Korea
Total global sales to date reach an estimated $230m
Apple Vs Pepper
US Supreme Court declares Apple can face monopoly lawsuits
Dispute to be settled in lower courts
Peace
Tencent’s "peaceful" PUBG clone Game for Peace earned over $14 million in three days
Game for Peace is already outperforming PUBG Mobile internationally
Financials
DeNA games sales and profits fall in FY2018
Company hopeful Mario Kart Tour can do the business in 2019
Financial
MapleStory and Dungeon & Fighter shatter expectations to drive Nexon’s Q1 2019 results
Nexon predicts further growth as it heads into the next quarter
Very Twisty
Detective Pikachu mystery event rolls out in Pokemon Go as revenue continues to climb
Title made $65 million for the month of April
Financials
New acquisitions drive Stillfront to $43.6 million results in Q1 2019
Development group hopes to add more indies to its roster in the coming year
Rapid Growth
China mobile games revenue to surpass $25 billion by 2023
95 per cent of gamers in China are playing mobile titles; 40 per cent spend money
Raking It In
Clash of Clans revenue jumped 72% to $71 million in month after Gold Pass introduction
Season Challenges and Gold Pass doing the business for Supercell
Sales Decline
King revenue falls year-on-year to $529m despite growth in MAUs
PC declines and Candy Crush Friends Saga impacts profitability
For The Throne
Game of Thrones: Conquest has largest revenue month in April
Title grew 90 per cent year-on-year
Good Dog
Zynga posts record mobile bookings of $341m in Q1 2019 thanks to Empires & Puzzles and Merge Dragons
However losses increased significantly due to the outperformance of these titles, resulting in bigger earnouts for Small Giant Games and Gram Games
Apple Financials
Apple sales and profits fall as services gains fail to make up for hardware decline
iPhone sales down 17 per cent as services hits record $11.5 billion
Still In Early Access
The Elder Scrolls: Blades generates $1.5 million from player spending in first month
US accounts for $1.1. million of player spending
Nintendo Cashes In
Nintendo mobile division sales up 17% to $412m in FY2019
Total sales for the fiscal year rose to $10.7 billion
Dream Start
Angry Birds 2 and Dream Blast drive up Rovio games revenue to $74m in Q1
Angry Birds Dream Blast is already the games division's second-biggest revenue driver
$$$
Xbox Live monthly active users dropped to 63m in last financial quarter
Revenue up five per cent for Microsoft's games business
Revenue
King of Avalon and Guns of Glory rake in over $1.3 billion in revenue for Funplus
Funplus wants both games to rake in a combined $1.5 billion by the year's end
Revenue
Star Trek Fleet Command is making a stellar $13.7 million in monthly revenue
Licensed stargazer has hit lifetime revenue of $40 million and four million installations.
Cash Royale
Mobile picks up $65m of PUBG Corp's $920m sales in 2018
Mobile likely low due to Chinese approval freeze
Money Money Money
Newzoo: Tencent responsible for 15% of 2018's global games revenue
Chinese tech and entertainment giant saw close-to $20bn coming in last year
Still Going Strong
Stillfront Group plots further M&A as profits double in 2018
"We are staffing up for more M&A activity and remain as confident as ever in our screening process and post-acquisition strategies"
Grow
Global mobile gaming revenue hit $14.6 billion in Q1 2019
Gaming accounted for 76 per cent of all app revenue last quarter
Mobile Star
Supercell’s Brawl Stars is making $50 million a month
Sales pass $200 million to date
Rapid Growth
IronSource claims $900m run-rate for 2019 as it eyes up acquisitions and IPO
Big year ahead for the ad tech firm
Cash Of Clans
New Clash of Clans Gold Pass leads to $27m in revenue in one week
New Pass gives better rewards for completing season challenges
Huge Growth
Global mobile user spending to reach $156 billion by 2023
Latin America and Africa were both noted as most likely to see the biggest increase in growth revenue
You Have My Sword
The Elder Scrolls: Blades reaches one million downloads in first week of early access
$500,000 already generated in revenue
$4 Million A Day
Pokemon Go surpasses $2.5 billion in worldwide player spending
Augmented reality title yet to reach third anniversary
Pubg Prime
PUBG Mobile introduces in-app subscriptions for sixth season
Gross revenue grew 83 per cent in March 2019 overtaking Fortnite for the month
Ads
Mobvista revenue from programmatic advertising grew 99 per cent in the wake of its IPO
Ad tech platform reports a 38.9 per cent annual increase in total revenue, hitting $435 million
Mansion Money
Matchington Mansion surpasses $100 million in global IAP revenue
50 million downloads
Perfect
Perfect World’s $100 million launch month dethrones Honor of Kings
Tencent's newest MMO has been raking in $4.5 million in player spending every day since launch
Royale
Mobile was monumental in earning Tencent $19 billion in games revenue
Mobile success offset a decline in PC games revenue
Dead-ication
NetEase’s LifeAfter passes $125 million in revenue
97 per cent of revenue originated from China
Report
Mobile gaming brought in 20 per cent more revenue than PC and console in 2018
"That’s what happens when technology improves and mobile becomes ubiquitous"
Fight
Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle passes $1.6 billion during its best month ever
Dokkan Battle beats its previous record by hitting $78.6 million in one month
Rich As A King
Honor of Kings has made $4.5 billion since launch
295 million installs to date
Spend
Sony's Fate/Grand Order hits $3 billion in player spending
Sensor Tower suggests Fate/Grand Order could be one of Sony's all-time gaming highs
Ranked
Tencent and NetEase top App Annie's Top 52 app publishers list for 2018 as APAC companies dominate
33 of the top 52 companies hail from APAC
To Gringotts
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery conjures up $110 million in less than a year
45 million wizards have downloaded the title worldwide
Birds Of Prey
Here’s how much money Rovio’s mobile games are making
Angry Birds 2 up 49 per cent in gross bookings