Q1 2024 Digital Market Index: The Mobile Game Market Had its Best Quarter in Two Years

Following a year and a half of the global game market contracting, the industry appears to be righting the ship. According to Sensor Tower’s Digital Market Index report, mobile game spend broke the $20 billion barrier for the first time in two years with nearly 3% YoY growth. This was a continuation of the recent positive signs – Q1 2024 marks the third straight quarter of positive year-over-year growth following declines in the six previous quarters.

The outlook isn’t quite as positive for mobile game adoption. Global downloads declined 6.8% to 12.8 billion in Q1 2024. We’ve seen downloads continue to decline since the spike in demand early in the COVID-19 pandemic – this was the lowest Q1 total since 2020 though it was still well above the 9.6 billion downloads in Q1 2019 before the pandemic. It is also worth noting that the decline is mostly isolated to casual games. Genres including Strategy and RPG have mostly held steady in recent quarters, and Casino has maintained its gains from 2020.

Casino and Puzzle Provide Growth Opportunities as RPG Stalls

Consumer spend in RPGs declined in most major markets in Q1 2024, including falling 24% in Japan, 10% in the US, 9% in China Mainland, and 3% in South Korea. Consumers still spent more than $9 billion in RPGs in Q1 2024, and miHoYo had two RPGs among the top 10 games overall in the quarter (Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact). By contrast, consumer spend in Strategy games started to turn around in Q1 2024, climbing 7% YoY. MOBA Honor of Kings (王者荣耀) topped the genre as the #2 overall game by consumer spend in the quarter.

The massively successful launch of Scopely's MONOPOLY GO helped boost Casino genre's revenue by 34% YoY. MONOPOLY GO was the top mobile game by consumer spend in Q1 2024, demonstrating how the mass appeal of popular IP can be a difference maker on mobile.

A Few New Releases Challenged Established Titles in Q1

Many of the top games by quarter-over-quarter growth are familiar leaders on mobile, such as Honor of Kings (王者荣耀), MONOPOLY GO, and Whiteout Survival. However, there is still the opportunity for new titles to emerge even in such a competitive landscape. Love and Deepspace (恋与深空) was a notable new release with more than $83 million in gross revenue in Q1 2024, good enough to rank among the top 50 in the quarter. 

Call of Duty: Warzone was another much-anticipated release in Q1 2024. It ranked as the #4 game by download growth (and #23 overall) despite not launching globally until the last few weeks of the quarter.

Last War, a 4X Strategy game from FirstFun, was the top breakout game by consumer spend and also ranked among the top 10 breakout games by downloads. How did it achieve this rapid growth? Pathmatics Digital Advertising Insights reveals a significant advertising push on YouTube in January 2024, followed by increased investment on TikTok, Facebook, and Snapchat.

To keep track of the latest top performing games, look for our Gaming Recaps posted each month on Sensor Tower’s blog.

Want More Insights on the Digital Economy? Read the Full Report

Read the Q1 2024 Digital Market Index report highlighting the market leaders in mobile and digital advertising, spanning 21 markets in a dynamic, interactive format covering:

• Top Markets - strong growth in Japan as North America and Europe show growth opportunities for publishers

• Top Categories - Consumer spend increases in ALL top app categories with many seeing 30% growth

• Top Apps - TikTok still leads by global consumer spend, but falls in downloads

• Top Mobile Games - Monopoly GO! breaks records in Q1

• Digital Advertising - US digital ad spend up 16% YoY

• Retail Media Networks - Walmart and Target dominate Retail Media Networks by impressions