2024 South Korean Mobile Gaming Market Insights

The South Korean mobile game market maintained its dynamism in 2024, characterized by numerous breakthrough titles. First three quarters delivered 350 million downloads and $3.7 billion in revenue, fueling significant growth in strategy, puzzle, and action game segments.

This comprehensive report explores recent trends in South Korean mobile gaming, examining download and revenue patterns across game categories, analyzing top-performing titles and publishers, and presenting a detailed case study of the breakthrough success of Lucky Defense. For more insights, please click the button below to view the full report for free.

Methodological Note: All download and revenue figures represent estimated values from the App Store and Google Play. Download calculations exclude pre-downloads and repeat installations. Revenue data reflects user transactions through official app stores. Third-party Android market data are not included. Google Play remains unavailable in mainland China.

Q3 2024 Marks Rebound for South Korean Mobile Games: Downloads Up 17%, Revenue Grows 3% QoQ

The South Korean mobile game market demonstrated steady expansion in 2024. Q3 downloads climbed 17% quarter-over-quarter, approaching 130 million, with cumulative downloads reaching 350 million. Revenue-wise, Q3 saw a slight 3% increase in IAPs, nearing $1.24 billion. Total revenue for the first three quarters reached $3.7 billion, with Google Play generating 75% of the total.

Strategy Mobile Games See 69% Revenue Surge, RPGs Claim 52% Market Share

RPGs, exemplified by titles like Lineage M, continue to dominate the South Korean mobile gaming market. From January to October 2024, RPGs generated a staggering $2.1 billion in revenue, accounting for 52% of the total South Korean mobile game market.

Strategy games witnessed exceptional growth in South Korea during 2024, with revenues soaring 69% year-over-year to $840 million. This impressive performance can be attributed to games such as Last War: Survival, Whiteout Survival, Brawl Stars, and Lucky Defense. These titles successfully blended strategic and casual gameplay elements with innovative monetisation strategies, attracting a broad player base and driving substantial growth.

Puzzle games, including popular titles like Block Blast! and Royal Match, maintained their position as the most downloaded category in the South Korean market. Between January and October 2024, puzzle game downloads rose 7% year-over-year to 88 million, representing 23% of all mobile game downloads.

New Entrants Shake Up South Korea’s Mobile Gaming Charts

South Korea’s mobile gaming market demonstrated remarkable dynamism in 2024, with 17 new titles breaking into the Top 100 revenue rankings and 45 securing spots in the Top 100 downloads charts.

Local publisher Netmarble Games made a significant impact, with three new releases—Solo Leveling: Arise, RAVEN 2, and Arthdal Chronicles: Three Forces—all securing positions in the Top 10 revenue rankings for new games.

Solo Leveling: Arise, an action game based on the popular anime IP, launched globally in early May 2024 to immediate success. On its debut day, it topped combined App Store and Google Play downloads charts across major markets including South Korea, the United States, and Japan. By late October, the game had generated over $45 million in revenue in South Korea alone, becoming the period’s highest-grossing new release and leading the action game revenue rankings. Within six months, it amassed $140 million globally, with 68% of revenue coming from international markets.

Smilegate’s MMORPG Lord Nine, launched in July 2024, quickly dominated South Korea’s iOS gaming revenue chart. Its July revenue surpassed established titles like Lineage 2M and Lineage W. From January to October 2024, Lord Nine ranked second among new releases in South Korea with $43 million in revenue, also claiming the title of highest-grossing new RPG in the country.

Two games stood out in terms of overall performance: Last War: Survival and Legend of Mushroom. These titles ranked second and third in revenue and claimed top two in downloads, respectively, from January to October.

FirstFun’s Last War: Survival, a post-apocalyptic 4X strategy game launched in August 2023, saw exponential growth in 2024. South Korea emerged as a key market, with the game’s revenue increasing 33-fold year-over-year to $250 million, accounting for 21.4% of its global revenue.

Joy Net Games’ idle RPG Legend of Mushroom successfully penetrated the South Korean market, generating $140 million in revenue, representing 31% of its global revenue.

South Korean Publishers Lead in Global Mobile Gaming Exports

Netmarble Games and Supercent have established themselves as leaders in international markets. From January to October 2024, six Netmarble Games titles ranked in the top ten for overseas revenue among South Korean mobile games. Five of these—including card games Jackpot World™, Lotsa Slots, Cash Frenzy™, and action IP games Marvel Contest of Champions and Solo Leveling: Arise—each generated over $100 million in overseas revenue.

Supercent focused on the overseas casual gaming market, accumulating over 400 million global downloads from January to October 2024, with 99% from international markets. Six Supercent games ranked in the top ten for downloads, with Pizza Ready!, Snake Clash!, and Outlets Rush leading the pack.

Pizza Ready!, a pizza shop management simulation combining hypercasual and simulation gameplay, amassed nearly 180 million downloads. It ranked second in global simulation games downloads from January to October 2024, with India, its largest market, contributing 22% of total downloads.

111%’s Lucky Defense Secures Second Place in Global Tower Defense Mobile Game Revenue for July

In late May, South Korean publisher 111% launched Lucky Defense, an innovative tower defense mobile game. The game features a unique cooperative two-player strategy, incorporating elements such as randomized summoning, merge, and hero recruitment. This blend of accessibility and challenge catapulted Lucky Defense to the top of South Korea’s mobile games downloads charts in June.

Within five months of its release, by October 2024, the game had achieved impressive metrics, including nearly 4.6 million downloads and $47 million in IAPs. South Korea as the primary market, accounting for 68% of downloads and 82% of revenue.

The success of Lucky Defense drove substantial growth for 111%, including 308% quarter-over-quarter revenue increase in Q2 2024 and 166% quarter-over-quarter revenue increase in Q3 2024, reaching $32 million.

July 2024 marked another milestone, with Lucky Defense experiencing a 28% revenue surge to over $11 million. This performance secured its position as the second-highest grossing tower defense mobile game globally, behind only Zombies Boom by SPGame. As a result, 111% climbed to second place among tower defense mobile game publishers by revenue.