Sensor Tower’s iOS Gaming Leaders for February 2016

Sensor Tower's Store Intelligence reveals that last month's global App Store games category downloads followed their year-over-year trend of declining from January to February, decreasing to 636 million from a total of 688 million, a change of 7.5 percent. In the U.S., downloads declined by 15 percent, from 186 million to 158 million, but were up 9.7 percent year-over-year.

Keep reading to learn which iOS gaming titles earned the largest share of those downloads, along with the top performers in U.S. revenue.

Top Downloads: Indie Smash 'Color Switch' Extends Its Reign Worldwide

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Fortafy Games' simple-yet-addictive indie title Color Switch held onto its No. 1 rank in the U.S. from January and shot to the top of the worldwide download charts by the end of February, as word of mouth and press coverage of the unlikely hit—created in just two weeks—continued to spread. As of this writing, the game has dropped out of the top spot, but in the U.S. it managed to stay in the No. 1 position for all categories on iPhone for 23 straight days during January and February.

Color Switch's closest competition in the U.S. during February came from newcomers Stack and Kendall & Kylie. The former app is from French hit-factory Ketchapp, and is the publisher's latest title to rank at or near the top of the U.S. and worldwide all categories charts, following the likes of Twist and 2048.

The latter is Glu Mobile's latest celebri-game and builds on the success of the publisher's runaway hit Kim Kardashian: Hollywood which, to date, has brought in more than $100 million in revenue for the company. Kendall & Kylie, which lets players create an avatar and interact with Kardashian's famous siblings, got off to an even better start than her game at its global launch, seeing 112 percent more downloads in its first five days:

Stack and Kendall & Kylie were also hits worldwide, ranking No. 3 and No. 4 on that chart, respectively. Fellow newcomer Marvel Avengers Academy was also a standout on both charts, ranking No. 7 for U.S. downloads and No. 10 worldwide.

Candy Crush Jelly Saga, the latest puzzle game offering from King, remained in both the U.S. and worldwide downloads top 10s, but slipped three positions on both faced with download surges from not just the previously mentioned titles in the U.S., but indie titles Rolling Sky and Merged! as well.

Top Revenue: Mobile Strike Continues to Climb the Chart

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As usual, there wasn't as much movement on the U.S. revenue chart last month as compared to downloads, but there was a definite standout in the form of Machine Zone / Epic War's Mobile Strike, which has continued to ascended the ranking month after month.

The hardcore military strategy title rose two positions in the U.S., giving Machine Zone two titles on the list—Game of War, of course, being the other—compared to Supercell's one in Clash of Clans, but that could change next month with the huge March launch of the Finnish publisher's latest title, Clash Royale.

Note: The revenue estimates displayed on our charts are net amounts, i.e., the amount paid to publishers by Apple after its 30 percent portion of their revenue has been deducted.

Join Us Next Month

We'll be back to check in on Clash Royale and the rest of the titles we discussed above this time next month. In the meantime, if you're an iOS or Android developer and want to see your own app's ranking history, you can do so in our App Intelligence product. Until next time, let us know what you think of these reports by tweeting @SensorTower or emailing randy@sensortower.com.