Sensor Tower’s iOS Gaming Leaders for November 2015

The best stories have a twist, and November's iOS Gaming Leaders charts reveal a surprise champion of U.S. and global gaming app downloads. Keep reading to learn its identity and see the rest of last month's top games by download & revenue estimates, as well as fastest growth, as informed by our industry-leading Store Intelligence platform.

Top Downloads: Millions Flocked to Ketchapp's Spin on the Endless Runner

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Perhaps best known for the puzzle title 2048, Ketchapp rocketed to the top of the U.S. and worldwide download charts for November with its latest release, Twist, which unseated October's most downloaded game domestically, Smashy Road: Wanted, and booted Electronic Arts' Need for Speed No Limits from the top downloaded spot internationally. In fact, the frantic arcade-style "how far can you get" game clocked nearly twice as many downloads as the Smashy Road sequel in the U.S., which placed second overall, and 50 percent more downloads than the second-most-downloaded game worldwide, King.com's latest offering Blossom Blast Saga.

Speaking of fresh releases, four out of the top 10 most downloaded games on the U.S. App Store for November were new titles last month. The aforementioned King creation, which soft-launched in October, was joined by Twist, Disney's Descendants, and the second title from Machine Zone, Mobile Strike. Yes, two of mobile gaming's dominant forces—King and Machine Zone—both launched new titles globally last month, but neither could compete with Twist in terms of sheer downloads.

Twist was the only November release on the worldwide most downloaded chart, but the international rankings did see several titles make substantial gains in rank. Blossom Blast Saga rose more than 1,000 spots over October, for example, while Vainglory and Mobile Strike saw low- to high-triple-digit ranking increases.

Several titles dropped out of the top 10 from October, most notably The Walking Dead: No Man's Land from Next Games Oy and Minions Paradise from Electronic Arts, both of which had ranked in the top five most-downloaded games in the U.S. and top 10 globally, and had made their debuts on the charts last month.

Top Revenue: The War for First Place Continues

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Movement up and down the revenue charts was far more subdued when compared to downloads. For another month, Game of War and Clash of Clans sat atop both the U.S. and worldwide revenue charts, with the former maintaining its position over the latter for a second month internationally.

It's worth noting that Machine Zone's title saw a month-over-month increase in revenue both domestically and globally, as it had the month before, while Supercell's popular tower defense game witnessed negative month-over-month growth for the second time since we began producing these charts.

No new titles made it onto either the U.S. or worldwide top revenue charts in November and, as we mentioned above, there was little leapfrogging. EA's Madden NFL Mobile did out-earn Supercell's Boom Beach domestically, swapping spots at No. 7 and No. 8, respectively. As you can see in the U.S. chart above, half of the November top 10 grew in month-over-month revenue, while the other five saw their month-over-month earnings decline compared to October. This 50/50 split of gains versus losses was echoed on the worldwide revenue top 10.

Fastest Growing by Downloads: An Ubisoft Classic Outpaces a Pack of Indies

A first-ever free period lasting nearly two weeks helped Rayman Fiesta Run skyrocket to the top of the fatest-growing games on the U.S. App Store (it was previously $2.99). The other big-studio title on this chart, Amazon's To-Fu Fury, also saw an impressive growth spurt following going free for the first time for several days at the end of November.

Join Us Next Month

We're working to make our iOS gaming charts as interesting and useful as possible, but there's always room for improvement. What did you like? How would you improve them? Let us know your thoughts by tweeting @SensorTower or emailing randy@sensortower.com.