Sensor Tower’s Mobile Gaming Leaders for May 2016

The indie hit Slither.io kept a firm grasp on its status as the top free game on the App Store and Google Play in the U.S. last month. In this report, find out which mobile games at least came closest to unseating the title from its tiny, worm (or is it snake?) sized throne, complete with download and growth estimates from Sensor Tower's Store Intelligence platform.

About This Data

The following charts were created using U.S. and worldwide daily download estimates generated by Sensor Tower's Store Intelligence platform for the period of May 1 through May 31, 2016. For Android downloads, only estimated installs from the Google Play Store were counted. Sensor Tower does not provide download estimates for third-party Android stores.

Most Downloaded iOS and Google Play Games

Click the charts above to view larger versions.

Steve Howse's undeniably successful Slither.io has racked up more than 20 million downloads in the U.S. across the App Store and Google Play as of this writing, amassing nearly nine million on both platforms last month combined. That was more than enough to keep the simplistic title, which sees players competing to grow the longest snake/worm and become world champion for the day, at the top of the combined platforms chart. The majority—nearly 70 percent—of the game's estimated downloads came from iOS users. It's spawned at least one successful play-alike in the form of Snakeio, which managed to slither its way into the top 10 last month on Apple's platform.

Ubisoft made a valiant effort at displacing the indie smash with its release of Hungry Shark World, the sequel to its hugely successful 2012 title Hungry Shark Evolution. However, despite a weeklong stay at the top of the App Store's free apps ranking—as seen in the App Intelligence chart below—it managed to pull in an estimated 4.28 million downloads on both platforms in the U.S., ranking No. 2 on the App Store, No. 4 on Google Play, and No. 2 overall.

Several other top 10 mainstays of the past several months continued to hold into their elite status, led by Fortafy Games' Color Switch. Released in December 2015, the title has consistently ranked in the top five for monthly estimated downloads on the App Store and Google Play U.S. charts in a testament to its simple yet challenging just-one-more-try gameplay and ideal fit for quick play sessions. Titles similarly optimized for play during idle times, such as Stack from Ketchapp and Subway Surfers from Kiloo, have also enjoyed similarly lengthy stints on all three of the above rankings.

We'd be remiss not to mention the success of The Blu Market's primary season tie-in, Trump's Wall - Built it Huuuge, which managed to leverage the likeness of this election cycle's champion of earned media into huge App Store success last month. The app received more than one million downloads in the U.S. but, unlike most of the other top five iOS titles for May, hasn't managed to maintain its momentum.

Join Us Next Month

We'll see if Slither.io can keep this up in 30 days. 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. Let us know what you think of these reports by tweeting @SensorTower or emailing randy@sensortower.com.