Top Mobile Games of Q2 2017: Revenue Grew 32% as Honor of Kings Surged

Worldwide mobile gaming revenue on the App Store and Google for the second quarter of 2017 topped $12.2 billion and grew 32 percent year-over-year, according to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates. Mobile games accounted for about 77 percent of all global revenue on Apple's App Store for the quarter and approximately 88 percent of spending on Google Play. Titles from Asia expanded their presence among the top-grossing apps, accounting for five of the top 10 earning mobile games and three of the top five. Read on for more mobile gaming highlights from the quarter.

Games Category Revenue Growth - Q2 2017

Quarterly gross revenue on Apple's App Store last quarter totaled approximately $7.7 billion, a 34 percent increase year-over-year from Q2 2016's estimated $5.7 billion. Spending on mobile games from Google's Play Store grew by about 28 percent, reaching $4.5 billion, up from $3.5 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Overall gross revenue from mobile games across both stores grew by about 2 percent quarter-over-quarter, up from an estimated $11.9 billion in Q1 2017.

Games Category Download Growth - Q2 2017

We estimate that mobile game downloads from the App Store and Google Play totaled approximately 9.2 billion worldwide last quarter. This represents a 19 percent year-over-year increase from 7.7 billion in the year-ago quarter.

New installs of mobile games from the Play store grew by about 25 percent year-over-year to approximately 7.2 billion, from an estimated 5.7 billion in Q2 2016. This was significantly more growth than displayed by the App Store, which saw new mobile game installs grow by about 2 percent yer-over-year to 2.1 billion from two billion in the year-ago quarter.

Top Mobile Games by Downloads and Revenue - Worldwide

As in Q1, Kiloo's Subway Surfers held the top spot among all mobile games worldwide in terms of new downloads, retaining its No. 1 ranking on Google Play as well. Also like Q1, Tencent's red-hot mobile MOBA title Honor of Kings ranked No. 1 for downloads on Apple's App Store, despite its still-limited presence outside of China.

Three of the top four most-downloaded games on the App Store were what could best be described as "viral" titles: Voodoo's Snake VS Block along with Ballz and Fidget Spinner from Ubisoft-owned Ketchapp. Strong interest on Google Play for Nintendo's Super Mario Run kept the prolific publisher's first mobile game among the top titles by worldwide downloads, where it ranked No. 4 despite being absent from the iOS top 10.

Unsurprisingly, Mixi's Monster Strike once again topped worldwide overall, App Store, and Google Play revenue. It was challenged on iOS by Honor of Kings, which saw both its App Store and overall revenue ranking grow substantially from Q1, to No. 2 on iOS and No. 3 among all mobile games, up from No. 3 and No. 7, respectively.

Q1 saw four mobile games from Asia make the top 10 for overall revenue, and that number grew to five in Q2. Asian-developed mobile games increased from two to three among the top five grossing titles over the same period.

Top Mobile Games by Downloads and Revenue - United States

Domestically, Ketchapp delivered another hit in terms of overall and App Store downloads with the aforementioned Ballz. On Google Play, Super Mario Run topped the download chart.

Two Q2 launches placed especially well on the download charts: CATS: Crash Arena Turbo Stars from ZeptoLab and Jam City's puzzle title Family Guy: Another Freakin' Mobile Game.

Looking at U.S. revenue, we saw many familiar top apps from previous quarters rank in the top 10, with some notable shuffling, including Supercell's Clash of Clans advancing a rank to No. 2 overall in the wake of its "sequel-sized" Builder Base update in May. Also of note was Bandai Namco's ascent into the top 10 with Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle, a title that has continued to monetize progressively better quarter-over-quarter.

We'll have more analysis of U.S. and worldwide mobile games and publishers in our Q2 2017 Store Intelligence Data Digest, releasing next week. Be sure to follow our blog and social media for the latest updates.