2023's winners and losers, by the numbers

A week of Appmagic number-crunching shows Mihoyo, Scopely and Dream Games on the rise, while mobile OGs Supercell and Zynga fare less well.

Jan 05, 2024

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A full week of number-crunching in Appmagic produced four different angles on 2023 this week.

Like any data source, the numbers are estimates and guidance only – but you, the smart, creative mobilegamer.biz reader, already know that. Still, it was a really useful exercise in understanding the overall shape of the market, who’s growing, who’s holding steady and who’s suffering.

The biggest, most obvious winners were Mihoyo, Scopely and Dream Games, of course. Amid widespread revenue and download drops elsewhere, Honkai: Star Rail, Monopoly Go and Royal Match were big new breakthrough games in 2023, offering some cheer to counter the gloom.

A more low-key winner in 2023 was Playrix. Adding ~$180m to your IAP revenue without launching a major new title is not easy, and shows that sometimes optimising the hell out of what you have already is the way to go. Niantic, too, finally had a hit after several painful misses as Monster Hunter Now countered the gentle decline of Pokémon Go.

But let’s not gloss over 2023’s harsher realities; just having a flat year in terms of downloads or revenue was enough to rise through the rankings in almost every list; some major publishers saw year-on-year revenue drop by a third.

If feels harsh to pick on Supercell and Zynga here, but as the OG breakout mobile game-makers, they feel emblematic of the current market’s shifting sands.

Zynga held onto a top ten spot despite a year-on-year IAP revenue decline of $230m. And Supercell dropped out of the top ten earners for the first time in 2023, with an estimated $200m wiped off its annual earnings. (Fellow mobile OG King held pretty steady – an achievement in itself.)

Meanwhile, State of Survival maker FunPlus oversaw a year-on-year revenue drop by a similar amount. Oof.

On a more positive note, perhaps the death of hypercasual games has been overstated a little. While many publishers in that space saw installs drop in 2023, some of its bigger players had figured out a way to grow downloads, even if it is just by a little. Supersonic, SayGames, Zego Studio and Homa all managed that feat, in fact, and while actual ad revenue may be harder to come by, the complete wipeout of this category – anticipated by many – hasn’t quite materialised. Yet.

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All four meaty data-based views of 2023 are below, with concise commentary on the market’s ups and downs in each.