This Week in Apps - Chicken Jockey

This Week in Apps is a short, no-fluff, round-up of interesting things that happened in the mobile industry. Here are our top highlights.

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U.S. Revenue Index (vs. 30 days ago)

Insights

1. The Minecraft Movie Jolts Mobile Revenue, but It's Just Not Enough

Minecraft is and has been the top-paid game in the US on both the App Store and Google Play for several years now. This is despite the need to fork over $6.99 before you can even see the game on your phone. That's not very common these days.

The Minecraft Movie came out a couple of weeks ago and I was very curious to see if the movie would drive more revenue for the game considering its antiquated paid-upfront monetization and relatively young audience.

What do you think?

Of course it did! All publicity is good publicity, and a movie is good publicity.

According to Appfigures Intelligence, players spent $6M on Minecraft's mobile games across the App Store and Google Play since the movie came out on April 4th.

That's roughly twice as much as the game saw in the same number of days in February. Great, right?

Unlike most games and games, Minecraft's revenue is pretty even between the App Store and Google Play, which is a testamant to its strong brand. In fact, Minecraft generated more revenue from Google Play in the US than the App Store, which isn't common at all.

But while this looks great for Mojang, which is owned by Microsoft, if you know games, you know Minecraft is a very underutilized property. By that I mean to say that it could be generating more revenue than it is right now. A lot more.

See, Minecraft is a paid download, a relic we don't see often. At $6.99, Minecraft practically shot itself in both feet and knees and only then entered the race.

All successful games today are free to download and utilize in-app purchases. Some charge for power-ups, or to unlock levels, others for cosmetic improvements, but they don't charge to download.

In a recent interview, Mojang said the single purchase strategy's purpose is to make the game accessible to as many people as possible. But that's really doing the opposite.

Look at this comparison:

I rounded up the top-grossing games in the US and compared their downloads to Minecraft, which isn't on the list.

When it comes to downloads, what Mojang is trying to get the most of with their "simple" pricing, Minecraft trails every game in the five that I selected even though its brand is as strong (if not stronger), especially after the movie.

According to our App intelligence, Minecraft has welcomed 4.5M new downloads so far this year to rank 5 out of 5. Moving up, Coin Master, in 4th place, saw 9M new downloads, Monopoly Go 10.5M, Royal Match 20M, and the winner, Candy Crush, 24M new downloads in the same period. More than five times the downloads of Minecraft.

If you think that's bad news, wait until you see the revenue comparison:

We estimate Minecraft grossed $32M so far this year, which includes the extra revenue after the movie's release, and it's again, last on the list.

4th place Coin Master saw $248M in consumer spending in the same period, Candy Crush $328M, Royal Match $494M, and Monopoly Go saw more than a half billion in consumer spending, according to our estimates. I'm going to skip the calculation and just say Minecraft is leaving a lot of money on the table by being a paid-to-download game.

Monetizing with in-app purchases isn't easy and could anger its user base. I get it. But there are ways to make it work.

2. Powered by TikTok Videos, China's Answer to Tariffs is Cutting the Middleman

Earlier this week, two shopping apps I haven't seen before jumped to the top of the charts and have kept their top spots.

DHgate and Taobao, two Chinese shopping apps, went on TikTok over the weekend to tell the world that the expensive branded goods most think come from Europe are really made in China, and that anyone can buy the unbranded (maybe knockoff) versions right from them and save a lot of money in the process.

And those videos went viral!

We estimate that between Sunday and Tuesday, Taobao saw 756K new downloads and DHgate saw a whopping 1M new downloads from the App Store and Google Play globally.

For Taobao, that's an increase of roughly 150% as it was already averaging around 100K downloads per day, according to our App Intelligence. For DHgate, the one that started it all, things are a bit different.

DHgate's downloads rose a ridiculous 1,583% since the video went viral, catapulting it from around 20K downloads per day to more than 540K downloads on Tuesday. That's the most downloads DHgate saw in a single day ever.

It's worth noting that in both cases, downloads from the App Store and Google were fairly balanced.

TikTok's ability to send apps to the top of the charts is still strong!

What I find interesting is that Taobao isn't even in English, making it less likely to actually be used by the hundreds of thousands who downloaded it this week. This feels a lot like the short-lived popularity of Rednote back in January, when TikTok was banned.

I'm sure there's a political angle to all of this, which isn't for this newsletter but instead is a good reminder to be ready when the opportunity for your app comes along.

3. (Almost) Everyone's a Winner! The Highest-Earning Mobile Games in March

March is officially behind us and that means it's time to crunch the numbers and rank the highest-earning mobile games. And this month I'm back at the typewriter after having Randy, our head of insights, take over the section while he's working on a big games report that's coming soon.

Buckle in because March was... interesting.

Whiteout Survival was the highest-earning game in the world in March. Not what I'd expect. According to Appfigures Intelligence, the game brought in $133M of net revenue, what the publisher gets to keep after Apple and Google take their fees, in March. Its biggest haul to date.

Royal Match came in second in March with $117M of net revenue from the App Store and Google Play (but mostly from the App Store), according to our estimates. It's worth noting that Royal Match was the top earner on Google Play in March.

Monopoly Go, which isn't a stranger to this list, came in third in March with $117M of net revenue.

If you're thinking "wait, someone's missing", you are correct. Honor of Kings has had control over the top of our ranks for a while, but in March it only made it as far as the fourth spot even though it was the highest-earner on the App Store. That's because the other three's combined revenue (Apple and Google) pushed them above. I didn't expect this.

However!

What I also didn't expect to see were four China-only titles ranking on the App Store's list. That's a first.

Together, we estimate that the top 10 highest-earning mobile games added $947M of net revenue to their bottom lines. That's a few points up from February which was already a strong month. As we head towards the summer, I expect this growth to continue.

4. Blasted! The Most Downloaded Mobile Games in March

Block Blast continued to be the most downloaded game in the App Store in March, but it didn't stop there. Block Blast was the most downloaded game in the world across both stores in March.

I crunched the numbers and ranked the most downloaded games in the world in March, and here are the winners:

Fueled by heavy investment in user acquisition and strong viral success on social media, Block Blast's 22M estimated downloads in March pushed incumbent Subway Surfers out of first place. But it wasn't too far.

According to our App intelligence, Subway Surfers came in second in March with 20M downloads, followed by Roblox with 19M, FPS Strike Ops with 14M, and Ludo King with 13M downloads.

With the exception of Roblox, every other app changed in March, which is great to see. The less static the ranks are, the more opportunities there are for games to take off, and that's good for gamers and for publishers.

Another small trend to point out is the rise of casual cooking games. Good Coffee, Great Coffee and Pizza Ready are two titles that have been on the rise in the last few months. I have to admit, I fell in love with the genre many years ago on the web, so it's great to see these games catch on mobile.

In March, the top 10 most downloaded games in the world made their way into 146M devices, marking a double-digit increase from February, but that's not hard because February is a short month. Overall, game downloads are healthy.

5. X's Mobile Revenue Rises for the Third Month in a Row

March was a good month for X's mobile revenue. Not just good but great. Actually, the best ever.

X ended 2024 with a bang, riding multiple discount campaigns that pushed many towards annual plans. That, however, made for a less fun January in terms of revenue growth.

It didn't.

But it was short lived because revenue rose a bunch in February and then again in March to give X its highest month of revenue ever. We estimate X ended March with $18.8M in net revenue - what Elon gets to keep after Apple and Google take their fees.

About 11% higher than February's total, 29% higher than January's haul, and a hefty 138% higher than January of 2024. Just to put things in context.

Elon is still the highest-earning account from subscriptions on the App Store.

I believe the increae is a result of the addition of Grok to the X family and its prominent placement within the platform combined with increased subscription prices going into effect.

Like every month before it, it's important to keep in mind that even though X's revenue is on a healthy trend, it's still miles behind competing platforms like Snapchat. According to Appfigures Intelligence, Snapchat earned $40M of net revenue in March, up almost 18% from February. So, there's more X needs to do to grow.

App Intelligence for Everyone!

The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.

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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.