Mobile gaming market soars with over 30 billion installs in H1 2024

A newly released report by Apptica reveals that the mobile gaming market generated over 30 billion installs in the first half of 2024, marking a 5.8% increase compared to the latter half of 2023. India led the charge with a 6.6% growth in installs, followed by Brazil at 4.9% and the USA at 2.3%. All top 15 geographic regions (GEOs) reported growth, with Pakistan experiencing the highest increase at 9.8%, closely followed by Indonesia and China, both at 8.9%.

India emerged as the leader in game downloads, with a staggering 712.1 million downloads in the Action category (14.4% of total), 654.6 million in Casual (16.2%), and 588.3 million in Simulation (13.9%). Brazil and Indonesia secured the second and third spots in terms of downloads. India also dominated the Card category, holding a significant 25.5% share of downloads.

In terms of revenue, the mobile gaming market saw a positive trend, amassing over $24 billion, reflecting a 2.8% increase from the second half of 2023. Despite this growth, some top GEOs, including China and Japan, faced declines in revenue by 6% and 3.5%, respectively. The top three countries—the USA, China, and Japan—accounted for 58% of the total revenue. Meanwhile, Malaysia (17.5%), Singapore (18%), and France (9.3%) showed the largest revenue growth margins.

iOS remained the top-grossing platform, while Google Play led in the number of installs across all sub-genres. Core games remained more profitable on both platforms but saw a 2.6% drop in revenue from Apple users. Conversely, Casual games exhibited growth in both revenue and installs on the App Store and Google Play. Hypercasual games experienced a decline in downloads (14% on iOS and 3% on Android) but maintained stable revenue levels. Hybridcasual games significantly outperformed Hypercasual titles in revenue, nearly five times on iOS and 6.5 times on Android.

In the broader mobile app market, downloads increased across all listed countries in the first half of 2024, with Argentina (7.5%) and Indonesia (8.5%) showing notable growth. Revenue also rose in most regions, particularly in Europe, where France and Italy saw significant increases of 10.5% and 13.7%, respectively. However, China and Japan experienced slight revenue declines of 1.1% and 1%. India led in downloads with 19.17 billion, followed by Brazil with 12.43 billion. The top markets for revenue were the United States at $14.87 billion and China at $8.41 billion. Overall, the market exhibited positive dynamics, with a 9% increase in downloads and a 4.5% increase in revenue, generating over 110 billion downloads and $50 billion in revenue.

In the applications market, the top-grossing countries were the USA, Japan, and the United Kingdom. All regions demonstrated positive growth, with the UK showing a significant increase of 13.5%. The market’s overall upward trend was evident, with total revenue exceeding $4.2 billion, reflecting a 7.3% increase.

Android apps displayed higher Day 1 retention rates across various categories compared to iOS apps, with Comics leading at 36.75% on Android and Social Networking at 25.4% on iOS. By Day 30, retention rates dropped significantly on both platforms, but Android retained slightly more users in categories like Comics (13.64%) compared to iOS’s top category, News (10.71%).