Most mobile game categories see revenue decline in the US in H1 2022

New data from Sensor Tower shows that almost all mobile game categories saw a sharp decline in revenue and downloads in the United States during the first half of 2022, as the gaming industry faces challenges led by various factors including the rising inflation, Apple’s IDFA deprecation and the declining number of gamers which previously spiked during the beginning of the pandemic. 

According to the report, the US mobile game revenue dropped 9.6% year-over-year to $11.4 billion and their downloads fell 2.5% to 2.4 billion in H1 2022. 

Arcade was the fastest-growing category of the first half with user spending rising up 14.8% to nearly $176 million. The growth was largely driven by its ‘Idle’ subgenre which generated approximately $88 million with a 35.3% Y/Y increase. Clawee was the No.1 title of the genre generating $16.5 million in the US during H1, followed by Gold & Goblins and Idle Mafia at No.2 and No.3 respectively. 

The Tabletop genre also saw a 0.9% rise in revenue which hit nearly $388.8 million in the first half. However, all the other game categories except Arcade and Tabletop suffered a revenue decline, with Racing experiencing the sharpest loss at 28.8%.

Meanwhile, although the Puzzle genre saw a 10% yearly decline, it was the No.1 revenue driver of the first half, generating $2.3 billion in total. It was followed by Casino ($2.2 billion) at No.2 and Strategy ($2 billion) at No.3. 

In terms of downloads, Action was the only category that saw a rise in H1 2022, generating 66 million installs, up 5.4% year-over-year. The growth was driven by the Action Sandbox subcategory, which generated 15.7 million installs, up 2.3% Y/Y. The No.1 title of the category was Genshin Impact from MiHoYo, which hit 2.3 million downloads in the first half. It was followed by Galaxy Attack: Space Shooter and Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter at No.2 and No.3 respectively. 

Except for the Arcade and Sports genres, all the other game genres saw decline in app downloads during H1, with Simulation experiencing the slowest one at 1.8% and Casino seeing the sharpest one at 17.8%. 

Meanwhile, Hypercasual genre drove the most downloads in the first half, picking up nearly 718.2 million installs, down 13.7% year-over-year. It was followed by the Puzzle and Arcade genres respectively.