Mobile game spending up 19 per cent in H1 2018 - Sensor Tower
Tencent's Honor of Kings led mobile spending on Google Play and the App Store, PUBG Mobile led downloads
Mobile game revenue on the App Store and Google Play increased 19 per cent in the first half of 2018, according to data firm Sensor Tower, with App Store spending about $6 billion higher than on its Android counterpart.
Sensor Tower's estimates put global spending on mobile games across the App Store and Google Play at $26.6 billion in the first six months of 2018. That represents a 19.1 per cent increase year-on-year, and 78 per cent of all the money spent on apps on both stores.
The App Store was the most lucrative store with $16.3 billion of the total, a 15.1 per cent increase over the prior year. Spending on Google Play was $10.3 billion, up 26 per cent year-on-year.
It should be noted that Google Play is not available in China, where the App Store is in operation. Android apps are also widely sold in third-party stores, which is not the case with Apple's platform.
The three top-grossing mobile games across both stores were Tencent's Honor of Kings, Mixi's Monster Strike and Aniplex's Fate/Grand Order.
In terms of downloads, Google Play was by far the biggest contributor: a 10 per cent increase to 15 billion downloads, and 77 per cent of new game installs. The App Store had 4.5 billion downloads, up 14.1 per cent year-on-year.
The most downloaded games was Tencent's PUBG Mobile, followed by Voodoo's Jump and Kiloo's Subway Surfers.
Overall, App Store and Google Play users spent a total of $34.4 billion on app and games in the first half of 2018, a 27.8 per cent increase over the prior year.
