Data digest: Flow gets $46m, Spill lands $10.5m, Scopely Explore tops US growth charts, more

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Tencent has led a $46m funding round for Istanbul-based Flow Games, reports pocketgamer.biz. Tencent represents roughly three quarters of the total funding, the report says.

Flow Games’ Smash Fest downloads rose from just over 2m in June to 10.2m in July, up 343% month-on-month, according to AppMagic estimates. Estimated player spending climbed from $692k to $3.4m over the same period, and lifetime spend is now almost $8.9m, with about $8.3m of that on iOS.

Tencent has backed Turkish studios before, leading a $25m Series A for Circle Games, while its subsidiary Miniclip bought Masomo in 2019.

‘AI-native’ puzzle studio Spill Games has raised $10.5m in a funding round led by Elevation Capital. Bengalaru-based Spill was formed by former PlaySimple and Zynga execs Om Misra, Harsh Garg and Tapan Ranjan.

The studio says it is building an AI production pipeline that can scan the market for mechanics picking up traction and create and release hit games based on those findings, allowing one product manager to oversee several titles at once.

Aream & Co’s Q3 video game market update, which uses Sensor Tower estimates, puts global mobile game consumer spend at $19.6bn for the quarter, down 7% year-on-year. Over the last 12 months, spend fell 2% as installs dropped 10%.

The figures cover gross in-app purchase revenue on iOS and Google Play (iOS only in China), including platform fees, but excluding web shops.

In the US publisher revenue growth charts, the report lists Niantic, now known as Scoeply Explore, added an estimated $66m over the second quarter, ahead of Roblox at $55m.

Among the 10 biggest publisher countries by gross IAP revenue over the last 12 months, only Türkiye (up 17% to $4.6bn), Singapore (up 10% to $5.5bn) and Hong Kong (up 7% to $2.7bn) grew, while US-based publishers fell 13% to $10.2bn.

Roblox recorded the biggest revenue gain among mobile games on iOS and Google Play in September, adding $55.9m or 98% month-on-month, according to Sensor Tower estimates.

Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle and Korean hit Zeus: The God of Arrogance, which launched on August 26, were next on the revenue growth chart.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang led on daily active users, adding 3.8m (up 6.9%). On downloads, Bus Fever added 12m, up 333%, the biggest jump of the month, followed by Tencent’s auto-chess spin-off Honor of Kings Chess, which launched in China in mid-September.

Honor of Kings remained the highest-grossing mobile game worldwide in September, ahead of Roblox, Gossip Harbor, Candy Crush Saga and Monopoly Go.

Consumer spending in September across the App Store and Google Play, excluding third-party Android stores, came to $6.13bn, down 7% month-on-month. The US accounted for 28.7% of the total, followed by China (iOS only) at 15.7% and Japan at 12.4%.

On downloads, Roblox topped the chart ahead of Free Fire, with global mobile game installs reaching 3.56bn, down 5.2% month-on-month.

Gardens Interactive, a studio from developers behind Journey and Sky: Children of the Light, has secured $35m+ to fund the launch of its debut game, an unrevealed social roleplaying “strandbox” title.

Lightspeed led the round, backed by investors including Nintendo’s family office Yamauchi No.10 and Zenith Capital. The studio said further closings are being finalised and it expects the full round to close by the end of the month.

Honor of Kings tops Aream & Co’s list of the top-grossing mobile games over the last 12 months with $2bn in gross revenue, ahead of Last War: Survival on $1.9bn, Whiteout Survival and Royal Match on $1.8bn each and Monopoly Go on $1.7bn, according to Sensor Tower estimates.

Kingshot on $1.4bn, Delta Force on $800m and Royal Kingdom on $700m are the only titles on the list under two years old. 13 of the 20 are more than four years old and top title Honor of Kings launched in 2015. No 2026 launches have broken into the chart, according to the report.

Marketing agency Admiral Media ran its ASO Checker on the top 50 free apps in 20 US App Store categories, covering 1,000 listings, with data collected on September 29.

Among the 50 top-charting games, 52% run an In-App Event and 28% have an app preview video, more than twice the rate of other categories. But their titles use a median of 16 of the 30 available characters, against 24 in other categories, 42% repeat words between title and subtitle and 34% show fewer than six screenshots.

Across all apps, 24% run an In-App Event and 12.2% have a preview video. Admiral Media noted that top-chart apps are likely better resourced than the typical app, so the wider market probably scores lower.