Data digest: mobile’s fastest-growing games, China stats, app submissions skyrocket, more

Every Wednesday, we break down the latest data, research and financial results into digestible chunks. Read on for the numbers you need to know about without the fluff.

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Microfun’s Gossip Harbor hit second place worldwide by revenue in August, a first for the merge title, according to Sensor Tower.

Honor of Kings kept the top spot, with Whiteout Survival, Royal Match and Candy Crush Saga rounding out the top five. Global consumer spend hit $6.57bn, down 1% month-on-month.

On the growth chart, Fate/Grand Order ranked top off its 11th anniversary, and Tencent-owned or published titles took five of the top 10 spots, led by Teamfight Tactics and Valorant.

Zeus: The God of Arrogance entered in tenth spot worldwide after topping the revenue charts in South Korea.

Worldwide downloads reached 3.76bn in August, says Sensor Tower, up 1% month-on-month.

Roblox and Free Fire held first and second overall, while Tencent’s Gangstar Mirage City topped the growth chart and climbed to seventh overall after its multi-region rollout last month. Gangster Miami RP also climbed amid rising anticipation for GTA 6 across the open-world crime genre.

Attn Economy’s analysis of August’s fastest-growing games says Gossip Harbor had its biggest month ever, hitting $111m in IAP revenue, with user base up 64% year-on-year and ARPDAU up 17%.

It also reports that merge match 2 games grew 84% year-on-year, with Gossip Harbor holding a 40% share of that market.

Asian publishers took 18 of the top 20 spots on the global breakout revenue chart as they expand beyond core games into midcore and casual titles and make inroads into Western markets. Voodoo’s eight-year-old Paper.io 2 also returned to the top five, bucking a wider slump in ad revenue among top performers.

China’s games market generated $51.8bn in 2025, up 5.4% year-on-year and past $50bn for the first time.

Niko Partners forecasts 4% growth in 2026 to $53.9bn, reaching $59.8bn by 2030, a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.9%. Average revenue per user (ARPU) hit $70 for the first time in 2025 and is projected to reach $77.68 by 2030, with the player base forecast to reach 769m.

Google Play and App Store app and game submissions have spiked dramatically in the last year or so, according to Mariusz Gąsiewski, CEE apps lead at Google.

Google Play submissions rose from 46,136 in March 2025 to 111,047 in July 2026, while App Store submissions grew from 46,889 to 117,648 over the same period, says figures from 42matters.

“Making apps and games is getting easier, growing them harder,” said Gąsiewski. “Do not be surprised when someone does not want to even to look at your game and app project without any metrics.”

Embracer Group has secured a new $206m revolving credit facility with a two-year term and an option to extend for two more years, consolidating several existing loans.

It will remain available for “general corporate purposes” until it’s replaced following the planned 2027 spin-off of Fellowship Entertainment.

As of 30 June 2026, Embracer had approximately $157m of current and non-current liabilities and $515m in cash.

Top App Games says its PvP strategy title Ludus generated $29m in gross turnover across H1 2026, with Q2 alone contributing $14.8m, up 5.2% on Q1.

July saw MAU of 765,684, 127,491 average DAU, 5.1% payer conversion and 31.6% M0 gross ROAS. Cumulative players have passed 12m, up from 11m in July.