Data digest: Monopoly Go tops ad spend chart, Türkiye market stats, investments and more

Every Wednesday we break down the latest data, research and financial results into digestible chunks.

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Monopoly Go was the biggest advertiser among US mobile games in August, according to Sensor Tower estimates. Its $93.8m in US IAP revenue was also the highest of the 10.

Royal Match ranked seventh on ad spend but second on revenue with $64.8m, and was the only game in the top 10 with double digit download growth, up 13% month on month. Candy Crush Saga, a match 3 game, completed the top three for revenue with $53.0m.

Gossip Harbor and Kingshot ranked second and third on ad spend, but both lost more than 20% of their US downloads. Revenue was steadier, with four of the 10 growing, led by Tasty Travels at 7.2%. Pokémon Go saw the steepest drop, down 48% to $30.9m from a much stronger July.

Vita Mahjong was the outlier: tenth on ad spend and last on IAP revenue with $121k, but top for downloads with 1.40m. AppLovin was the top US network by impression share for Gossip Harbor, Royal Kingdom and Royal Match.

Mobile games made by Turkish developers brought in $2.76bn worldwide in 2025, up from $504m in 2020, according to a new report from Adjust.

That lifts Turkish studios’ share of the global mobile games market from 1% to 5%, while domestic player spending reached $347m.

Dream Games generated $1.7bn in 2025, and Royal Match and Royal Kingdom have earned more than $5.2bn combined since launch, says Adjust.

In the first half of 2026, mobile game sessions in Türkiye grew 6% year on year, with day 1 retention at 20%, day 7 at 6% and day 30 at 1%. Midcore games made up just 12% of installs but 51% of sessions, while hypercasual accounted for 53% of installs and 18% of sessions.

Honor of Kings has been top of Appfigures’ top grossing charts for a while now. The data firm estimates that Tencent’s MOBA earned $108m after store fees in August.

Gossip Harbor took second place with $105m, the most the game has earned in a single month. Whiteout Survival ($104m), Royal Match ($95m) and PUBG Mobile ($88m) completed the top five, while Candy Crush Saga ($85m) and Monopoly Go ($78m) followed. The top 10 combined earned an estimated $861m.

On downloads, Roblox held the top spot in the combined iOS and Android charts with an estimated 20m installs, ahead of Subway Surfers on 18m.

Grand Games’ Block Out (9m installs) led the iOS top download charts in August, with Smash Fest (6m) second and Bus Traffic Fever third (6m). On Android, Roblox (15m), Subway Surfers (14m) and Block Blast (11m) led the way.

Funfinity’s hybridcasual sort puzzle game Food Hunt: Pixel Puzzle has earned an estimated $9.7m in lifetime revenue, according to AppMagic.

It made $1m in IAP revenue last week, compared to $1.9m for rival Colony Flow, which added its own ants-themed twist to the Pixel Flow mechanic.

Food Hunt overtook Colony Flow on weekly installs, with 1.67m against 1.4m. It launched almost a month earlier and introduced the ant concept first, but grew more slowly.

AppMagic suggests marketing may have played a role: Colony Flow’s top ad creatives generated more than 4x the impressions of Food Hunt.

Firy, the group that also owns Skillz, says it has sold its $55m stake in Photon maker Exit Games. Photon is the multiplayer tech behind games like Stumble Guys and Steam hit Peak.

Exit Games bought back the 10.5% stake from Firy on October 2, having taken investment from the Las Vegas-based group back in 2021.

Turkish early-stage VC firm Joygrid has announced an undisclosed investment in Oddmar maker Mobge, which apparently values the studio at $10m. The actual fee was not disclosed.

Mobge’s platformer Oddmar won an Apple Design Award in 2018.