Data digest: Pokémon Go, Rust, Mihoyo and Bluey stats plus funding news, puzzle market analysis and 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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As Pokémon Go marks its tenth anniversary, Niantic has confirmed the augmented reality mobile hit has generated more than $1bn in 2025 alone and inspired over 800m players to catch over a trillion Pokémon, with players still averaging around 45 minutes of daily playtime.

Since its launch in July 2016, the game has rolled out across 150+ countries and regions, with Trainers exploring 100+ billion kilometres.

As we touched upon last week, AppMagic estimates Niantic has earned around $6.37bn in IAP revenue since launch, excluding webshop revenue. The data firm’s numbers also suggest around 39% of the game’s lifetime revenue has come from players in the US and 30% from Japan, with a big drop to the next-largest territory, Germany, at 5%. The UK, Canada, Taiwan and Australia are each at around 2-3% of lifetime earnings. More recently, Pokémon Go has been earning roughly $30m per month in IAP, but is likely to be earning much more through its webshop.

By downloads, the lifetime split shows the US at the top with 21%, followed by India (9%), Brazil (8%), Mexico (7%), and Indonesia, South Korea and Japan at 4-5%.

As part of last year’s $3.5bn deal, Scopely acquired all of Niantic’s game teams, including companion apps and services Campfire and Wayfarer. Those teams were recently rebranded as Scopely Explore.

Facepunch’s officially licensed mobile Rust game, Rust Mobile, has secured over 3m pre-registrations globally as it preps for its second beta test this August.

Genshin Impact creator Mihoyo is valued at approximately $30bn, making it one of the most valuable private companies in the world, according to The Hurun Research Institute research published by Niko Partners.

The Chinese developer as the world’s 25th most valuable private company in its latest global rankings.

The next highest-ranked game company was Lilith Games, the studio behind Rise of Kingdoms and AFK Arena, which ranked 256th with an estimated valuation of $4.4bn.

Istanbul studio Bold Games has secured $6m in investment, according to pocketgamer.biz.

The company plans to use the funds to scale both its team and its debut puzzle mobile game, Market Match.

According to new data from AppMagic, match 3, merge and blast games alone account for roughly 80% of the Puzzle market’s IAP revenue.

However, of the trio, merge is the only subgenre actually growing its market share. “Match 3 and blast have been losing ground, and the old puzzle trio, as a whole, has been in steady decline over the past three years,” the analyst firm said.

Match 3, merge and blast together accounted for over 75% of puzzle install volume a decade ago, yet today that number has dropped below 25%.

Bluey: Let’s Play! has passed 75m downloads, says Budge Studios. According to AppMagic’s estimates, lifetime IAP earnings are around $53m, 69% of which was generated in the US.

Applications are now open for Supercell’s inaugural Developer Grants Program. It’s looking to support “exceptional game development studios” across Africa with equity-free grants of $20,000–$200,000 to help them reach their next stage of growth. Apply here.

A new report from Newzoo claims the global games market generated $201.6bn in 2025. That’s up 9.1% on 2024 and crossing $200bn for the very first time.

Mobile revenues specifically were up 10.7% YoY, hitting $113.3bn “even as global download volumes declined”, says the report. The market is “growing through deepening monetisation rather than expanding reach,” it added.

“The cost per install rose 30% YoY in 2025 to $0.56 globally, and the paid-to-organic install ratio increased 61%, according to Adjust, signalling that organic discovery continues to erode.”

While free-to-play mobile models provide “near-term insulation” from the hike in memory prices, the report suggests there’s a “structural risk” given that affordable hardware often bolsters new player acquisition, and OEM price increases across major Android manufacturers have already raised device costs into 2026.

According to Sensor Tower numbers published by The Game Business, mobile game revenue was up 2% month-on-month in May, generating $4.5bn, a 4.6% year-over-year drop. Downloads were also down 11% year-over-year, but up 5% from April.

The big winner in terms of downloads in May was Arrows Puzzle Escape, with 29.7m downloads, 24% of which were in India. Honor of Kings secured its second consecutive month at the top of the revenue charts, earning an estimated $135m from IAPs.

CrazyLabs’ Acrylic Nails has topped 200m downloads since its 2020 debut. According to AppMagic data, it’s most popular in India, but also does well in the US and Brazil.