Data digest: Türkiye, US, Asia and MENA market stats, Pokémon Go, UA funding 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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While mobile gaming revenue remains flat worldwide, Türkiye’s mobile game market recorded its best year to date in 2025, Appmagic reports.

A new report says the Turkish market saw IAP revenue increase by 6% YoY to reach $374m. That marked a third consecutive YoY rise in revenue.

In contrast, downloads fell for the third year running. They declined 4% compared to 2024, bringing the total volume down to 1.8bn.

Puzzle led the way in genre revenue growth with a 26.1% YoY increase to $51.7m in 2025. Casino titles saw revenue rise 6.6% YoY to $54.1m, while the strategy genre recorded a 9.2% YoY increase to $94m.

On the download front, the only genres to record YoY increases were shooter (+0.2% to 83.1m), adventure (+10.8% to 27.2m), party games (+5.6% to 32m) and game collections (+92.8% to 20.1m).

PUBG Mobile was both Türkiye’s most downloaded game of 2025 (+1.2% YoY to 7.6m) and its top grossing mobile title of the year (+2.1% YoY to $17.3m).

Worldwide IAP revenue from Turkish developers’ games grew 25.5% YoY to reach $2.76bn in 2025, according to the report. Downloads were up 0.45% YoY to around 2bn.

Puzzle games generated the vast majority of this revenue, accounting for 96.9% of the total. Strategy ranked second by revenue share with 0.9%, while shooter came in third place with 0.4%.

Royal Match was both the most downloaded (-29% YoY to 82.4m) game and the top grossing (-2.5% YoY to $1.4bn) title from a Turkish developer last year.

Among Turkish studios, Rollic Games achieved the most downloads (+39.4% to 172.2m) in 2025, while Dream Games was the top earner (+14.9% to $1.7bn).

Scopely has said that the last Pokémon Go fest in Chicago broke attendance records with over 103,605 total tickets sold, a record for a Pokémon Go live event in North America.

There were more than 717,000 unique active players in the city of Chicago from June 5-7, the company said, with players flocking to take part in exclusive gameplay, live event experiences and more.

The Serbian publisher behind casual games including Nonogram Crossing Logic Puzzle, Marble Shooter: Viola’s Quest and Marble Woka Woka has secured $20m in UA funding from PvX Partners.

Two Desperados said in a press release that it is the “largest independent mobile gaming studio in Southeastern Europe”, and will use the capital to scale its player base and expand its growing portfolio of casual titles globally.

Two thirds (67%) of Americans aged 5-90 play video games for at least one hour per week, according to research published by trade body the Entertainment Software Association.

There are 212.3m players in total, which is up 7.2m (3%) compared to the previous year’s data. 53% of players are men and 46% are women. 21% of players are under 18, 29% are aged 18-34, 20% are aged 35-49, and 29% are aged 50+.

The ESA found that 83% of US households had played at least one video game device in the past 12 months. 73% of households had played on mobile, 52% on PC, 44% on console, and 10% on a VR device.

Mobile was the most played platform across all age groups. Among total players, mobile games were played by 81% of those aged 5-13, by 80% of those aged 14-29, by 75% of those aged 30-45, by 84% of those aged 45-61, and by 84% of those aged 62-90.

31% of total players aged 8+ played solely on mobile. 13% played on both mobile and PC, 15% played on both mobile and console, and 21% played on all three platforms.

Puzzle, arcade and action games were the most regularly played genres in the past year. Among total players aged 8+, 59% played puzzle games, 46% played arcade titles, and 43% played action games.

Annual spending on video game content in the US grew 1% YoY to reach $52.3bn in 2025. The top-grossing mobile games last year were Monopoly Go, Royal Match and Last War: Survival.

Revenue generated from game software and services in the Asia and MENA games market is on track to reach $103.6bn in 2030, according to a new report from Niko Partners. That’s up from $88.9bn in 2025 and $91.8bn forecast for 2026.

China, Japan and South Korea are expected to generate $91.7bn in player spending in 2030, representing 88.6% of total revenue across the 13 countries the research firm tracks in the market.

In 2030, player spending is forecast to reach $3bn in MENA-3 (Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE) and $1.5bn in Indonesia, while Thailand is on track to reach $2bn in 2026.

India, which is the fastest-growing tracked country, is forecast to become an almost $2bn market by 2030. Player spending on mobile games alone is expected to top $1bn in India in 2027.

Niko also reports that mini games – titles which can be played instantly, without download, typically within social media platforms – now account for almost 20% of total player spending on mobile games in China.

There were 1.7bn gamers in Asia and MENA in 2025, with India surpassing 500m players, according to the report.

That figure is forecast to grow to 2bn by 2030. The markets expected to see the biggest growth in players over the coming years are India, Indonesia and Vietnam. By 2030, Indonesia is expected to hit 144m players, and Vietnam to reach 68m.

The App Store ecosystem drove $1.437tn in developer billings and sales in 2025, according to an Apple-commissioned report from economics consulting firm Analysis Group.

Physical goods and services accounted for $1.1tn (≈79%) of the total, and digital goods and services for $149bn (≈10%). Within the latter category, the largest contributing types of apps were games, enterprise apps and video streaming apps.

In-app ad revenue from ads placed by developers in their iOS apps also totalled $151bn worldwide in 2025, with around $31bn tied to games.

The report says Apple collected no commission on over 90% of the $1.4tn in billings and sales facilitated by the App Store ecosystem in 2025.

European mobile games studios contributed €5.89bn in value to the continent’s economy in 2025. That’s according to a report commissioned by Candy Crush maker King and developed with consulting firm Nordicity.

The research, which explores the role mobile games play across Europe, says the sector currently supports over 60,000 jobs across more than 1,000 studios.

Its contribution to the economy is expected to rise by 4.8% over the next two years to reach €6.17bn by 2028.

In 2025, European mobile games studios generated €7.53bn in worldwide revenue, a figure that’s predicted to increase to over €8bn by 2028.

Companies based in Finland generated €1.4bn in revenue last year, ahead of other top contributors including the UK (€895m), Ireland (€868m), Spain (€722m) and Sweden (€630m).

The report claims mobile games were played by over 300m players across Europe in 2025. Mobile also accounted for 55% (€91.25bn) of total global video games revenue last year.