This April was quite a busy one for mobile gamers, as we got major updates to popular games, as well as several anticipated releases. For a detailed mobile games market overview and all the changes, read the report from GameRefinery.

A side note: Unity’s revenue in Q1 2023 was $500 million

Chinese mobile games market overview

A House in Far of Shangri-la is one of the most interesting projects to come out of China. Set in a tranquil, mountainous region cut off from the rest of the world in a fantasy version of ancient China. It has quite nice cartoonish graphics and a tranquil atmosphere, all of which have become appealing to urban dwellers.

Sky Fortress has introduced a quiz mode, where 20 players have to give answers to questions. Those who answer incorrectly are eliminated through the hatch, with the winner receiving prizes in the form of in-game currency.

Mobile games market
Honkai: Star Rail was the most successful release of the year

Also in China, the release of the acclaimed Honkai: Star Rail did not go unnoticed. The game was warmly received by the audience, players downloaded it more than 4 million times, and brought the developers more than $31 million in revenue. And all this only in the Chinese market!

Overview of the US mobile games market

Marvel Strike Force has received a major update, introducing a new premium currency, Ultra Core. It can be used to buy the game’s core premium currency, to purchase items.

Marvel Strike Force also unveiled a one-off IAP offering called Time Heist, which gave the game the chance to move up to number 19 on the US highest-grossing game chart.

Marvel Strike Force gets a major update

Clash Royale has also been updated with a new seasonal system and a reworked Battle Pass. A full-fledged seasonal shop has also been added, where players can buy cards, coins, wildcards, unique emotes and banners, using a new currency called seasonal tokens. At the beginning of each new season, the tokens are reset and the shop is replenished with new items.

Free Fire held a summer event for Beach Breeze, featuring a Pet Smash mini-game mode reminiscent of Brawl Stars. Interestingly, players control the game’s pets rather than the hero characters, highlighting the meta-elements of the pet collection.

Returning to April’s most popular release, Honkai: Star Rail, in the US the game ranked top 2 in downloads, where it was downloaded 2 million times, bringing in $13 million for the developers.

Overview of the Japanese mobile gaming market

The final interesting element in today’s review is the third titan of mobile global markets – the Japanese.

Jantama mahjong reached number two in the Japanese charts and boosted revenue 16 times after the developers partnered with the popular anime Code Geass. The event, titled Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, included a special mahjong mode to play alongside missions, rewards for collecting points and new collaborative story content. Code Geass characters were introduced, along with new effects and scenery for the mahjong game setting.

Code Geass characters in Jantama

Also on 10 April was the release of Dark Tales, which is a kind of “evil” adaptation of fairy tale characters. The game was one of the top 10 highest-grossing games on the market for almost a month.

Thus, it is clear that April has been the most successful month for the global mobile gaming market. We can only hope that the following months will repeat the success and delight players with new titles.

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