Meet us at Slush 2026, November 19th 
Meet us at Slush 2026, November 19th
Since 2022, nearly $1B has backed Turkey’s mobile gaming ecosystem. InvestGame’s newly released platform records $954M in disclosed financing across 112 early-stage, late-stage, and non-dilutive deals from January 2022 through September 2026. Its separate mobile-specific analysis puts private funding for Turkish mobile studios at approximately $400M from January 2025 to mid-October 2026, close to 40%…
In 2021, the mobile MMORPG subgenre was the top subgenre by revenue. Today, it has fallen to number six – and the decline continues. The mobile MMORPG subgenre has not merely slowed down – it has collapsed. Subgenre IAP revenue fell from $5.3B in 2021 to $2.8B in 2025, a decline of -$2.5B or -47%,…
The casual match-3 puzzle market is notoriously saturated. Naturally, one of the key ingredients for breaking into this subgenre’s top-grossing charts has been to find a USP — or regularly refreshing it if you’re already an incumbent. One area where that search for differentiation has become especially visible is level design. Since Dream Games’ 2023…
Chess.com, which operates the world’s largest online chess platform, has turned a centuries-old board game into one of mobile’s more remarkable growth stories. In 2016, Chess.com’s mobile app averaged ~$56K in monthly revenue. In 2026, that figure has risen to ~$5.9M — roughly 105x its 2016 level. While it would be easy to attribute this…
Compared to mobile F2P and its parent genre, Strategy, 4X Strategy’s H1 2026 performance looks impressive. 4X Strategy downloads rose by +5% YoY (+18M), while total mobile F2P fell by -12% YoY (-3B) and Strategy by -3% YoY (-29M). IAP revenue was also up +5% YoY (+$193M), compared with declines of -2% YoY (-$0.6B) for…
Mobile gaming entered 2026 with a paradox. According to Sensor Tower data, global downloads fell to ~22B in H1 2026, a significant -3B YoY (-12% YoY) reduction in volume. On the other hand, revenue hit ~$28B, a relatively modest -$0.6B YoY (-2% YoY) decline in value. Specifically in Q2 2026, downloads fell to pre-IDFA and…
Games that can inspire players to aim for something great and to keep chipping away at that target will keep them engaged for longer than games that do not. This essay digs into how game designers can keep that in mind to properly goal-set and give players something meaningful to play toward.
This week we aggregate all the best content we produced in 2022, and hit on the launches of Tetris Story and Viking Rise. We also round up all the key market updates.
This week we analyze Playtika’s latest studio closure, and cover the launches of Soccer Manager 2023, Unhappy Racoon, and Civilization: Reign of Power. We also round up all the key market updates.
In this deconstruction of Tower of Fantasy, a F2P open world MMORPG, we dive into the launch numbers, controversy around the game, how the design differs from Genshin Impact, how they’re attempting to innovate around social features, and how future updates could affect the game’s performance.
A gaming research, consulting,
and advisory firm.
