Four more mobile games joined the $1 billion club last year as the industry continues to print money
Two games owned by Tencent cracked the list for the first time, and Microsoft’s “Candy Crush” continued to be a stalwart.
There’s a reason you see so many ads for mobile games all over your screens: they make their owners massive amounts of cash.
Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower just released its State of Mobile 2025 report, which showed that four more mobile games surpassed $1 billion in revenue last year. You probably recognize the titles — or, even more likely, the addictive ads. Chinese tech company Tencent owns two new entrants, “Brawl Stars” and “Dungeon & Fighter.” Heavily advertised games “Last War: Survival Game” and “Whiteout Survival” also reached the revenue milestone for the first time.
Other well-known hits like Roblox, “Candy Crush Saga” (which is ultimately owned by Microsoft after the Activision Blizzard merger deal), and “Royal Match” made the list again. Altogether, 11 mobile games reached the nine-zeros club in 2024, a record high, according to Sensor Tower.
The lucrative nature of mobile games, which are way cheaper to produce than, say, “Grand Theft Auto 6,” is behind their proliferation. Beyond microtransactions for things like extra lives or in-game currency, many mobile hits are themselves major advertising hubs, selling ad space at a premium based on their massive user numbers.
That advertising can be pretty shady, too. Many games — including some billion-dollar giants — utilize rage bait strategies that manipulate users to download the app and play it correctly. Other frustrating features that could be classified as “dark patterns” (like pop-ups that are difficult to close or ads featuring “fake” gameplay) are also common.
The FTC has taken some notice of mobile games, reaching a settlement with Tapjoy, a mobile-ad company, over allegations that the company misled consumers about in-game rewards. In a statement, two FTC commissioners said that app-store giants Apple and Google share most of the blame:
“Tapjoy is not the only platform squeezing developers. In fact, the firm is a minnow next to the gatekeeping giants of the mobile gaming industry, Apple and Google. By controlling the dominant app stores, these firms enjoy vast power to impose taxes and regulations on the mobile gaming industry, which was generating nearly $70 billion annually even before the pandemic...
Under heavy taxation by Apple and Google, developers have been forced to adopt alternative monetization models that rely on surveillance, manipulation, and other harmful practices.”
According to several ad experts Sherwood News spoke with, these practices have helped create a multibillion-dollar industry that tries to reel in users by infuriating them — and it’s only getting bigger.
