Global user spending on puzzle-solving mobile games reached US$2.4 billion in Q2: SensorTower

SensorTower, a market research organization, released the “2021 Mobile Game Insights on Puzzles and Puzzles” report. This type of game has always been one of the most important markets for mobile games in the world, including match-3 games, puzzle solving & dressing up, text puzzle-solving, object finding, brick elimination, action puzzle-solving, and other categories. Well-known games include Candy Crush Saga, a traditional match-3 game, and Brain Out, a brain teaser game.

The report shows that in the second quarter of 2021, the global user spending on puzzle-solving mobile games reached US$2.4 billion, second only to US$2.5 billion in the first quarter of 2021. Overall, puzzle-solving games have been growing steadily since 2018. Since 2019, the download list of puzzle-solving games has changed significantly, with 4 new games rushing into the top 10 every year. Among them, puzzle-solving & dress-up games are gradually expanding their market scale. 

Stay tuned with us via Telegram

Moreover, the report shows that from the best-selling list, whether it is App Store or Google Play, King’s classic match-3 games and Playrix’s dress-up match-3 games dominate the top three. Among them, Candy Crush Saga has been firmly on the App Store best-seller list for 3 consecutive years, which shows the powerful gold-absorbing ability of the classic match-3 mobile game.

Furthermore, the reports show that Russian game publishers performed very well in Playrix in the first half of 2021. With a revenue of US$1.1 billion, it became the highest-paid puzzle game publisher in the first half of 2021. Its games include “Homescapes” and “Gardenscapes”. This year, the download volume of puzzle-solving & dressing-up games has surged in the world, accounting for 15%; the download volume of brain teaser games has also increased significantly. 

Entering 2020, the revenue of puzzle-solving & dress-up mobile games has increased by 56% year on year, becoming the category with the highest revenue, breaking the long-term monopoly of classic match-3 mobile games.