According to DianDian Data, global mobile game downloads in May 2026 increased by more than 4.33% month over month and more than 24.2% year over year. Google Play contributed over 68.6% of total downloads, while India (12.1%), the United States (6%) and Brazil (5.8%) were the top regional contributors. Casual remained the most popular category; sports games saw the strongest momentum, likely driven by World Cup hype, with monthly downloads up more than 4.86% MoM.

Top 20 Global Mobile Games by Downloads and Growth

After explosive growth last month, Arrows continued to lead the booming “arrow-clearing” puzzle trend in May. Driven by its three key markets of India, the United States and Brazil, global downloads grew by more than 30.2% MoM, topping the May global mobile game download chart with over 33.64 million downloads. Similar titles such as Arrows GO! and Arrow Puzzle also posted rapid growth, appearing on both the download and growth rankings.

As the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico approaches, FIFA Panini Collection, the official digital sticker-collection mobile game jointly launched by FIFA, Panini and Coca-Cola in late April, saw explosive growth this month. With an increase of more than 13.63 million downloads, it topped the mobile game growth chart. In addition to Panini’s reputation in sports cards and the influence of FIFA and Coca-Cola, the game’s socially driven “card-for-card” trading mechanic, along with May events such as “Team of the Season” and “Season Review” around the UEFA Champions League and other football competitions, may have been core catalysts for its rapid download growth.

Co-developed by leading hyper-casual publisher VOODOO and Epicoro, Castle Busters maintained its strong download performance since the start of the year and set a new record this month with over 10.69 million downloads. Growth continued to expand in key source markets including the United States, Mexico and Brazil. The game combines slingshot shooting, castle attack-and-defense, and building upgrades, with its satisfying feel coming from the instant destruction feedback after cannon hits. Its rapid growth in recent months has been driven by sustained user acquisition and fast content iteration, while weekly themed tournaments continue to stimulate player engagement and support repeated download highs.

Casual games continued to dominate the download growth chart. In addition to the arrow-clearing gameplay mentioned above, “mini challenge” mini-game collections, which went viral last year through short-video trends, still showed strong market vitality. Two titles in this category, Mini Challenges and Tik Tap Challenge, made the list this period, with the former ranking second only to the fast-rising FIFA Panini Collection in download growth.

Notably, the highly aggressive UA and creative-factory model of Vietnamese publishers remains effective in the global mobile game market. Beyond “mini-game collections,” three new titles produced under the same model of “replicating trending gameplay and promoting it with massive creative volume” — Flower Forest, Snow Race 3D and Mukbang ASMR — also gained traction quickly. In terms of user sources, Vietnamese publishers appear to be intentionally avoiding the T1 markets of Europe, North America, Japan and South Korea, where these gameplay trends often originate and become popular, instead focusing on emerging markets with larger population traffic dividends and greater download-growth potential. The main users of these five products are concentrated in India, Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Female-oriented dress-up games are also a popular casual subcategory. Rebel Glam, launched in late April, continued to see global downloads rise this month, reaching a data peak two weeks after launch and topping the Google Play free simulation game charts in several European markets, including Russia, Belgium and Ukraine. Its more Westernized, three-dimensional character appearance and makeup style are key to winning recognition from users in Europe and North America. Meanwhile, BabyBus title Ruang Kelas Seni Bayi Panda also continued to recover, driven by Southeast Asia, Latin America, Russia and other regions.

————————————————

According to DianDian Data, estimated global mobile game revenue in May 2026 increased by more than 2.94% month over month and more than 7.1% year over year. App Store contributed over 59.2% of total revenue, while the United States (26.6%), China (18.1%) and Japan (15.9%) were the top regional contributors. Role-playing remained the most popular category; action games recorded the strongest growth, with monthly revenue up more than 4.58% MoM.

Global Mobile GamesRevenueand Growth Rankings Top 20

In May’s global mobile game revenue ranking, the top three were once again dominated by Chinese-developed titles. Tencent’s flagship MOBA Honor of Kings retained the No. 1 spot in global mobile game revenue with estimated May revenue exceeding US$149 million. An early-month collaboration with the hit film IP Ne Zha 2 helped consolidate its domestic revenue peak, while the overseas version’s collaboration with the well-known anime IP Attack on Titan drove overseas revenue up by more than 15.8% MoM, helping the title set a new annual high this month.

Century Games’ SLG title Kingshot entered the top five of the global mobile game revenue chart in May, with revenue growing by more than 22.1% MoM and estimated monthly revenue exceeding US$94.75 million, setting a new monthly revenue record since launch. Overseas revenue accounted for over 95.9% of the total and grew by more than 25.9% MoM. Judging from daily revenue trends, this month’s growth was driven by the “Treasure Cove” themed event launched in late May and the Children’s Day celebration event launched at month-end.

Also published by Tencent, the anime-style third-person shooter idle title Goddess of Victory: NIKKE returned to the ranking with revenue growth of over 59.5% MoM. Its estimated global revenue in May exceeded US$53.84 million, marking the second-highest monthly revenue since launch. By regional revenue share, sustained revenue growth in Japan and South Korea over the past three months was the main driver behind its return to peak levels. Two SSR characters released mid-month — Neon: Vision Eye and Mint — along with the exclusive OST “B-SIDE IDOL,” received positive feedback and support from players in both markets, significantly boosting revenue there.

MapleStory: Idle RPG, an idle RPG co-developed by NEXON and Able Games, celebrated its half-year anniversary last month. With the launch of the “1+1 Burning” event and the arrival of the new “Buccaneer” class, the game’s May revenue increased by more than 25% MoM, with especially notable growth in South Korea and Taiwan, China, fully demonstrating the IP’s strong appeal in local markets.

On the revenue growth chart, Kuro Games’ flagship anime RPG Wuthering Waves topped May’s global mobile game growth ranking with an estimated revenue increase of over US$25.86 million. Boosted by its second-anniversary celebration, reruns of several popular limited Resonators triggered a wave of spending and gacha pulls, creating two revenue peaks in early and late May, with estimated daily global revenue exceeding US$3 million twice. By regional revenue contribution, the top three markets — Japan, China and South Korea — generated nearly 76% of total revenue.

NTE: Neverness to Everness, launched in late April, entered its first full month of operation this month, and its daily revenue reached a post-launch peak in early May. On May 14, driven by the release of the new character “Hotori” and new version events, estimated single-day revenue exceeded US$2.07 million. In May, thanks to its highly modern sci-fi anime style and generous event incentives, the title generated more than US$29.95 million in estimated global revenue, with a stable revenue trend.

Multiple Bandai Namco titles entered the list after launching anniversary versions and benefiting from traffic tailwinds, including two major IP adaptations, ONE PIECE Treasure Cruise and DRAGON BALL LEGENDS, as well as the idol-training rhythm game Gakuen Idolmaster. Among them, the former and latter each saw revenue increases of more than US$10 million this month, entering the top 10 of the ranking.

In late May, Leiting Games launched the international version of its flagship title Sword x Staff. The game topped the U.S. App Store free games chart on launch day, then, supported by solid product quality, entered the top 10 of both free and grossing charts across multiple European and North American markets on both platforms. In less than two weeks during its first launch month, the international version generated over US$6.567 million in estimated revenue, helping the product double its global revenue in May.

In addition, as the World Cup approaches, football games also saw notable data growth. In addition to KONAMI’s eFootball posting an 11.9% MoM increase in monthly revenue, EA’s EA SPORTS FC Soccer Mobile 26 saw even stronger growth, rising by more than 36.6% MoM and generating estimated global revenue of over US$23.11 million in May.