According to DianDian Data, total global mobile game downloads in July 2026 increased 1.37% month over month and grew by more than 11.16% year over year versus July last year. Google Play's contribution rebounded again to 70.3%. India (11.9%), the United States (5.8%) and Brazil (5.7%) remained among the top contributing regions. Data from leading regions, especially the United States, declined noticeably, while growth in Mainland China and mid-tier regions became the key driver of global data growth. Casual games remained firmly in the lead with a share of more than 43.6%. Driven by World Cup popularity, football-related sports simulation titles on the list saw notable download growth. Together with classic casual products and lightweight new titles, they formed the main growth drivers on the download side.

Global Mobile Game Downloads and Rising Rankings Top 20

In July, Garena's battle royale title Free Fire continued to benefit from its anniversary celebration and strong momentum in Southeast Asia, topping the global mobile game download chart again with more than 32.73 million downloads and maintaining a slight 1% month-over-month increase. Among representative arrow-elimination puzzle titles, only Arrow Puzzle maintained upward momentum, reaching the top three of the download chart this month with more than 23.25 million downloads and month-over-month growth of over 25.2%.

After the launch of the Sydney World Tour version at the end of June helped reverse several consecutive months of download decline, SYBO's classic runner Subway Surfers received another update in mid-July featuring the popular city setting of Paris. The launch of the new character Marie Macaron, themed outfits, skateboards and other collectible content drove returning users and update downloads, pushing the product to a download peak on July 18 with more than 930,000 daily downloads. Consecutive version updates helped July downloads increase by more than 21.2% month over month, bringing the product back into the top five of the ranking.

In July, as the World Cup entered the knockout and final stages, the popularity of football mobile games climbed further. Soccer Superstar, Football League 2026 and EA SPORTS FC Mobile all recorded download growth, with the three products using international cup gameplay, national-team content and limited-time rewards to capture traffic from real-world matches. Among them, Soccer Superstar attracted a large number of broad football users through low-barrier operations such as swipe passing and shooting, as well as themed events including Global Cup Season and Road to Champion. Its July downloads rose 50.6% month over month, and its ranking climbed sharply by 11 places into the top five.

Tencent's PUBG MOBILE received its major 4.5 version update on July 9. Alongside the collaboration with the well-known anime IP Naruto and the launch of the NARUTO: Ninja Assemble themed event, the addition of classic scenes such as Hidden Leaf Village and Valley of the End, as well as themed mechanics including the Nine-Tails boss battle, ninjutsu, chakra and tailed-beast transformation, received a clear response in India, China and Southeast Asia. The event attracted large numbers of anime users and returning players, driving July downloads up by more than 32.7% month over month and lifting the title to No. 8.

BeheFun Games' simulation management title Top Tycoon: Coin Theme Empire saw concentrated scaling this month one year after launch, ranking second on the global mobile game download growth chart with more than 8.24 million incremental downloads, a 205.3% month-over-month increase, and entering the download Top 20. Gameplay themes such as lumberyard management and player raids performed extremely well as UA creatives in markets including India and Russia, supporting the product's rapid user-acquisition breakout.

After entering the chart last month, Smash Fest!, a physics-destruction title from Turkish publisher Flow Games, continued its strong performance in July. With more than 8.5 million incremental downloads and 373.3% month-over-month growth, it topped the global mobile game download growth chart. Its launch on Google Play at the end of June was the main driver behind a second download surge this month. It is worth noting that the product was removed from Google Play at the end of July, but neither Google nor the developer has publicly explained the reason, so it is still impossible to determine whether this was due to platform policy enforcement, voluntary withdrawal by the developer, or a temporary review issue. Its App Store version remains in normal operation, and download volume has maintained a stable trend without being affected.

Building on Smash Fest!, the popularity of physics-destruction gameplay also spread quickly to similar products in July. Royal Smash!: Physics Puzzle, a new title from another Turkish publisher, Cypher Games, landed at No. 4 on the global mobile game download growth chart this month with more than 6.35 million incremental downloads. The latter repackages the gameplay with a royal castle setting and iterated through multiple versions in July, continuously optimizing the product to follow user demand and ensure sustained growth in the early launch stage.

It is worth noting that Chinese merge-2 products also showed strong upward momentum in July. Tasty Travels and Gossip Harbor differentiated themselves through global food travel and emotional suspense themes, respectively, with monthly downloads growing 62% and 61.3%. Together, they reflect the advantages of Chinese publishers in content packaging, refined operations and scaled user acquisition in the merge-2 track.

In addition, on the simulator track, the rise of Prison Escape Journey 3D validated that prison themes still have certain market appeal. The dramatic conflict inherent in the prison-break digging theme naturally makes it short-video material that can become popular overseas. Combined with the mature publishing and packaging strategies of Vietnamese publishers, this helped the product quickly acquire users on Google Play.

According to DianDian Data, estimated total global mobile game revenue in July 2026 increased by about 3.37% month over month and grew by more than 4.7% year over year versus July last year. Monthly data on the revenue side remained relatively stable. The App Store contributed about 59.7%, almost unchanged from the previous month. The United States (26.4%), China (18.3%) and Japan (16.3%) were the top contributing regions. U.S. data declined slightly, while revenue data from China and Japan continued to grow. Role-playing remained the most popular category, and revenue growth in leading categories became the main factor driving overall data growth.

Global Mobile Game Revenue and Rising Rankings Top 20

In the July global mobile game revenue ranking, Tencent's flagship title Honor of Kings remained firmly in first place with estimated revenue of nearly US$149 million, growing another 3.1% month over month. Another ace Tencent title, Game for Peace, also recorded month-over-month growth of more than 23.9% this month. At the beginning of the month, the domestic version launched the Summer Adventure update, making large-scale changes to the island map around a nautical theme. The addition of amphibious vehicles and a new super-body character effectively boosted summer user activity and returning players. Together with late-month collaborations with popular Chinese anime IPs including Slay the Gods and Swallowed Star, the launch of multiple limited character skins, upgradable firearms, aircraft and supporting decorative in-app purchase items drove significant revenue growth, pushing the product's global revenue higher.

Pokémon GO was the standout product on the revenue side in July. The product celebrated its tenth anniversary this month, and the official team held the first free-to-access Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Global from July 11 to 12. Free participation sharply lowered the event threshold, while the concentrated availability of more than 60 Legendary Pokémon, increased Shiny Pokémon odds, and the debut of Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Mewtwo Y continued to stimulate purchases of raid passes, limited-time bundles and storage expansions. This pushed estimated July revenue above US$118 million, up 129.5% month over month. The title returned to No. 4 on the revenue chart and topped the revenue growth chart with more than US$66.61 million in incremental revenue.

Genshin Impact from miHoYo showed a clear recovery on the revenue side in July, with estimated monthly revenue approaching US$50 million, up 42.5% month over month. In Version 6.7, 'Luna VIII,' launched at the beginning of the month, the highly popular character Sandrone made her first appearance and served as the core of the new Astral Superconduct reaction system, triggering strong demand for pulls of the character, her signature weapon and related team configurations. Single-day estimated revenue exceeded US$5.12 million. In addition, the consecutive reruns of Columbina and Raiden Shogun in the latter part of the month drove a second revenue rebound, together helping the product return to the revenue ranking.

Netmarble's new Korean MMORPG SOL: enchant continued its strong post-launch performance, entering the ranking with estimated July revenue of more than US$41.92 million, up 104.7% month over month. During the launch month, events such as premium summon tickets, triple boss drops and server-first Level 50 rewards, along with Google Play payment discounts launched by Netmarble and South Korea's three major carriers, continued to support revenue growth. After entering July, ongoing updates such as the world exchange and new classes helped the product maintain launch momentum, allowing it to achieve stable data growth in its first full month of operation.

On the rising chart, another miHoYo anime-style title, Zenless Zone Zero, launched Version 3.1, 'A Long Goodbye,' together with its second-anniversary content at the end of the month. The first Lumen-attribute agent, Remiel, and her signature W-Engine officially entered the limited signal search. A free limited S-rank selector, login rewards and returning-user events drove concentrated user return, helping the product form a consumption peak at the end of the month and achieve more than a doubling of monthly revenue month over month.

At the end of the month, hololive Dreams, co-developed by Cover and QualiArts, officially launched in Japan and multiple global markets. The product gathered 54 affiliated talents at launch and built its core gameplay around music rhythm, character development and theme-park management. Before launch, it had accumulated more than 1.5 million pre-registrations. The massive fan base and the collection, development and cheering demand surrounding popular VTubers quickly translated into payments after launch, pushing the product rapidly to the top of the Japanese App Store and Google Play grossing charts. In its launch month, it generated more than US$17.22 million in estimated revenue in the domestic market alone. Together with solid performance in other global markets, it debuted directly in the top five of the rising chart in its first month.

Also launched last month, DIGIMON UP, a product adapted from Bandai Namco's Digimon IP of the same name, entered the rising chart with estimated revenue of more than US$7.75 million. During the launch period, highly recognizable characters including Taichi Yagami, Agumon and WarGreymon entered commemorative summons, quickly releasing core fans' collection and nostalgia-driven payment demand. The product rapidly acquired users in IP-audience regions such as South Korea, the United States and Hong Kong, China, with single-day estimated revenue peaking above US$880,000.