Gamelight has released the first edition of their Mobile Playtime Index, which contains insights into user behaviours in the mobile community from the previous year. Gamelight has collected data from the user base of their self-recommendation platform. This makes the insights unique and more accurate than other data collectors.

The analysis mainly focuses on playtime (in minutes) per active user for the different gaming verticals which are genre, title and platform. For genre, the analysis has gathered playtime from Midcore, Action, Casual and Social Casino games.

For titles, a top 10 list has been compiled with the mobile game titles that have accumulated the most played minutes per user, and for the platform, iOS and Google Play usage have been taken into account. On top of these categories, the data has been collected from users located in the United Kingdom, United States, Japan, Korea, France and Germany. Which provides regional insights.

Top mobile games across the world

  • Dice Dream – SuperPlay’s multiplayer social dice game is one of the most played across the globe. It consistently secures high rankings across all the countries for both platforms, except for Korea.
  • Royal Match – Dream Games puzzle game is massively popular, being the most played game by US iOS users and UK Android users. The game is present in all the countries most played list except France.
  • Candy Crush Saga – King’s classic tile-matching game is the only title that manages to show up on every single country’s rankings. Cementing its popularity around the world. King’s title Candy Crush Soda Saga also shows up on a few top 10 lists, showing people’s love for the format.
  • MONOPOLY GO! – Scopely’s take on the classic board game has quickly climbed the ranks. The game launched in 2023 and has since then managed to rank as number one in the US and secure high ranking across Europe.
  • Gardenscapes – Playrix casual Match-3 title is another beloved franchise across the countries with their spin-off title Homescapes also making it into multiple rankings. Reaching its peak popularity in the US, UK and South Korea.
  • Genshin Impact – miHoYo’s anime-styled action role-playing title is one of the most popular in Japan, ranking as number one by Android users and number three by iOS users. But it sees widespread popularity in other countries as well – showing up on the UK, the US and Germany’s top 10 lists.
  • Coin Master – Moon Active casual single-player title is favoured by users located in Europe and the US, reaching the number one spot in Germany.

Genres amassing the longest playtime

The index supports the still ongoing trend of Casual titles being the most popular, not only being the most downloaded – but also the type of game that users on average spend the most amount of time playing. Casual was the leading genre across almost all of the countries in the index. This is unsurprising considering multiple of the top-ranked games such as Candy Crush Saga, Royal Match and Coin Master are included in this genre. Across the countries and platforms, it landed on an approximate average of 37 minutes played. It was favoured by Japan’s iOS users who played an average of 47 minutes.

Social Casino titles also made it into multiple countries’ top 10 rankings, being extra prominent in the UK, Germany and France. With some repeating titles being Zynga Poker, Slotomania and Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas 777. iOS users across the world spend more time on average on Social Casino titles landing at approximately 40 minutes, compared to Android users who spend 32 minutes. This is mostly attributed to iOS users, in general, showing higher average play times than Android.

Midcore and Action see similar activity. Midcore is preferred by iOS users across the countries, being the most popular in the US and France. Landing at an approximate playtime of 33.6 minutes. Action is not far behind, being more popular with Android users, and being played the most by users located in the UK and US. Approximate playtime lands at 34 minutes even. Which makes it the least popular genre overall.

Trends by country

The United Kingdom and The United States set the tone for the rest of the index, their rankings include the games from the most popular list and they show a strong preference for casual titles. The one that stands out is the UK’s iOS users who average slightly higher on Social Casino titles than Casual games, making it the only country and platform to not have Casual as their most played genre.

Germany is the country that has the largest playtime gap between the two platforms. iOS has an average playtime of 40 minutes, while Android falls behind with an average of 30 minutes. This supports the trend that iOS users have higher playtime globally. France users have a lesser gap but is the country that has the lowest average of playtime landing at 32 minutes, this stands in stark contrast to Japan which has accumulated the highest average of playtime at 45 minutes.

Japan and Korea differentiate themselves from the other countries in the Index, having the highest number of unique titles. They both have widespread popular titles such as Candy Crush Saga, Royal Match and Gardenscapes in their top 10. But Korea has Honkai: Star Retail, Lineage M and MapleStory M as its top titles, which don’t appear in any other rankings. Similarly, Japan has Monster Strike and Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel has unique titles in its rankings. Showing that they, apart from the other countries have a stronger affinity for games that resonate with their culture and preferences.

In conclusion

The Playtime Index gives an overview of which titles and genres accumulate the highest amount of playtime globally. Showcasing which genres resonate most with the mobile game community. The Casual genre is still dominating and the titles Candy Crush Saga, RoyalMatch, Dice Dreams, MONOPOLY GO! Genshin Impact and Coin Master were the most recurring titles on the lists. iOS users have higher average playtime than Android users, where Japan had the highest playtime overall. It will be interesting to see how these trends evolve over the year and if the results will change or remain the same in next year’s playtime index.

Do you want to read the full report? Download the PDF.