The monthly mobile games report aims to help mobile game publishers, marketers, and developers better understand the latest shifts in user demand and competitive dynamics within the global mobile gaming market.
Overview: Global Mobile Games Performance in April 2026
- Royal Kingdom accelerated its user acquisition efforts, driving downloads up by over 100%.
- Sword x Staff expanded globally once again, rolling out more than 10,000 ad creatives across iOS and Android in Europe and North America.
- Boosted by its 3.5th anniversary celebration and a highly popular character banner, NIKKE achieved an 80%+ surge in single-platform revenue.
- Frequent content updates fueled steady download growth, helping Magic Sort! climb to No. 2 in the download rankings.
Top 20 Mobile Games by Advertising Activity
Sword x Staff Sets Its Sights on Europe and North America
Originally conceived in 2021, Sword X Staff began as a Chinese fantasy-themed project before evolving into the isekai-inspired Japanese fantasy style seen today. Combined with idle MMO gameplay, it perfectly tapped into the growing demand for lighter, low-pressure gaming experiences, becoming one of 2025’s breakout hits.
For its first global expansion, Sword X Staff followed a familiar path taken by many idle RPGs, launching first in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan of China, and Japan. Its anime-inspired art style resonated strongly with Japanese-speaking markets, while also lowering localization barriers.
The game’s marketing strategy fully embraced the standard anime-game playbook: major IP collaborations announced ahead of launch, illustrator partnerships, voice actor livestreams, and more — all executed at high speed and scale, helping the title climb global top-grossing charts.
Now, Sword X Staff is entering its second phase of global expansion, with Europe and North America as its next target markets.
According to SocialPeta, Sword x Staff began its advertising campaign as early as March 2026. In April, the game deployed approximately 11,000 deduplicated ad creatives across both iOS and Android. Key insights from the iOS campaign include:
- Daily ad volume peaked at 3,754 creatives on April 30 over the past 30 days.
- Image-based creatives accounted for 65.14% of all ads, with square 1080×1080 assets used most frequently.
- English dominated the ad copy, representing 86.42% of all creatives, while German, Spanish, and Portuguese each accounted for a smaller but similar share.
- The top target markets closely mirrored the language distribution, with the highest ad activity concentrated in the United States, Germany, France, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Continuing its established marketing strategy, Sword x Staff has once again made its collaboration with the popular anime KonoSuba a central focus of its promotional campaign. For example, the game’s official Facebook page engaged fans with a playful quiz that made the answer all but obvious, building anticipation around the crossover event.
The ad copy focuses heavily on gameplay features, highlighting keywords such as idle progression, adventure, stress-free gameplay, a vertical open world, low-commitment mechanics, and offline rewards to emphasize the game’s casual appeal.
In terms of creative format, Sword x Staff relies primarily on image-based ads. Rather than adopting a distinctly Western comic style, the visuals remain consistent with the polished and refreshing anime aesthetic used in both the Chinese and Japanese versions. At the same time, a handful of standout creatives—such as realistic figure-style renders and nostalgic pixel-art designs—add variety and help capture players’ attention.
The video creatives closely align with the messaging used in the ad copy, focusing on gameplay showcases, skill effects, expansive world landscapes, and strategy-oriented content covering multiple classes, gear builds, and progression tips.
Skill effect showcases paired with power level comparisons
Arrows GO! Surge in Downloads as Oakever Games Launches a New Hit Title
Oakever Games has once again achieved the rare feat of topping both the advertising and download charts.
With a sharp eye for emerging trends in the casual puzzle market, Oakever Games has built a portfolio spanning match, puzzle, and solitaire subgenres. Its latest release, Arrows GO!, appears to be a direct challenger to the consistently popular Arrows – Puzzle Escape, a frequent fixture on the download charts.
According to SocialPeta, Arrows GO! began advertising in March 2026. In April, the game launched approximately 15,000 deduplicated ad creatives across iOS and Android. Key insights from its Android campaign include:
- Daily ad volume peaked at 2,791 creatives on April 28 over the past 30 days.
- Video creatives accounted for 95.55% of all ads, with vertical 720×1280 videos used most frequently.
- English overwhelmingly dominated the ad copy, representing about 95% of all creatives.
- The top target markets were the United States, France, the United Kingdom, India, Brazil, and Japan.
The video creatives for Arrows GO! consist primarily of gameplay footage from different levels, with various combinations of shapes, background colors, and arrow colors enabling the rapid production of large volumes of playable-style ad creatives.
Key visual elements are designed to capture attention, including the animation and sound effects when arrows disappear, intentional failure moments highlighted by full-screen red flashes, and the level progress bar displayed on the right side of the screen. Together, these features add a sense of tension and excitement to what is otherwise a simple and relaxing puzzle experience.
Top 20 Mobile Games by Revenue
App Store Revenue Highlights
- Boosted by the launch of a new hero and a collaboration with a popular anime IP, Brawl Stars generated approximately $27.8 million in App Store revenue in April, representing a 39.2% month-over-month increase.
- Driven by its first-anniversary celebration, Disney Solitaire recorded approximately $16.4 million in App Store revenue in April, up 25.6% from the previous month.
Google Play Revenue Highlights
- Retaining its position as the highest-grossing merge game, Gossip Harbor generated approximately $39.0 million in Google Play revenue in April, representing a month-over-month revenue increase of 13.7%.
- Driven by the 3.5th anniversary celebration and the release of special versions of two fan-favorite launch characters, Anis and Neon, Goddess of Victory: NIKKE saw a sharp surge in both gacha and costume spending, generating approximately $10.9 million in Google Play revenue in April, up 82.9% month over month.
Top 20 Mobile Games with the Maximum Downloads
App Store Download Leaders
- Driven by frequent content updates, Magic Sort! surpassed 5.9 million downloads on Google Play in April, representing a month-over-month increase of 195.3%.
- Boosted by Easter events and frequent icon updates that reinvigorated the title, Paper.io 2 recorded more than 2.1 million downloads on Google Play in April, up 107.7% compared with the previous month.
Google Play Download Leaders
- Fueled by the soaring popularity of arrow-based puzzle gameplay, Arrows – Puzzle Escape surpassed 17.2 million downloads on the App Store in April, representing a month-over-month increase of 333.8% and securing the No. 1 spot on April’s mobile game download growth rankings.
- Driven by aggressive user acquisition and increased visibility through platform promotions, Royal Kingdom recorded more than 10.1 million downloads on the App Store in April, up 106.2% compared with the previous month.
Conclusion
In April 2026, the mobile game market was driven by two key trends: rapid download growth in casual puzzle games and strong revenue gains from live events and IP collaborations. Titles such as Arrows GO! and Magic Sort! benefited from aggressive advertising, while Brawl Stars and Goddess of Victory: NIKKE saw revenue surge through anniversary events and new content.
For more mobile game marketing data, advertising insights, and download trend analysis, visit www.socialpeta.com.
