Today, App Annie releases its 2013 retrospective report on mobile apps and games. While there weren't a lot of surprises for those who pay close attention to the space, the report reinforces some important trends in the mobile game space everyone should be aware of.
The most-downloaded game of 2013 across the globe was King's Candy Crush Saga, but GungHo's Puzzle & Dragons generated the most revenue. On the back of that, Japan became the world's number one country for app revenue in 2013, passing the U.S.
Speaking of passing, Google Play passed the iOS App Store in worldwide app (both game and non-game) downloads, though the App Store held on to the revenue crown.
While many games are popular globally, cracking the Asian markets is tough. According to App Annie's data, China, Korea, and Japan are mostly friendly to homegrown games, with many of China's top titles coming from Tencent, Japan's from LINE, and Korea's from the Seoul-based CJ Group. Still, Temple Run 2 managed to be a top-10 downloaded title in both China and Japan, showing that it's far from impossible for Western games to catch on in a big way in those countries.
Another important fact from the report is that 93 percent of game revenue in 2013 was from freemium titles -- making premium games a minor niche in the space. Alongside that, during 2013, global player spending on app stores for the first time exceeded spending on titles for portable game consoles (the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita.)
For the purposes of its report, App Annie grouped iOS and Google Play together into one data set. Here are App Annie's worldwide game charts for 2013:
The most successful mobile games of 2013
Today, App Annie releases its 2013 retrospective report on mobile apps and games -- which includes trends, as well as full lists of the games which generated the most downloads and revenue.