AppMagic has published its annual report on the state of the mobile games market — and the data shows that the rapid growth of recent years has noticeably slowed. In 2025, the sector's revenue increased by only 0.2% compared to the previous year, whereas in 2024 growth was around 3%. The number of downloads grew by 4.6%, which is also noticeably below previous rates.
According to analysts, the market has "entered a mature and saturated phase." The influx of new players has been virtually exhausted: most active smartphone users already play games. At the same time, the growth of the mobile audience in Europe only compensates for its decline in Asian countries and does not have a noticeable impact on the overall market volume. Under these conditions, developers have few options left for growth — the key priorities are retaining the existing audience and increasing revenue from it.
"Taken together, these trends indicate the maturation of the gaming market, where competition is intensifying around a relatively stable base of users and their spending, rather than through large-scale market expansion."
This pattern is clearly visible in Latin America. In Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Argentina, the number of downloads fell by 8-10%, while revenue increased. In Argentina, growth reached 33.2%, and in Colombia, 23.6%, indicating stronger monetization even as the number of installs declines.
The report also records changes across genres. Strategy games became the fastest-growing category on mobile platforms: their revenue rose by 16%, and downloads by 15%. RPGs and casino games, by contrast, are losing ground: revenue fell by 16.6% and 7.6% respectively, while the number of installs dropped by nearly 10-16%.
At the same time, mobile gaming remains the industry's largest segment. According to Affinco, in 2025, 3.32 billion people play video games — almost half of the planet's population. Mobile devices account for 49% of the entire gaming industry's revenue, or about $92 billion, with 95% of that amount generated by in-game purchases.