The mobile game market for 2014 was certainly quite bumpy, with many competitors presenting free-to-play products for casual and hardcore gamers alike to enjoy. However, according to Metaps, one true champion emerged — Supercell’s battle sim Clash of Clans.
According to the company’s research numbers, the popular game, which saw a lucrative TV campaign to go with its free-to-play model, held the #1 position in the U.S. market for 90 percent of the year on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. While it can’t quite call itself the champion in all markets — competition from Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike amongst other games held it back a bit — it shows a huge devoted audience behind it, one that’s likely to stick around as the next year passes.
King’s Candy Crush Saga also played a part in the top ten lists, but didn’t nearly compare with Clash of Clans‘ numbers in terms of user-ship — even though it still made the publisher a sizable amount of money. That’s mainly due to the launch of Machine Zone’s Game of War: Fire Age, which has managed to slide into the second place position in terms of mobile popularity, on both the App Store and Google Play.
Game of War‘s adoption rate shouldn’t be surprising, considering that the game featured a huge promotional ad campaign featuring supermodel Kate Upton and impressive CG effects. However, the fact that the game was able to push aside Candy Crush Saga in just a month’s time shows how incredibly popular it has become — and also indicates that the team should have no trouble making back the $40 million it invested in the TV campaign.
As far as third place positioning in the mobile game market, six different games easily slotted there over the year. Candy Crush Saga made its way there once Game of War bumped it aside; Candy Crush Soda Saga managed to claim the spot following its launch a few weeks back; and Pet Rescue Saga, Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Farm Heroes Saga and Game of War: Fire Age each spent some time in the third place spot before making some moves. Out of all of those, Game of War spent the most time, with anywhere from nine to 27 days in the spot before eventually moving to second place.
Metaps also provided the numbers for top-grossing apps in the App Store and Google Play for November. To no surprise, Clash of Clans dominated at number one, followed by Candy Crush Saga in second (before being unseated by Game of War, which sat in third). Other apps that show impressive profits for the month include Big Fish Casino, Farm Heroes Saga and Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.
Free apps for November told a different story, though. More social apps were featured in these top ten than games, with Facebook Messenger at number one on both App Store and Google Play, followed by Facebook and Instagram/Pandora Radio in third. Other apps that made the cut included Snapchat, Pandora Radio and New Words With Friends.
Finally, the site reported that Android had a stronger foothold in the U.S.’ mobile game market, with 97.5 percent of overall app sales going to games, compared to 80.7 percent on the App Store. In addition, Google Play ended up being home to more top free titles (an estimated 55.7 percent of the overall apps offered), compared to the 29.7 percent over on the App Store.
More details on these stats can be found on Metaps’ site.
