Mobile gaming continues to be on the rise, between both free-to-play releases and premium titles. App Annie recently posted a report detailing the best sellers for the past month of November, and it appears that King’s latest offering, Candy Crush Soda Saga, is leading the charge, with Contract Killer: Sniper closely behind.
Upon its release, Soda Saga had no trouble earning the top spot on both the iOS and Android fronts, while the original Candy Crush Saga continued to be a mainstay in the top ten for both platforms. King has already indicated that it will continue to update both games with new offerings, as their popularity won’t be waning anytime soon.
Meanwhile, Glu’s Contract Killer: Sniper, the fifth release in its ongoing first-person shooter series, gained some attention as well, earning a spot on the iOS App Store homepage and maintaining a solid spot on the store’s top ten worldwide rankings. Said Glu’s president of publishing, Chris Akhavan, on the game’s release, “Glu has been a leader in the free-to-play shooter genre since 2011. We’re committed to building franchises players find synonymous with best-in-class graphics, gameplay and mechanics as we’ve done with Contract Killer: Sniper. The addition of PvP (player vs. player) has deepened the game’s level of engagement and we look forward to supporting Contract Killer: Sniper with new content and features players will enjoy,”
Meanwhile, when it comes to top companies on the mobile front, Tencent continued to dominate across 176 apps, while Electronic Arts took second place with 656 and Gameloft dropped to third with 96. This was a change over the previous month, when Gameloft had the top spot and Tencent was in third.
Part of this popularity is due to the release of the side-scrolling running game Wind Travel, which has managed to earn a top ten spot for the games of November worldwide.
Meanwhile, Dumb Ways To Die 2, a game launched by Metro Trains (the provider of metropolitan rail service for Melbourne, Australia), managed to get some attention as well, with the game shooting into the top ten rankings worldwide for iOS, and the iPad version reaching the #1 daily download rank across 80 different countries. Not bad for a game that initially launched as a public service announcement for rail safety.
The title does feature 28 mini-games that are fun to play, as well as informative, so it’s easy to see where it appeal lies in terms of popularity with users. The fact it’s free certainly doesn’t hurt either.
Will these trends continue into this month It’s looking likely, with Candy Crush Soda Saga continuing to speed along with a big campaign and Tencent showing no signs of slowing down either. We shall see with next month’s numbers.
