The top 5 list by downloads is primarily made up of older games but some newer titles have still managed to make it to high positions.
Mobile market analyst firm Sensor Tower released the Store Intelligence Data Digest for Q4 2022, which includes information on the number of downloads across the App Store and Google Play, top downloaded apps, and more.
According to the digest, the total number of app downloads in the fourth quarter of last year was 142 billion. The figure represents a slight decrease from 143.4 billion downloads in Q4 2021.
The gaming segment also experience a decline – the number of mobile game downloads on the App Store dropped by 6.9%, with gamers downloading games 1.91 billion times. On Google Play, however, downloads slightly increased but only by 0.6%, with a total of 11.69 billion game downloads.
The most-downloaded game in Q4 2022 was Subway Surfers with almost 292 million installs, a 48% increase from the previous year. Garena Free Fire placed second for the third consecutive year since 2019. Stumble Guys made it to the No. 3 spot with over 184 million installs which is noteworthy as the game was only released worldwide in early 2021 and every other game in the top 5 was released in 2017 or earlier.
Although the top 5 list consists of mainly older games, some new games were still able to achieve success and make it into the top positions. Specifically, looking at the top 20 games by downloads, you can notice that half of the list consists of games that were released in 2022.
Additionally, by breaking down the overall top chart by platform and country, it becomes clear that new games or those that have recently gained popularity were able to achieve success at a regional level. For instance, the top 3 chart in the United States includes two new games – the guessing game Gas and the action game Survivor!.io. Despite only gaining popularity at a regional level, the games were still able to achieve commercial success.
You can learn more about the mobile games market in Q4 2022 by reading the full digest here. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform, our Reddit page, and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.