{"id":17910,"date":"2025-06-12T13:56:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T10:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gamerefinery.com\/?p=17910"},"modified":"2025-06-12T16:05:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:05:22","slug":"mobile-game-market-review-may-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gamerefinery.com\/mobile-game-market-review-may-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst Bulletin: Mobile Game Market Review May 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Minigames and multiplayer seemed to be the key themes running across several mobile game updates in May, with Toy Blast and Bingo Voyage adding new events that encouraged collaborative gameplay. And with Star Wars day taking place on May 4, titles such as Epic-owned Fortnite and Scopely\u2019s Monopoly GO! got a Star Wars May makeover with a galaxy of updates and Star Wars-themed goodies for players to experience, not to mention a cussing Darth Vader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of minigames and multiplayer, Supercell\u2019s Squad Busters is in its 2.0 phase after a major update overhauled the game\u2019s meta and core mechanics \u2013 highly unusual for a game that\u2019s well outside its beta\/soft-launch phase. Over in Japan, rogue-like card battler Tsukuyomi: The Divine Hunter enjoyed brief success in the charts thanks to its AI-generated card artwork inspired by prolific designer Kazuma Kanekos, while a new \u2018lite\u2019 version of the popular Puzzles & Dragons franchise soared to the top of the download charts in Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about these updates and titles, as well as the latest trends from across the mobile market, check out our latest analyst bulletin below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May\u2019s casual game updates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Match3 puzzle game Toy Blast added the Knight’s Journey<\/a> event, a first-of-its-kind collaborative challenge event where players team up with friends to defeat a dragon and win a grand prize. In the event, players earn Super Balls to use in a Plinko-style minigame, which rewards them with Knight Tokens. These Knight Tokens are used to upgrade the strength of knights for the final battle with the dragon. Players can raise the risk for higher token rewards and must coordinate upgrades with their team.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The
The Knight\u2019s Journey event in Toy Blast<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Monopoly GO! launched a major collaboration with Star Wars<\/a>, introducing a massive selection of Star Wars-themed events, rewards, collectible albums<\/a>, and minigames. New board tokens like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke, and Leia were added, while events such as Jedi Partners<\/a> encouraged players to partner with four other players to unlock rewards. The collaboration also tapped into the popularity of the digging meta in minigame events, with players using Laser Guns to dig out Artifact rewards in the Jawa Treasures<\/a> minigame. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Monopoly
Monopoly GO! Got a Star Wars makeover in a major collaboration<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In addition to the Star Wars collaboration, Monopoly GO! launched Tycoon Express<\/a>, a season-based event allowing players to earn better rewards by ranking up through Tycoon Classes. The event also introduced a new leaderboard system, reducing tournament group player numbers from 100 to 35. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The Tycoon Express event in Monopoly GO! <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

May saw the arrival of another main-themed event, Dragon Strike<\/a>, in Mattel’s casual card game, Phase 10. Players rolled the dice to gather materials and hammers to craft items and upgrade buildings, while the introduction of a similar \u201cshut down\u201d mechanic, seen in games like Monopoly GO! and Coin Master, allowed players to attack the buildings of other players. Players could defend their buildings with Shields, but if they were damaged, they needed to be fixed with hammers before being upgraded further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bingo Voyage added a new event type, Alliance Tournament<\/a>, which brought 100 players together to form four teams in a race. Players earned items from bingo games across two ranking systems, teams and individuals, and hit reward thresholds to score Flags. As players collect Flags, the grand prize pool grows and is eventually split proportionally across the winning team, who also received Bingo Ticket currency on top of their prize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bingo Voyage is a great example of hybridization in the casino genre through minigames, which may be contributing to the game\u2019s continued growth in the charts. It\u2019s got an unusually complex meta for a bingo game, supplemented with collection mechanics and decoration layers, not to mention the various genres in the minigame events.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Revenue
Revenue and Download data (iOS US) for Bingo Voyage (GameRefinery SaaS) <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Additional casual gaming highlights and other news<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Epic Plane Evolution<\/a> is a hyper-casual title from Voodoo, launched in June 2024. The game started scaling in downloads and revenue in April 2025, likely driven by optimized UA strategies. Epic Plane Evolution peaked at a daily grossing rank of 192 in May and has sustained strong momentum with a GR download rank of around 22. The gameplay is simple yet satisfying, while its hybrid monetization combining session-restriction bypasses, IAA, and IAP, is well-tuned for casual audiences, supporting both short-session play and lightweight retention.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Epic
Epic Plan Evolution\u2019s gameplay<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

May\u2019s midcore game updates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Supercell has been making some major gameplay changes to its mobile portfolio over the last few months, and Squad Busters is the latest game to get an overhaul with a major reworking of its whole core and meta<\/a>, with significant changes for how heroes and upgrade systems work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Squaddies retained their upgrade levels, the removal of Hero characters meant players lost progression for their heroes (although compensation was given according to their upgrade levels of different characters). A rework of this scale is unusual, especially in titles such as Squad Busters that aren\u2019t in a soft-launch or beta period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The changes were introduced in a Community Event, which contextualised why things were changing: the Squad Busters have lost their fight against monsters, so new heroes are emerging to save the day. Given how major this update is, we\u2019ve summarised the main changes below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Penguin GO! TD<\/a> is an interesting wave-based tower defense game blending roguelite, casual casino, and idle elements. The game briefly reached the top 200 grossing in May in the US market, with stronger traction observed in Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\"The
The Hero Journey Shop<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Characters are split into Heroes or Squaddies. Heroes are customizable party leaders that must remain alive, while Squaddies function like the original characters. Upgrading Squaddies by merging duplicates in the meta unlocks equipable skills for the Hero. The upgrades for Hero happen through the Hero Journey shop.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Skill
Skill unlocks for upgrading Squaddies<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Heroes and Squaddies now have roles, and having characters with the same roles as the Hero in your team grants a performance boost. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Squad
Squad roles<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At the start of the battle, players have a Hero character and two Squaddies of their choice as their main team foundation, but more support can be collected during the match from Chests, where changes have also been made to how team members are unlocked and recruited. After the update, players can only choose between two characters from chest-opens, rather than three pre-update.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supercell has presumably made these changes to boost revenue and downloads, which have dramatically fallen since the game\u2019s launch in summer last year. At the time of writing, there\u2019s no notable impact on revenue or downloads, but changes of this scale do take time for players to notice and may require a UA push to get the word out there.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Revenue
Revenue and Download data (iOS US) for Squad Busters (GameRefinery SaaS) <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While Squad Busters is struggling to capture the attention of players, Supercell\u2019s Clash of Clans continues to go from strength to strength. You know your game is doing well when you start seeing your mechanics being incorporated into other games\u2019 minigame events! Genshin Impact did this in the Clash of Clans-inspired Operation Downpour Simulation<\/a> minigame, where players attack enemy bases with a limited number of monster units. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the event, players place a unit anywhere within the outer border of the area. Units attack automatically according to the unit\u2019s priority type, and the battle is won if the player manages to destroy all of the defensive units and buildings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In PvE, players try to win preset scenarios. In PvP, players build their own defense before they can battle another player, and select the units they want to attack. There\u2019s no way of telling how the other player is doing other than a small progression bar.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The
The Clash of Clans-inspired minigame event in Genshin Impact<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

May was a particularly manic month for anime collaborations in the midcore market! You can find some of our top picks below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n