{"id":18038,"date":"2025-09-11T10:31:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gamerefinery.com\/?p=18038"},"modified":"2025-09-11T10:31:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:31:56","slug":"mobile-game-market-review-july-amp-august-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gamerefinery.com\/mobile-game-market-review-july-amp-august-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst Bulletin: Mobile Game Market Review July & August 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

August can be a quiet month in the mobile market as we move out of the holiday period, so we\u2019ve combined the biggest updates from the mobile market in July and August into an absolutely mammoth Analyst Bulletin covering everything you need to know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the hottest trends off the back of Summer BBQs is ingredient gathering\/formula events, which are surging in popularity as major names like Coin Master and Disney Solitaire implement these new events to create a larger event framework that incentivizes players to participate in as many events as possible. While most people might associate ingredients with cooking, the formula-based nature of ingredient gathering means this event type can be repurposed for different themes, which is exactly what Match Villains did by building this event type around a safe-cracking event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of trending events, the last couple of months have seen some notable mobile launches for AAA PC and console franchises, namely Riot Games\u2019 Valorant in China and Sony\/Bungie\u2019s Destiny. Both games are off to a strong start, but can they sustain this in an increasingly competitive mobile market? In addition to these AAA mainstays, you\u2019ll find plenty of exciting new releases you should be keeping an eye on in this month\u2019s bulletin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find more information about these updates and titles, as well as the latest trends from across the mobile market, by checking out our latest Analyst Bulletin below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

July & August casual game updates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cash Tornado Slots added a full achievement system<\/a> in August, something not often seen at this scale in social casino games. Players earn badges across categories such as Missions, Slots, Merge, Friends, and Teams, which feed into a central trophy that upgrades through multiple tiers. This new achievement system is tied to a cosmetic reward track, while a leaderboard tracks which players are collecting the most points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Achievement systems such as this are a proven way to incentivize engagement, as they set long-term goals for players to work towards. Coupling this achievement system with a leaderboard is a clever move, as the leaderboard element taps into players who are motivated by social recognition. The cosmetic reward track further incentivizes engagement as it provides players with a way to show off their mastery of the game. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Cash Tornado Slots<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Stumble Guys<\/a> expanded its social systems at the end of July with Clubs \/ Clubs Goals<\/a>, a community tournament event that turned task completion into a team effort. Running for about four weeks, the event drives retention through shared objectives and milestone-based rewards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Players could join or create Clubs to complete rotating daily and weekly goals, earning points toward a shared reward track. Progressing through the Club reward track unlocks exclusive cosmetics, incentivizing long-term participation and teamwork.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Stumble Guys\u2019 Clubs<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a busy couple of months for Moon Active\u2019s Coin Master, which spent the Summer experimenting with a variety of completely new event types. Coin Cafe<\/a> launched at the beginning of August, a simplified ingredient-gathering event where players could earn dishes (bronze, silver, gold) and collect ingredients from around the game and core spins. Dishes open instantly when unlocked to provide ingredients, which are collected and used to complete orders in the event window. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serving orders in turn grants tickets for a progression bar with threshold rewards and a grand prize at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Coin Master\u2019s Coin Cafe Event<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Disney Solitaire also launched an ingredient-gathering event called Chef\u2019s Kitchen<\/a>, perfectly themed around its animated movie Ratatouille. In the event, players collected ingredients from baskets, which were used to cook dishes and win rewards. The baskets are randomly awarded as rewards from other in-game events and offers, creating a larger event framework that incentivizes players to participate in as many events as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top-performing games have been introducing and utilizing umbrella events to connect different event types together, with seasonal collectible albums and mission list events being some of the most popular choices. Ingredient gathering and formula events are now one of the latest trends. They\u2019re similar to seasonal albums, as you have to collect items from a variety of events, but instead of collecting these items to make a photo album, you combine them to create a formula, with ingredients for a cooking recipe being the most popular.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Disney Solitaire\u2019s Chef Kitchen event<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Disney Solitaire, Coin Master, and Match Villains are just some of the top-performing games that have introduced ingredient gathering events in the last two months. While the mechanics of Match Villain\u2019s event are almost the same, the event has you gathering tools that are used to crack open safes. This is a better match for the game\u2019s villain theme and shows how this event type can be tailored to fit a specific narrative or gameplay theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another unique event is Boss Fight<\/a>, a special minigame event where players use an event currency, Boss Gold, to spin an event-specific wheel and fight through 12 boss stages. This event might feel familiar to fans of boss rush modes in adventure games, but combat mechanics are completely new to Coin Master and highlight the game\u2019s strengths with event hybridization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Players spin a wheel to deal damage, block incoming attacks, heal themselves and even trigger special attacks with lightning strikes. Bosses attack at timed intervals with pop-up warnings shown in the main gameplay beforehand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boss Gold can be earned from core spins, offers, or purchases, with the cost of a spin scaling with multiplayers (x1\u2013x10). The main goal of the event is to beat all 12 bosses and reach the end, picking up stage rewards after every boss defeat and a Grand Prize for making it to the end.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Coin Master\u2019s Boss Fight event<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Outside of major events, Coin Master has been experimenting with new monetization models. Progressive Bundle: Video Value<\/a> is a new ad-monetized progressive offer where players solely watch ads to claim rewards, up to a maximum of three rewards. This offer was also supplemented with a new gacha-based reward type, Scratch Time. The reward plays a scratch card animation upon revealing the randomized reward.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Progressive Bundle and Scratch Card offers in Coin Master<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Epic\u2019s victory over Apple and Google earlier this year has had a major impact on the mobile market as more game studios try to dodge App Store fees by encouraging players to visit external web stores to purchase items. These web stores often have better prices than in-game purchases, and Coin Master has introduced several Web Value Offers in the last couple of months. These offers are advertised in-game, but direct players to a new pop-up browser to complete the purchase when interacted with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n