Mobile Game Market Overview for October

Want to stay up to date with current events in the mobile gaming industry? Check out our mobile game market overview for October 2021.

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Whether you want to know about the hottest news, acquisitions, top mobile games, or the newest game releases – we’ve got you covered.

Top Mobile Games in October – Apple App Store

According to SensorTower – free data, the most popular games in October have been Retro Bowl in the free category, Minecraft in the paid category, and Roblox in the top-grossing one. Retro Bowl is an American-style football game created by New Star Games for all those who want to experience a nostalgic game of American football.

Minecraft has been holding a number one position in the paid category for a while now. Finally, Roblox has come to the top once again in the top-grossing category, after last month’s Candy Crush Saga, which is now in second place.

Also, Candy Challenge 3D is 4th on the Free games rank, which is a game based on the highly popular Netflix TV Show – Squid Game.

Top Mobile Games – Google Play

Unlike the App Store, Google Play’s free category number one has been taken by a Squid Game-inspired game called Cookie Carver: Life Challenge. This game was made by CASUAL AZUR GAMES, and it contains all games from Netflix’s show. Additionally, the second place in the free category is also a game inspired by the Squid game show – 456: Survival game.

Minecraft, as in the App Store, holds a strong number one position in the paid category. Lastly, the top-grossing game on Google Play is Candy Crush Saga, followed by Garena Free Fire – Booyah Day. (SensorTower – free data)

Mobile Game Market Overview for October: Hottest Mobile Gaming News

If you want to stay up to date with the latest and hottest news in the mobile gaming world, then you’ve come to the right place.

Here is the hottest news selection in our mobile game market overview for October 2021.

1. PlayStation Enters Mobile Gaming World, Hires Apple Arcade Boss

Playstation entered the mobile gaming world by hiring Apple Arcade boss Nicola Sebastiani. Sony was silent about this hire, but eventually, everything was clear when Sebastiani updated his LinkedIn profile with new job information.

Sony posted a job listing in April 2021, looking for a new Head of Mobile. Fast forward a couple of months later, Sebastiani became the Head of Mobile.

For now, only with the purpose of bringing Playstation’s popular games to mobile platforms.

Following the news about Sebastiani’s hire, Jim Ryan, Sony CEO, stated that he didn’t like the idea of limiting PlayStation’s audience to only 20 or 30 million players.

Ryan imagined the number a little bit bigger, more like hundreds of millions of players.

When asked about how he plans to expand PlayStation’s player base, Ryan refused to comment further.

Some of the things he did share were that PlayStation has an extensive library of games that could potentially be translated into mobile.

One of those reimagined games is a popular racing game, WipEout.

The team working on translating WipEout into a mobile version added some card-based mechanisms and single-player campaigns. The game will be out on iOS and Android at the beginning of 2022.

2. Google Sues Epic Games for Breach of Contract

Epic Games has been a name on everyone’s lips in 2021, mostly because of their countless lawsuits and fights with Apple and Google.

This time, Google sued Epic Games for breach of contract after Epic had stated a number of allegations in previous lawsuits.

Epic Games previously stated that both Apple and Google practiced anti-competitive policies.

However, the Apple lawsuit didn’t end well for Epic Games since they had to pay $3.6 million for all the damage Epic’s alternative payment system had done to Apple.

Now, with Google, the situation is not much different. Google denied all allegations and stated that, in fact, Epic Games is in the wrong here.

Why? Because Google doesn’t require Android users to use Google Play at all.

Therefore, Epic Games could have published their game anywhere else and practiced their payment systems, which wouldn’t result in breaching any contracts or terms.

Google stated that they were clear in saying that they didn’t allow alternative payment methods in their store.

Moreover, Google stated that Epic Games had been working very hard on keeping their payment system hidden.

They said that Epic had introduced their payment system sneakily through updates on both Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

3. Ludus Announces Investments in Turkish Mobile Game Startups

Ludus Venture Studio has invested in three Turkish mobile game startup companies.

Aside from the three mobile game companies, Ludus has also invested in Monetizr and StageZero Technologies.

Monetizr is a US-based ad-tech company that works with in-game reward systems. Stage Zero provides AI data analytics.

Ludus mentioned that since they were also a Turkish company, their goal was to help the Turkish mobile game market develop further.

Furthermore, Ludus stated that they were confident in Turkey’s position as one of the leading companies in terms of mobile game development.

The three mobile game studios are Paxie Games, Stardust Games, and Maestro Game Studio.

The Maestro Game Studio commented how these investments would help them expand their development team and focus on creating hybrid mobile games. Stardust Games said that their founders’ expertise should combine well with Ludus’.

Finally, Paxie Games stated that they had raised $1 million in their investment round.

Furthermore, Paxie noted that they wanted to launch casual games. Of course, launch them successfully, which, as they shared, would be possible thanks to Ludus.

Final Thoughts on Mobile Game Market Overview for October 2021

As you’ve just read, the mobile game market has been full of different activities in October 2021. We’ve seen a lot of fun games being released, millions of dollars worth of acquisitions, lawsuits being filed, investments made, and many more.

Which news was the most interesting to you? Did you enjoy reading our mobile game market overview for October 2021? Let us know in the comments!

Mobile Game Market Overview for October 2021: Hottest News