A report reveals that global in-app purchase revenue for licensed IP mobile games reached $18.4 billion in 2025, remaining largely consistent with levels seen in 2022 and 2023. The licensed IP mobile game sector has transitioned from a period of rapid growth to a phase of mature volatility. Future growth is now more dependent on IP quality, gameplay innovation, and long-term operations rather than simply expanding the user base. Despite a continued decline in downloads, the average revenue per download for global IP mobile games increased against the trend, rising by 12% year-on-year in 2025. The global IP mobile game market has shifted from a "volume-driven" to a "quality and efficiency-driven" model—focusing less on new user acquisition and more on enhancing the value of existing users through sustained operations and sophisticated monetization design.
The US market for IP mobile games demonstrated robust performance, with in-app purchase revenue growing 14% year-on-year in 2024 to $5.3 billion, surpassing Japan to become the world's largest IP mobile game market. By 2025, the US market's share of global revenue further increased to 26%. Although download volumes saw a slight decline, the consistent rise in average revenue per download drove overall revenue growth. The Japanese market maintained a high average revenue per download; however, persistent declines in download volume, combined with the depreciation of the Japanese Yen against the US Dollar over the past five years, resulted in a downward trend for Japanese IP mobile game revenue when measured in US Dollars.
TENCENT (00700) firmly held its position as the top parent company by revenue from mobile game IPs. Revenue from the Gundam IP surged nearly tenfold year-on-year. More than half of all IP mobile game revenue originates from video game-native IPs, as users show the highest acceptance of familiar game worlds, characters, and gameplay mechanics, making these IPs easier to monetize quickly and sustain over the long term. TENCENT's Honor of Kings and League of Legends, alongside Nintendo's Pokémon IP, formed a triumvirate, collectively contributing 51% of the revenue in this IP category. Anime/comic IPs accounted for 14% of total revenue, with Dragon Ball Z, Uma Musume, and Gundam comprising nearly half of that share. The board game category is almost entirely dominated by the Monopoly IP, making it the most concentrated segment among all IP types. FIFPro holds a dominant position in the sports IP category, leveraging the global appeal of football.
TENCENT, Hasbro, and Nintendo ranked as the top three parent companies by mobile game IP revenue. TENCENT maintained its leading revenue position, driven by the outstanding performance of IPs like Honor of Kings and League of Legends. Monopoly secured its status as the highest-grossing mobile game IP, while the Gundam IP experienced a dramatic revenue increase of nearly tenfold over the past year, largely due to the strong performance of the turn-based strategy mobile game *SD Gundam G Generation ETERNAL*.
NTES-S's (09999) *Marvel Rivals* became the highest-downloaded PC/console IP game globally in 2025. Total downloads for IP games across Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms exceeded 320 million in 2025. PlayStation led the market with 150 million downloads, accounting for nearly half of the total, followed by Xbox with 110 million downloads, while the Steam platform recorded 66.5 million downloads. Console platforms remain the core channel for IP game downloads, while the PC segment shows steady growth potential. Fueled by the official release and massive success of *Baldur's Gate 3*, IP game revenue on Steam hit a record high in 2023. As sales of top-tier IP games moderated, total IP game revenue on Steam decreased, reaching $1.27 billion in 2025. *Marvel Rivals*, a "Marvel Heroes" IP shooter game launched by NTES in December 2024, leveraged the powerful appeal of the Marvel Universe combined with fast-paced team competition gameplay. In 2025, it achieved nearly 22 million downloads on PC/console platforms (with Steam contributing 45% of that figure), making it the year's highest-downloaded PC/console IP game worldwide.
*Honor of Kings* reclaimed the top spot in the global IP mobile game revenue ranking. TENCENT's *Honor of Kings* generated over $2 billion in revenue (from iOS in Mainland China) in the past 12 months, powerfully returning to the number one position globally. After a decade since its launch, this flagship title, leveraging its top-tier IP influence and refined long-term operations, has accumulated nearly $17 billion in lifetime revenue, establishing itself as the highest-grossing IP mobile game of all time by cumulative earnings.
Driven by the strong performance of multiple titles, including the MapleStory IP mobile game *MapleStory: Idle RPG* and the Mabinogi IP mobile game *Mabinogi Mobile*, publisher Nexon saw its IP mobile game revenue surge nearly 200% year-on-year over the past year. This growth propelled Nexon to the top of the publisher revenue growth chart and into the 7th position in the overall publisher revenue ranking. Consequently, Nexon surpassed veteran publisher NCSOFT to claim the number one spot on the South Korean mobile game publisher revenue chart.
*Chaos Zero Nightmare* emerged as the highest-grossing brand-new original IP mobile game globally over the past six months. Launched by Smilegate Holdings in October 2025, *Chaos Zero Nightmare* is a dark fantasy Roguelike card game set in a new universe. It distinguishes itself with a core gameplay loop centered on "stress breakdown mechanics + random dream exploration + deep card strategy," complemented by a low-saturation dark aesthetic and exquisite anime-style character art, successfully capturing global player attention. Within nearly five months of its release, the game's global revenue approached $50 million, earning it the title of the highest-grossing brand-new original IP mobile game in the recent half-year period. It also received the Sensor Tower 2025 APAC Award for Best Emerging Anime-Style Game. Japan and the US were the game's highest revenue-generating markets, contributing 31% and 26% of the total revenue, respectively.
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