Analyst Bulletin: Mobile Game Market Review December 2024

We might be in the first month of 2025, but our analysts are still reeling from everything launched in the mobile market in December 2024. The title that got the most attention was Pokémon TCG Pocket, which continued its monumental success into the New Year after introducing its first-ever card pack expansion. 

Clash of Clans also ended the year with a bang by launching the much-anticipated new level for its Town Hall systems, which resulted in a spike of more than 200% in daily revenue on the US iOS market, as well as a month-long PvE challenge event that gave players direct control over their heroes for the first time. Meanwhile, Brawl Stars got into the holiday spirit with a generous giveaway event that saw all players gifted the game’s first-ever crossover character, Buzz Lightyear from Disney Pixar’s Toy Story. 

Over in the more casual side of the market, Monopoly GO! launched its biggest partner event yet, Haunted Mansion, while Lily’s Garden ran an in-game competition where players had the chance to win real-world prizes like an iPhone 16 Pro. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Nintendo either, which drew a lot of attention after releasing a new premium version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp without multiplayer features. 

Everything you need to know about these games and updates, as well as the latest events and trends from both the casual and midcore markets, is detailed in our latest analyst bulletin below. 

December’s casual game updates

The match3 puzzler Matching Story sledged off the December festivities with Christmas Dice Frenzy, a dice board minigame featuring three additional sub-minigames. The overarching minigame functioned much like any classic board game, with players rolling dice (acquired by playing Matching Story’s core gameplay levels) and progressing based on the number they land. 

Players earned event currency as they moved across the board, and also had the chance to land on one of three minigame squares:

• The TNT Slot square sent players to a 3×3 grid with nine multipliers and hidden TNTs. Players spun to reveal a random square and received event currency based on their match-up, as long as they didn’t reveal too many TNT squares.
• After landing on the Giant Dice square, players rolled a six-sided dice with symbols for five different multipliers, plus one TNT symbol. Players could roll the dice to collect event currency for as long as they didn’t land on the TNT symbol.
• The Bank Heist square featured a 3×4 grid with hidden symbols. Players needed to find three of the same symbols to receive the event currency prize. Again, a hidden TNT symbol would end the round if found. 

Accrued currency could be spent in a dedicated event store to purchase items that help in the main game, like boosters and cards, which is standard practice. More interestingly, the items for purchase were made available in “stages.” As players completed stages, they would progress to the Grand Prize Bar, which unlocked a special in-game decoration once full.

Since they first appeared in Monopoly GO!, partner events (cooperative events where players are grouped together in one large team, and then divided into smaller teams that work together to achieve an overarching goal) have become one of the most prolific mobile live event trends. But now, as we begin the New Year, partner events are evolving—with many expanding in scope and introducing all-new twists.

Royal Match’s Train Journey is one such example. It follows the traditional template followed by most partner events. Players partner with three different people that form multiple sub-partnerships, and must then complete puzzle levels in the main game to earn event currency (in this case, trains). This is then used to spin a “wheel of fortune” to progress on a playing board. As players move along the board, they accumulate “Rail Tokens” that are distributed between each partnership. 

After accruing a certain amount of tokens with each partner, the player is awarded railway pieces, which pave the way to completing the event and unlocking various rewards.

Being the game that first launched partner events, it’s only fitting that Monopoly GO! is also one of the titles seeing just how far the concept can go. Haunted Mansion is Monopoly GO!’s most extensive partner event yet, and saw eight players complete a series of tasks that included lighting candles, fixing generators, and preparing themed items like pizza. There was generally much more variety on offer than in Monopoly GO!’s previous partner events, with many levels even featuring different visual designs.

Additionally, Haunted Mansion incorporated task management elements that benefitted the team as a whole and offered an optional competitive aspect to encourage individual success.

Meanwhile, Lily’s Garden launched something rarely seen in the Western side of the mobile market: real-life prizes. As part of the game’s Christmas celebrations, which also included a calendar packed with various free and premium rewards, players could take part in a Lily’s Holiday Giveaway raffle for the chance to win an iPhone 16 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, as well as Amazon gift cards. However, getting these prizes wasn’t easy, with players having to complete 100 match3 levels just to acquire one raffle ticket. 

In addition to boosting engagement, the competition was likely conceived with the aim of encouraging more players to visit Lily’s Garden’s online webstore where transactions aren’t subject to the iOS and Google Play store royalty fees. Players needed to submit their email to enter the competition, likely registering them for the game’s newsletter which regularly features webstore links and other advertisements.

Last but not least, Travel Town introduced Tick Tock Orders, special short-duration tasks that are more challenging to complete but offer better rewards than usual. A nice touch here was the addition of the “Choose Your Challenge” feature—players could go for a slight increase in difficulty to get a slight boost to their prize or opt for the maximum challenge for the best reward possible. Once players had chosen their difficulty level, they were granted three hours to complete the task, after which the order would disappear.

December’s midcore game updates

Clash of Clans ended 2024 on a high note with the introduction of Town Hall level 17, which brought an array of new content to the game. Highlights included a new Hero, the Minion Prince, a new Hero Hall building which acts as the central hub for managing all hero-related features, and a Helper Hut building for managing and upgrading the Chief’s Helpers: the Builder Apprentice and the newly-added Lab Assistant, which helps speed up research tasks in the Home Village’s Laboratory.

As with past Town Hall updates, the launch of level 17 caused a dramatic uptick in Clash of Clans’ daily revenue performance, which increased by around 200% on the US iOS market on 25 November. 

As if that wasn’t enough, Clash of Clans also released Controllable Heroes: Cookie Chaos!, a month-long event featuring a series of limited-time PvE challenges that unlocked sequentially. In regular Clash of Clans battles, players are limited to simply tapping to deploy heroes and troops, which then move across the battlefield automatically. This event stood out as it granted players full control over the heroes’ movement, giving them the freedom to experiment with all-new tactical strategies.

Another title that ended 2024 with a major update was Pokémon TCG Pocket. On 17 December, the game added its first card pack expansion, which included 68 new basic cards alongside a whole bunch of associated tasks and achievements. A number of new solo challenge battles were also added, which featured opponents equipped with decks primarily based on the newly introduced cards. 

Overall, the update was quite a simplistic content expansion without any major surprises or feature changes. Nevertheless, the addition of new cards alone caused a huge surge in the game’s daily revenue performance, which spiked by more than 470% on 17 December in the US.

Pokemon TCG Pocket is expected to get a more dramatic shake-up later this month when players are granted the ability to trade cards, although details as to how this will actually work in practice are yet to be revealed. That being said, given the game is continuing to journey down Victory Road, ranking among the top-grossing 10 in the US and Japan, there’s arguably nothing the game needs to change at this point in time.

Elsewhere, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang concentrated on the more competitive side of the mobile market with Rising Open, a tournament where players of all skill levels were invited to try their hand at becoming an eSports sensation. 

The event provided a structured pathway from local matches to higher-level championships, creating a competitive environment in which all players could take part. Players could participate in matches alone or in teams, and there were no rank restrictions, making it accessible to everyone regardless of their experience level or preferences. However, teams could scout solo players, with configurations remaining flexible until the final brackets. 

As the tournament went on, players earned tokens for their participation that could be spent in a dedicated in-game shop selling exclusive cosmetics items and various consumables.

Lastly, Brawl Stars launched its first-ever collaboration event, partnering with Disney Pixar to bring the world of Toy Story into the game. It was an unexpectedly generous crossover, with all players being gifted Buzz Lightyear—an all-new playable character with three unique playstyles (Laser, Saber, and Wing)—as part of Brawlidays, a 14-day-long login event with daily gifts. 

Adding to the generosity was that Buzz was also fully upgraded from the start, so players did not need to invest their time or cash into the new character. However, this came with two caveats: Buzz cannot be used in Ranked mode and will only be available until 4 February, when he will be removed from the game. The crossover did feature some monetization in that a handful of Toy Story-themed skins, such as Jessie Jessie and Woody Colt, are available for purchase, although Buzz was pitched as the main draw. 

Given that licensed IPs are typically costly and time-consuming to acquire, such a generous giveaway with a prolific partner like Disney is somewhat out of the ordinary. However, it’s entirely possible that Disney themselves fronted the cost in a bid to introduce the Toy Story IP to Brawl Stars’ expansive audience, especially given that a new film in the historic franchise is in early production.

Additional midcore gaming highlights and other news

Looking at December’s new releases, Infinity Nikki was one newcomer that made quite an impact when it landed on 5 December, jumping to eighth place in downloads on the US iOS market. The open-world game, which mixes action RPG elements with a focus on dress-up, has since fallen down the ranks and out of the top 200 overall titles.  However, it’s worth noting that the game is also available on PS5, so it’s possible players are still spending—it’s just happening on a different platform. 

That being said, the game’s monetization strategy is relatively moderate. It relies on a gacha system that focuses primarily on outfits that are purely aesthetic, with abilities that have minimal impact on gameplay. However, a more aggressive form of monetization emerges in the game’s progression mechanics, where the free-to-play players face a prolonged grind for accumulating upgrade materials compared to paying customers.

Infinity Nikki is part of a long-standing series and follows on from Shining Nikki and Love Nikki. It’s the latest entry in the growing genre of cozy dress-up games, following the successful trend set by titles such as Roblox’s Dress to Impress. These games have gained popularity among players of all genders, though Infinity Nikki appears to target a predominantly female audience. 

While Nintendo has largely taken its focus away from the mobile market in favor of the Switch, the legendary game maker became a talking point in December when it announced that online support was ending for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp after seven years. Rather than remove the game from the market entirely, a new offline version has been released that can be purchased for a one-time fee ($10, increasing to $20 after January).

Players of the live version can transfer their account to the complete version via the Nintendo account and continue playing. All monetization has been removed, and any features previously locked behind a subscription are now available to all. 

The move has had some mixed responses from long-term fans: while most players agree that the decision to make the game premium is a net positive, many feel that the complete version feels empty and lonely without other players. While Animal Crossing is perfectly serviceable as a single-player game, a large part of its appeal is inviting others to visit your home and appreciate your decorations.