The mobile gaming industry has never been more exciting! According to our latest data, Honor of Kings from Tencent took the top spot as the highest-grossing mobile game worldwide for October 2021, with a staggering $329 million in player spending. This represents an impressive 46.2 percent growth from the same period in 2020.
Breaking down the numbers further, we see that approximately 96.7 percent of Honor of Kings' revenue came from China, while Taiwan accounted for around 1.2 percent. The full ranking of top-grossing mobile games for October 2021 can be found above. These estimates are based on Sensor Tower's Store Intelligence platform.
Coming in second was PUBG Mobile from Tencent, with over $197 million in gross revenue. A significant portion of this income came from China (51%), where the game has been localized as Game For Peace. The United States also contributed a notable 11.5 percent to PUBG Mobile's overall earnings.
Other top-grossing games for October 2021 included Candy Crush Saga from King, Garena Free Fire from Garena, and League of Legends: Wild Rift from Riot Games, published by Tencent in China. These titles demonstrate the incredible diversity and competitiveness within the mobile gaming landscape.
The global mobile games market saw a significant increase in player spending across the App Store and Google Play in October 2021, with revenues reaching $7.5 billion – a 10.5 percent year-over-year growth.
Looking at the top markets for revenue, we see that the United States took the number one spot, accounting for $2.1 billion (28.3% of total player spending worldwide). Japan ranked second, contributing around 20%, followed closely by China at approximately 18.7%.
One notable newcomer to the top 10 mobile games by revenue in October was League of Legends: Wild Rift, which generated a remarkable $108 million thanks largely to its launch in China, where it accounted for about 93% of the title's total player spending.
Meanwhile, Candy Crush Saga had a stellar month, with revenue rising by approximately 50 percent year-over-year. This evergreen game has been hosting the All Stars US tournament, which began on September 23 and will conclude on November 11, 2021.
It's worth noting that our estimates do not include ad revenue. If you're interested in comparing these rankings to previous months, check out our article on Top Grossing Mobile Games Worldwide for September 2021 here.