Korea’s mobile game market is showing continuous growth. According to the ‘2024 Korean Mobile Game Market Insights’ report published by Sensor Tower, the number of Korean mobile game downloads in the third quarter of 2024 increased by 17% compared to the same period last year, reaching approximately 130 million.
According to Sensor Tower’s analysis, the cumulative number of downloads from the first quarter to the third quarter of 2024 reached 350 million, of which 70% were made through the Google Play platform. During the same period, revenue from in-app purchases reached close to $1.24 billion, a 3% increase over the previous year. Total revenue from the first to third quarters was $3.7 billion, 75% of which came from the Google Play platform.
Looking at game genres, puzzle games still recorded the highest number of downloads. The puzzle game represented by ‘Block Blast’ recorded 88 million downloads from January to October 2024, a 7% increase compared to the previous year, accounting for 23% of all mobile game downloads.
What is noteworthy is the rapid growth of the strategy game genre. With the advent of new games such as ‘Lucky Game‘ and ‘Squad Busters’, the number of strategy game downloads increased by 23%, and in terms of revenue, it showed an incredible growth rate of 69% compared to the previous year. This is analyzed as a result of games such as ‘Last War: Survival’ attracting many players by effectively combining strategy and casual gameplay.
The RPG genre still shows the highest profitability in the Korean mobile game market. From January to October 2024, it generated more than $2.1 billion in revenue, accounting for 52% of the total market revenue.
The performance of new games also stood out. 17 and 45 new games entered the top 100 in Korean mobile game revenue and download rankings, respectively. ‘Only I Level Up: Arise’ ranked first in the revenue rankings of new Korean games from January to October 2024.
Foreign games were also actively entering the Korean market. ‘Last War: Survival’ and ‘Growing Mushroom’ ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the Korean mobile game revenue rankings, and 1st and 2nd in the download rankings. In particular, ‘Last War: Survival’ earned $250 million in Korea, a 33-fold increase over the previous year, which is equivalent to 21.4% of global revenue.
Korean games are also actively expanding overseas. Netmarble’s six games entered the top 10 in terms of revenue for Korean mobile games entering overseas markets, and Superpercent’s six games entered the top 10 in downloads.
