Sensor Tower: State of the South Korean Mobile Gaming Market in the H2 2023
Lineage, EA Sports FC, and Royal Match!
Overall numbers
According to Sensor Tower, mobile revenue in South Korea in the second half of 2023 amounted to $2.66 billion - 3% less than the same period the previous year ($2.75 billion).
However, the trend is positive. The difference between the first halves of 2022 and 2023 is 16% (the market was higher in 2022).
In the second half of 2023, revenue from mobile games on the App Store grew by 4%. The decline is attributed to a 5% decrease on Google Play.
The number of downloads in the second half of 2023 dropped by 15% compared to 2022 - from 235 million to 200 million.
Once again, the App Store showed a growth of 6%; Google Play plummeted by 21%.
Top Games by Revenue and Downloads
Three games from the Lineage series are at the top by revenue. Lineage M is in the first position; Lineage W is in the fourth position; Lineage 2M is in the fifth position.
Night Crows, released in April 2023, took the second position by revenue.
MMORPGs continue to dominate the Korean charts, but Raising Seven Knights; Whiteout Survival, and EA Sports FC Mobile add diversity.
Top Mobile Games by Growth Dynamics
Raising Seven Knights - Netmarble's Idle RPG - leads in South Korea in terms of revenue and download growth dynamics.
Idle RPGs are getting hot not only in South Korea. Amount of new titles in this genre is big, and many of them are getting to the top.
Tower of God: A New World, also a game from Netmarble, performs well. The project is in the fifth position in terms of sales growth dynamics.
Royal Match - in the 7th position in South Korea. The game earned $36 million in the country in the second half of 2023.
Publisher Rankings
NCSoft - the highest-earning publisher in South Korea, thanks to the Lineage series.
WEMADE jumped from the 15th position to the 5th position, thanks to the success of Night Crows.
In the top 10 in South Korea, there are a total of 4 foreign publishers. These are miHoYo, Century Games (a newcomer), Tencent, and 37GAMES.