Insightrackr has released the January 2026 Global Mobile Game Rankings for Downloads and Revenue, based on its comprehensive monitoring of the worldwide mobile market.
These rankings are derived from Insightrackr's proprietary estimates of app download volume and gross revenue, listing the Top 15 Mobile Games by Downloads and the Top 15 Mobile Games by Revenue. This report further deconstructs the user acquisition and ad creative strategies of selected standout apps from the past month.
This Month's Case Studies: Heartopia, Arknights: Endfield, Jackpot Go
Top 15 Mobile Games by Downloads
From an overall market structure perspective, the leading titles maintained ranking stability. The Top 3 — Block Blast!, Roblox, and Pizza Ready! — continued to hold their positions without change, highlighting the long-term download resilience of top casual titles and UGC ecosystem products in the global market.
In terms of growth momentum, Tile Explorer: Tiles Clear!, published by Learnings, recorded the most significant MoM increase. Its January downloads rose approximately 57.88% vs. December 2025, climbing 12 positions to rank No.7 this period.
Insightrackr previously analyzed this title in the June mobile game rankings last year (click to read). One of its core growth drivers lies in highly viral short-drama-style ad creatives — using absurd narrative setups and twist endings to capture attention and deliver emotional payoff within seconds.
In the sports category, Football League™ 2026 rolled out a major version update on January 9, which drove synchronized download growth. Monthly downloads increased approximately 44.48% MoM, with rankings rising six places — demonstrating the strong synergy between content updates, organic traffic, and paid acquisition.
Additionally, Arrows - Puzzle Escape (click to read), which entered the previous rankings as a dark horse, maintained 13.61% download growth in January. However, amid intensifying leaderboard competition, its ranking still fell four places to No.15 — reflecting the high volatility mid-tier titles face in traffic competition.
Top 15 Global Mobile Games by Revenue
Unlike the relative stability on the download side, the revenue rankings saw notable turbulence this period. Nine of the Top 15 titles recorded MoM revenue declines, leading to significant reshuffling among leading games.
Last period’s No.2 title Brawl Stars dropped six positions this month, while former No.1 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang fell out of the Top 15 entirely.
Among revenue growth titles, casino game Jackpot Go: Slots Casino posted the strongest performance, with revenue rising approximately 32.16% MoM, making it the fastest-growing title on the revenue leaderboard.
Top Moblie Game UA Strategy Analysis
01 Heartopia
As the global version of XD Network’s life simulation game 心动小镇, Heartopia officially launched on January 8 across global markets and rapidly reached No.1 on the App Store Free Games charts in Japan, the United States, South Korea, and other regions.
Insightrackr estimates its January downloads surpassed 10 million, ranking No.17 on the monthly download leaderboard — demonstrating explosive market momentum.
From an investment pacing perspective, Heartopia did not adopt the conventional long pre-registration marketing cycle. Instead, it concentrated paid acquisition budget within the launch window.
On launch day (Jan 8), its active ad creative volume instantly surged past 1,000+, rapidly establishing market visibility. Supply expansion remained aggressive thereafter, with 50–100 new creatives added daily, sustaining an overall active creative pool of around 1,200 creatives/day at peak levels.
By late January — as the first acquisition wave tapered — creative volume declined to roughly 900, though investment density remained high within the life simulation category.
In terms of media mix, Heartopia primarily relied on Google and Meta for core traffic acquisition, with regional targeting focused on Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong & Taiwan, and parts of Southeast Asia.
Users in these regions demonstrate higher affinity for cute cartoon 3D art styles, healing gameplay, high-freedom building systems, and light social mechanics — closely aligned with the product’s value proposition. From a download contribution standpoint, the United States, Thailand, and Japan emerged as the top source markets.
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At the creative level, Heartopia’s ad creatives centered on “immersive lifestyle simulation.” Gameplay slices — farming, cooking, fishing, building, pet raising — were used to reinforce relaxing casual positioning, supplemented by party scenes and cooperative exploration to amplify social atmosphere.
The title also incorporated influencer reaction creatives as advertising hooks. By partnering with female lifestyle creators, ads leveraged real-time reactions to the game’s visual charm and gameplay fun, strengthening emotional resonance and trust signaling.
02 Arknights: Endfield
Arknights: Endfield, a 3D real-time strategy RPG developed and published by Hypergryph, launched its global open beta on January 22, 2026.
Insightrackr monitoring shows its global advertising began in late December 2025, following a classic “pre-launch ramp-up + launch burst” investment curve.
Early daily creative volume remained below 50, gradually climbing to around 300/day. During open beta launch week, acquisition budgets were released intensively, with active creatives surging past 1,800/day — a textbook concentrated launch-window investment pattern for hardcore ACGN titles.
Regionally, as an ACGN-themed game, Arknights: Endfield focused on core cultural markets: Japan (14.71%), South Korea (9.52%), United States (7.04%).
Beyond Google and Meta, the media mix also included Appier, which has strong traffic foundations in Japan and South Korea.
Performance outcomes aligned closely with targeting strategy — Japan, the United States, and South Korea also ranked as the primary download and revenue source markets.
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From a creative strategy perspective, the game extended the Arknights IP universe and character assets, with iconic operator showcases serving as a core creative theme.
Ads blended realistic environments with anime characters, emphasizing production fidelity through details such as ribbon physics, costume materials, lighting, and combat animation — communicating technical polish and AAA production value.
Meanwhile, some ad creatives incorporated internet pop culture. For example, one Japan-targeted creative adopted an interactive “finger-swipe rhythm response” format, rendered with chibi comic-style characters — adding lighthearted appeal alongside the franchise’s hardcore tone.
03 Jackpot Go
Jackpot Go is a typical casino game, positioned around multi-theme slot gameplay and real-reward mechanics. Insightrackr data shows it launched on Google Play (April 2025) and the App Store (September 2025) respectively.
Jackpot Go significantly scaled its advertising spend in early January. Daily active creatives increased from <100 to 150+, before tapering back to normal levels in the second half of the month — reflecting a phased traffic-boost strategy.
Excluding ad library traffic, the majority of its acquisition came from AppLovin, highlighting the casino category’s heavy reliance on programmatic ad networks.
Regionally, the United States was the absolute core market — 82.24% of creatives targeted the U.S., far exceeding Brazil (4.82%) and the Netherlands (4.39%).
Performance data mirrored this concentration: the United States contributed nearly all downloads and revenue, indicating extremely high market centralization.
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Playable Ad |
Creatively, beyond standard casino tropes — coins, gems, jackpot explosions — Jackpot Go strengthened live-action narrative ads.
In one scenario creative, a pizza delivery driver arrives to collect payment, but the customer lacks sufficient balance. In desperation, the customer plays Jackpot Go to “win money fast” and completes the payment.
This narrative juxtaposes real-life embarrassment with instant reversal, embedding core selling points — earn money, fast cash-out — within a dramatic yet conversion-oriented storyline.
Additionally, Jackpot Go deployed a “video + playable ad” hybrid funnel — using video to spark interest, then playable ads to capture interaction, reinforcing install intent through simulated jackpot wins during gameplay.
This concludes the analysis of January 2026 global Mobile Game downloads, revenue, and advertising activities.
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