Pokemon Go was 2016's most downloaded game but not the top earner

Mobile games and the mobile app market as a whole continued to grow in 2016, according to data pulled from a yearly retrospective released by the mobile market analysis company App Annie.

To the surprise of no one, Pokemon Go ranked within the top three for both top downloads and most revenue earned on both iOS and Google Play storefronts combined despite only releasing halfway through 2016.

According to the report, Pokemon Go pulled over $950 million in consumer spending before the end of 2016, with $800 million of that happening within 110 days of release.

Despite this, Niantic's immensely popular AR game still fell behind Monster Strike and Clash of Clans in terms of games that earned the most revenue across both mobile platforms. The continued success of Clash of Clans and newly released Clash Royale helped cement developer Supercell as the second top-earning mobile company of 2016, right behind the Chinese company Tencent.

The Chinese game market has seen significant growth since 2014, a trend which continued throughout this past year. China and Japan both outranked the United States last year in terms of average revenue earned on a per user basis (ARPU), but the gap between the East and the West grew significantly in 2016.

Last year Japan’s ARPU increased from $16 to $30 and China’s grew from $10 to $25. In that same span of time, the ARPU of American players only went from roughly $7 to $13.

The worldwide charts detailing top downloads and revenue for both games and companies in 2016 can be found below: 

Top Games of 2016: Worldwide Combined iOS and Google Play Downloads

Top Companies of 2016: Worldwide Combined iOS and Google Play Games Downloads