The top games for downloads are shifting as new stars rise and puzzle games conquer Japan

• Garena Free Fire was the most downloaded game globally in Q1 2024
• Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle's ranking in the downloads chart increased from 306 to number seven

While mobile game downloads fell by 6.8% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024 - with 12.8 billion total installs having taken place in the three-month period - the industry still has room for new stars to rise and for the best of the best to ascend above the saturation, joining old favourites for a taste of fame.

Among them this Q1 were Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle, Fat Goose Gym and Legend of Mushroom, finding their own regional markets even if they aren’t on top of the world (yet).

For now, that honour goes to battle royale title Garena Free Fire, the most downloaded game globally this Q1 according to Sensor Tower and data.ai’s Q1 2024 Mobile Market Overview report. The game also topped download charts in Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Roblox ranked second globally in Q1 2024, meanwhile, driven by its popularity in the West as a top 10 game in numerous territories - the US, Canada, UK, France, and Australia included.

A royally popular top five

While Garena Free Fire and Roblox maintained gold and silver from Sensor Tower’s previous chart rankings, Royal Match soared up the rankings from eighth to third and displaced Subway Surfers in the process. It was a successful first quarter all round for the match-3 puzzler, having also made the third-most revenue globally at over $500 million in Q1 alone.

It’s undoubtedly Dream Games’ biggest hit to date, accountable for almost 100% of the developer’s $3 billion in consumer spending. And landing as the third most downloaded game of Q1, while match-3 monarch Candy Crush didn’t break the top 10, adds one more feather to its royal cap.

As a result of Royal Match’s rise, SYBO’s Subway Surfers fell to fourth for downloads in Q1. The top five was rounded out by Gametion’s Ludo King, the first Indian mobile game to surpass one billion downloads on the Play Store. This achievement was also reached in Q1 2024.

The best of the rising stars

Block Blast!, Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle, Pizza Ready!, Build A Queen, and 8 Ball Pool comprised the remainder of the top 10 most downloaded games of the quarter, with Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle seeing the most meteoric rise of them all.

The casual title moved up 299 places to reach seventh in Sensor Tower’s global chart, with a top three ranking in the US, the UK, Canada, and Saudi Arabia.

It even made the top 10 in Japan, a country with a downloads chart mostly distinct from the global rankings. While Royal Match, Block Blast! and Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle listed in the top 10, the remaining seven games were different to the global favourites.

Topping Japan’s downloads chart this Q1 was Fat Goose Gym, a merger puzzle game filled with oversized geese. It was a new entry to Sensor Tower’s Japanese chart, as was the second most downloaded game, Legend of Mushroom.

The rankings track with changing preferences in Japan, as the puzzle genre has seen 35% year-on-year download growth in the region while RPGs have slipped by 5%. In fact, puzzle games were downloaded more than any other genre in Japan during Q1 2024.