8 Products with Annual Revenue Growth Over 100 Million — Who Wins the Biggest Overseas “Bonus” in 2025?
Is the Future of the Casual Market a Battle Between Turkey and China?
Cover image generated by AI
Produced by｜White Whale Overseas Editorial Department
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Introduction
Gaming media Gamigion recently published a chart (based on AppMagic data) showing encouraging growth:
At least 8 overseas casual mobile games saw year-on-year revenue growth exceeding USD 10 million in 2025, accounting for about half the list.
However, after confirming with AppMagic, we found the comparison was actually full-year 2024 vs. the first nine months of 2025 — meaning the full-year 2025 growth may be even higher.
Image source: Gamigion
To obtain more reasonable statistics, we collaborated with AppMagic to analyze revenue changes among domestic casual game developers over the past year.
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Defining Our Analysis
Scope & Category Rules
- "Casual games" here refers to tracks with strong performance this year and high domestic developer participation — including hybrid casual, match-3, and merge games.
- Simulation management and social party games are excluded.
- Data timeframe: We compared Q1–Q3 2025 vs Q1–Q3 2024 to avoid fluctuations observed in October 2025.
- Benchmark:
- Selected Top 18 casual products by growth in 2025 Q1–Q3, based on USD 15 million (approx. RMB 107 million) minimum year-on-year growth.
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In the 2025 Q1–Q3 global game revenue growth chart,
8 products are by domestic developers (yellow). Olleyo is likely backed by a Chinese firm.
Source: AppMagic
Most domestic titles did not gain over 10 million downloads,
except Gossip Harbor (+29.07M downloads).
Source: AppMagic
Growth-chart games mostly originate from China (red) or Turkey (yellow).
Source: AppMagic
Most successful games launched Nov 2021–July 2024.
Sources: data.ai, AppMagic
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Key Observations
1. Merge Games Lead Growth Over Hybrid Casual
Merge, Match-3, and Hybrid casual are all represented,
but Merge is the most numerous. Source: Diandian Data
Revenue growth: Match-3 (blue) and Merge (orange) dominate,
Hybrid casual trails, except Color Block Jam.
Source: AppMagic
Top Performers (Q1–Q3 2025):
- Gossip Harbor (Merge) — +USD 100M+ growth (#1)
- Royal Kingdom (Match-3) — +USD 100M+ growth (#4)
- Color Block Jam (Hybrid) — ~USD 85M growth (#3)
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Regional Developer Trends
Chinese vs Turkish vs Vietnamese
- Chinese: Focus on Match-3 & Merge. Heavy-game studios like DianDian Interactive entering casual market.
- Vietnamese: Specialize in hybrid casual.
- Turkish: Strong across all genres.
Leaderboard Breakdown:
- China: 8 titles
- Turkey: 7 titles
- Vietnam: 2 titles
- Germany-listed Olleyo: likely Chinese-backed.
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3. Western Developers Cooling Off
Big names like King, Playrix, and Metacore — famous for Match-3/Merge — have no entries in the growth leaderboard.
Suggests:
- Existing hits have plateaued.
- New titles haven't scaled successfully.
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4. Fine-Tuning Takes 1–2 Years
Most top-growing games scaled 1–4 years after launch.
Only Goods Puzzle launched in 2025 and grew fast.
Casual games require ~1–2 years optimization before revenue spikes.
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5. "Low Downloads, High Revenue" Phase
Revenue growth often outpaces download growth.
Example:
- Gossip Harbor: +29M downloads
- Seaside Escape: downloads declined, yet revenue rose.
This points to:
- Better conversion of paying users.
- Reactivation of lapsed players as key growth drivers.
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Cracking the Japanese Market
Japan is now Top 3 market for many outbound casual games in 2025,
a shift from 2024 when it ranked lower.
Top Revenue-Growth Titles with Japan in Top 3:
- Gossip Harbor
- Seaside Escape
- Merge Cooking
- Tasty Travels
Gossip Harbor reached over USD 7.3M/month in Japan by Sept 2025.
Source: AppMagic
Japan downloads spiked in 2025 — Gossip Harbor led the way.
Source: AppMagic
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Ad Strategy in Japan
- High emotional impact creatives work best.
- Example: "tragic" 3D animation of a lonely girl needing rescue.
- All ads free from obvious AI-generated traces.
- Peak impressions exceeded 50M.
High impressions despite limited creatives.
Source: Guangdada
Cute characters + emotional narratives resonate in Japan.
Image: Guangdada
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Addressing Ad Misrepresentation
Localized creatives clearly show authentic gameplay to build trust.
Localized ad clarifies content authenticity | Facebook
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Turkish Studios: Consistent New Hits
Turkish hits like Royal Match cultivated Japan early — now many new titles appear:
- Match-3: Royal Kingdom, Match Villains
- Hybrid casual: Color Block Jam
Strength: Turkey sustains output across all genres with high-quality new releases.
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Hybrid Casual Success Case: Color Block Jam
- Core mechanic: simple sliding puzzle ("Huarong Dao" style)
- Leveraged numerical balancing to sustain engagement & monetization
- Smooth difficulty progression encourages natural spending/ad viewing
Chinese developers often focus on theme variation but may need stronger numerical design expertise.
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Final Thoughts
2025 Casual Gaming Battlefront:
- China: Operational excellence in specific tracks/markets.
- Turkey: Mature, industrialized casual development — broad genre coverage.
Challenge for Chinese developers:
Shift from "going global" to building sustainable innovation capacity — blending creative originality with numerical design expertise.
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Data Sources
SimilarWeb, Diandian Data, Semrush, Guangdada, AppMagic, and other third-party platforms.
Figures are indicative and may differ from actual values.
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Platforms Empowering Global Expansion
Tools like AiToEarn官网 offer:
- AI-generated content creation
- Cross-platform publishing (Douyin, Kwai, WeChat, Bilibili, Rednote, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, X)
- Analytics & AI model rankings (AI模型排名)
- Open-source ecosystem for efficient global launches
By reducing friction between production and distribution, such platforms mirror the operational efficiency seen in top-performing game studios.
