Even before Pokémon Go’s launch in July, the mobile gaming industry was seeing growth.
Mobile market insights group Sensor Tower will release its finding for the second quarter of 2016 (April 1 to June 31) next week, but it has given GamesBeat early access to the report. It shows that games remain the most popular app category on both the iOS and Google Play stores, seeing 22 percent growth compared to the previous year.
This is especially good news when you consider that the second quarter happened before Pokémon Go‘s launch on July 6. That location-based game has become a monster hit, breaking records for mobile games. Quarter three will likely see more growth.
For Q2, Slither.io was the highest-ranking game. You can see the full list from Sensor Tower below.
Subway Surfers, Piano Tiles 2, and Clash Royale also performed well. According to Sensor Tower, Clash of Clans was #30 on the list, while Mobile Strike was #84.
Games were easily the top category for both iOS and Android, as you can see in the Sensor Tower charts for each below.
Not only does the games category see a big growth from the same period last year, but it’s significantly ahead of the #2 categories on both platforms.