Report: Analysis of 513 thousand games on Google Play

This report about games (513 848 games), you can also read report about apps.

This report is based on our Google Play database, which contains 2 937 215 apps and 513 848 games with data for the US. This report about games, you can also read report about apps. The database is available for free download for subscribers of the Monthly Report Google Play.

Note: The number of paid games is quite small 19341 (3.76%) so we don't consider them separately.

Number of games by year

From 2014 to 2021, the number of games on Google Play increased by 37 percent. The largest growth occurred in 2019 (68%) and 2020 (57%). In 2021, the number of games increased by only 22%.

Number of games in categories

There are most games in the following categories:

  • Casual (86500)
  • Arcade (78113)
  • Puzzle (76493)
  • Action (42229)
  • Simulation (34938)

The fewest games in the following categories:

  • Music (7544)
  • Casino (8476)
  • Sports (10647)
  • Card (11448)
  • Word (14162)

Total installs per category

This is the sum of all installs in the category.

The most installs are in the following categories:

  • Action (24B)
  • Casual (22B)
  • Arcade (17B)
  • Simulation (15B)
  • Puzzle (15B)

The following categories have the fewest installs:

  • Casino (1B)
  • Trivia (2B)
  • Word (2B)
  • Card (2B)
  • Music (3B)

Average installs per category

However, if we calculate the average number of installs, the leaders change:

  • Racing (774K)
  • Sports (650K)
  • Action (562K)
  • Simulation (431K)
  • Strategy (415K)

Number of games by number of installs

More than 1 million installs have only 23286 (5%) games 64 % of them have a score above 4.

More than 10K installs have 133343 (26%) games 39 % of them have a score above 4.

More than 10 000 installs

Categories with the most games with more than 10 000 installs:

  • Casual, 17125 (20%)
  • Simulation, 16808 (48%)
  • Puzzle, 15827 (21%)
  • Action, 11294 (27%)
  • Arcade, 10677 (14%)

Categories with the fewest games with more than 10 000 installs:

  • Music, 2624 (35%)
  • Word, 3485 (25%)
  • Trivia, 3581 (20%)
  • Casino, 3738 (44%)
  • Sports, 3800 (36%)

Distribution of score by number of installs

Normal distribution of stars:

  • 5 star: 68%
  • 4 star: 12%
  • 3 star: 6%
  • 2 star: 3%
  • 1 star: 11%

Like a table:

Installs 1 star (%) 2 star (%) 3 star (%) 4 star (%) 5 star (%)
0 16.67 0.00 0.00 0.00 83.33
1 9.55 2.20 8.45 8.94 70.87
5 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.12 96.88
10 2.19 0.26 0.74 2.57 94.24
50 3.69 0.70 1.44 4.06 90.11
100 8.63 1.99 3.30 7.85 78.23
500 10.00 2.74 5.02 10.05 72.19
1K 11.37 3.67 6.47 12.13 66.37
5K 11.40 3.97 7.30 13.78 63.54
10K 12.13 3.91 6.90 12.65 64.40
50K 11.69 3.77 6.69 12.56 65.30
100K 11.31 3.43 6.59 12.32 66.34
500K 10.80 3.17 6.39 12.47 67.17
1M 10.37 3.04 6.12 12.41 68.06
5M 9.99 2.99 6.04 12.31 68.66
10M 9.10 2.83 5.90 12.57 69.62
50M 8.85 2.79 5.36 11.75 71.25
100M 8.88 2.52 5.16 11.57 71.87
500M 11.74 2.34 4.56 10.03 71.33
1B 12.47 2.44 4.12 8.86 72.12

Distribution of score by genre

Genres with a lot of dissatisfied users:

  • Action
  • Educational

Average score by number of installs

Average in-app purchase price

The average maximum price for in-app purchases is $38.

The most expensive purchases are in the following categories:

  • Casino ($101)
  • Role Playing ($62)
  • Strategy ($57)
  • Card ($54)
  • Simulation ($42)

The cheapest purchases in the following categories:

  • Educational ($13)
  • Trivia ($17)
  • Arcade ($21)
  • Word ($23)
  • Puzzle ($26)

Number of games with in-app purchases

On average, only 104598 (23%) of games contain an IAP, but there are categories where the percentage of games with in-app purchases is higher:

  • Role Playing (39%)
  • Strategy (35%)
  • Casino (30%)
  • Word (30%)
  • Card (29%)

Number of games with advertising

On average, 72% of games contain ads, but there are categories where the percentage of games with ads is higher:

  • Word (85%)
  • Music (85%)
  • Racing (82%)
  • Trivia (82%)
  • Simulation (80%)

Average number of screenshots by category

Average number of screenshots for all genres: 10.

Number of screenshots

288368 (56%) games have less than 10 screenshots. There are even 3 games with 0 screenshots. You can check it:

Games with less than 10 screenshots have 84438 installs on average.

Games with more than 10 screenshots have 575470 installs on average.

If you look at the grouping by the number of installs, you can see that the more installs, the more screenshots.

Games with the highest number of screenshots:

However, there is no correlation between the number of screenshots and the number of installs.

Number of developers per genre

Total developers 200378. On average, there are 2.56 apps per developer.

The most developers in the categories:

  • Arcade (48042)
  • Casual (46493)
  • Puzzle (42698)
  • Action (25621)
  • Adventure (20533)

Least developers in the categories:

  • Music (3154)
  • Casino (5130)
  • Card (7398)
  • Sports (7475)
  • Word (8960)

At the same time, 123854 (62%) developers have published only one game. Among them, only 14% have received more than 10,000 installs. And only 1750 (1% of 65%) received more than 1 million installs.

Number of developers by years

From 2014 to 2021, the number of developers on Google Play grew by 36 percent per year. The largest growth occurred in 2019 (72%) and 2020 (57%).


TOP 100 developers

The spreadsheet is available on Google Docs.

Popular genres among TOP 100 developers. The number indicates how many developers from the TOP 100 have an app in this genre.
  • Casual, 79
  • Puzzle, 76
  • Simulation, 74
  • Action, 70
  • Arcade, 64
  • Racing, 54
  • Role Playing, 52
  • Sports, 48
  • Strategy, 42
  • Adventure, 42
  • Board, 31
  • Card, 27
  • Word, 21
  • Casino, 16
  • Trivia, 14
  • Educational, 14
  • Music, 14

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