Games market research firm Newzoo and app analytics provider Distimo have released their monthly charts for top grossing mobile publishers and games worldwide, covering both iOS and Android. Their data for December shows revenues for mobile games jumped 35 percent month over month, based on sales of the top 200 games on Apple iTunes and Google Play. Google’s store saw the biggest growth followed by iPad games on iTunes.  The peak holiday period seems to have helped paid games, with revenues of pay-to-download titles nearly doubling last month compared to November.

This period’s charts for top publishers and games cover 44 territories for Apple iTunes and 17 for Google Play.  Newzoo CEO Peter Warman provided insight into his firm’s findings for [a]list daily.

“December saw seven new entries to the iOS top 20 games list,” said Warman.  “This is a record number of entries since we began publishing the lists in August. The trend is most likely due to the increase in games available around the Christmas period, and also in the time that people can dedicate to gaming.”

Source: Newzoo and Distimo rankings based on top grossing games in 44 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Phillipines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam

Warman pointed out that the top 20 publishers are dominating game sales beyond these charts.

“For iOS downloads, [they] have 89 games in the top 200, and for Google Play [they] have 84,” he said.

Source: Newzoo and Distimo rankings based on top grossing games in 17 countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States

Looking at top publishers on iOS versus Android, Warman said the two platformrs are “different planets.”

“The Top 20 Publisher list is completely different when comparing iOS and Google Play, with only seven publishers present in both lists. The [Google] Play store list includes a larger number of Asian publishers, with the top five coming exclusively from there.”

He added that Google’s store showed much better balance between Western and Asian markets with a 60-to-40 percent split.

Source: Newzoo and Distimo rankings based on top grossing publishers in 44 countries
Source: Newzoo and Distimo rankings based on top grossing publishers in 17 countries

Warman also pointed out how Kabam made the charts helped by hit titles for both iOS and Android based on The Hobbit.

“[They] appear to have benefited hugely from the success of the hit movie, with The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-Earth reaching 15th on iOS and 11th on Google Play.  Perhaps 2013 will see an increase in games that are linked to blockbuster movies,” said Warman.

The top monthly players in mobile will continue next month.

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