In unexpected but welcome news, premium mobile games are seeing a resurgence, after years in which free-to-play has been seen as the only option worth pursuing.
The total number of premium game releases increased by 77% in 2025, according to exclusive research undertaken for GamesIndustry.biz by the mobile data firm AppMagic. Just under 750 premium titles were released on mobile last year.
That figure is still a fraction of the free-to-play segment, which accounted for a massive 96% of mobile downloads in 2025. Yet the data points to strong growth in the premium market.
According to AppMagic, the sector is dominated by original premium titles and simultaneous cross-platform launches, with ports of existing games making up just 3% of all premium game releases. However, the number of ports of PC and console titles increased last year – up from just 7 in 2024 to 23 in 2025 – and the revenue in this sector is growing.
Among mobile ports, Balatro was the primary driver of growth – that game has now made $21.3 million in total revenue on mobile according to AppMagic estimates, with more than 3.1 million downloads – contributing to a 44.6% year-on-year increase in mobile port revenue in 2025, and an increase in downloads of 38.3%.
However, even when Balatro is excluded from the analysis, the data still shows a clear positive trend in port revenue, indicating that growth is not driven by a single title alone. Other big winners in the premium mobile port space include Slay the Spire (total estimated lifetime revenue: $13.1 million), Human Fall Flat ($7.8 million), Dead Cells ($6.5 million), and Ultimate Custom Night ($5.3 million).
The data suggests that porting titles to mobile could be a useful opportunity for PC and console developers, with the potential for an additional revenue stream – and there are signs that more studios are taking advantage of this opportunity.
A growing trend
Marco Bettencourt, CEO of the Azores-based porting and co-development company Redcatpig, says the studio has noticed an increase in the number of requests coming through for mobile releases of premium PC games. “There’s a massive movement right now in getting games from PC to mobile,” he says. “What I’m feeling is that devs want to explore different SKUs when their games reach the end of their life cycle on a platform.”
He says he has been surprised by the rally around premium titles, given the received wisdom about the mobile market. “I’ll be honest, when I started seeing projects for premium games going to mobile, I was a bit suspicious,” he says. “I was like, ‘Is this really going to work?’ Because we all know that the mobile space is all about free-to-play, and it’s a bit of a bloodbath sometimes… But when I saw what happened with Planet of Lana, I was like, ‘Dude, this is really cool. This is massive’.”
Redcatpig ported Wishfully’s 2023 puzzle-platform game Planet of Lana on behalf of Playdigious, which licenses PC games for mobile ports. Abrial Da Costa, CEO of Playdigious, tells GamesIndustry.biz that the title continues to “perform well,” and AppMagic estimates that the mobile version has made nearly $189,000 in total revenue since its release in December 2025.
Other games in Playdigious’s catalogue have performed even better – the company was also behind the mobile port of Dead Cells, which Da Costa says is its biggest success. It follows strong sales of the mobile release of Subnautica in 2025, while the best performers in 2024 were Loop Hero and Little Nightmares. This year, Subnautica Below Zero, Sea of Stars, and Slime Rancher are performing particularly well, according to Da Costa.
Not every premium mobile port lands: Da Costa says that Skul: The Hero Slayer and Children of Morta “underperformed relative to expectations,” despite being “very good games,” and last year’s sales of Besiege were “disappointing.” As one would expect, the more well known titles tend to sell better. “Our sales are closely tied to the notoriety of the IP and its community,” notes Da Costa.
The lesson seems to be that if a game has already been a big hit on PC, it’s also likely to perform well on mobile – and awards can help. Da Costa says that among the “smaller gems,” Chants of Sennaar – winner of Google Play’s Best Indie Game of 2025 award – continues to sell well, while other solid back-catalogue sellers include Northgard, Cultist Simulator, and Spiritfarer.
Interestingly, Da Costa says Playdigious has seen a particular increase in sales in countries like the Philippines, Thailand, and Mexico, and notes that the majority of Dead Cells’ sales came from mainland China.
But the French mobile publisher, which was established 10 years ago, is still very choosy when it comes to taking on projects. “The indie market is full of gems that deserve a mobile adaptation, and thanks to our track record and recognised expertise, we do get approached a lot,” says Da Costa. “That said, we always aim for excellence to deliver the best possible adaptation, so we’re very selective about which IPs we take on. It’s quality over quantity. We review a lot of projects a year and ultimately release five to seven games.
“As the indie games market keeps growing, we do see more opportunities, but premium mobile remains a niche compared to free-to-play, so making the right choices is essential. Our model is also built on a fair revenue-share with IP owners: we take on the financial risk of investing in an IP, and our partners get paid from day one, with no recoup costs.”
A shift in mindset
As to why there seems to be an increasing market for premium mobile titles, Da Costa has a theory. “We think subscription services like Apple Arcade and Netflix Games have boosted demand for higher-quality games, helped by strong editorial curation that has both grown the market and respected the consumer.
“Apple Arcade and Netflix Games have boosted demand for higher-quality games”
Abrial Da Costa, Playdigious
“The arrival of third-party stores like the Epic Games Store is also helping promote premium games, and consumers appreciate the reassurance of buying a game with no ads and no in-app purchases. Google’s recent moves, such as [adding PC support to] Google Play Games, also reflect a broader push to build bridges between PC and mobile gaming, improving accessibility and growing the ecosystem. As technology keeps evolving, it will become possible to port even bigger IPs to mobile, and we’re already preparing some exciting surprises for our players.”
Bettencourt, meanwhile, thinks that players might be tired of free-to-play games nagging them for money, and premium indie titles provide some sweet relief. “Single player indie games have a special place in this market,” he says. “We are talking about a game that makes you feel good, and you want to feel good on the subway, you want to feel good on the bus, you want to feel good on the plane. To me, it makes a lot of sense.”
There’s a chance that this pivot towards premium titles could be a blip, of course. AppMagic’s report shows a similar surge in 2022, when nearly 1,000 premium titles were released on mobile, before more than halving in 2023, and dropping again to 422 in 2024.
But the revenue trend is clear. According to AppMagic’s data, revenue from mobile ports rose from around $7 million in 2022 to around $15 million in 2025, and 2026 looks set to increase on that again: premium mobile ports pulled in around $10.2 million in revenue in the five months to May 2026.
Free-to-play may still represent the lion’s share of total mobile revenues, but the data shows a substantial, and growing, opportunity for high-quality paid titles too – and in a market as huge as mobile, a small market share adds up to a significant amount of money.
