This Week in Apps - Silent Millionaires

This Week in Apps is a short, no-fluff, round-up of interesting things that happened in the mobile industry. Here are our top highlights.

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U.S. Revenue Index (vs. 30 days ago)

Insights

1. Monthly Consumer Spending in This Niche Just Hit $27M

Identifier apps are silent millionaires. There, I said it.

Over the last few years, developers have shipped more than a thousand apps that leverage AI to identify different things, from plants to snakes and everything in-between. And there's a lot in-between.

I used Appfigures Explorer to analyze all 1,328 identifier apps across the App Store and Google Play and I hope you're sitting down because these numbers are not small.

We'll start the analysis at the top. According to Appfigures Intelligence, consumer spending on identifier apps reached $27M in the last month. That's what the end users paid and before Apple and Google took their fees.

Next, I analyzed the different types of identifier apps. The analysis resulted in 15 distinct categories, that I had to modify a bit because I didn't want to aggregate too much.

Most identifier apps are for something specific, like animals or coins, while some are multi-purpose.

If you're thinking about building the latter, don't.

26% of the identifier apps currently available on the App Store and Google Play are multi-purpose. That's the largest group in terms of number of apps, but they accounted for just 1.4% of the total revenue. Not a lot. Focus wins. If you've attended any of my live streams you'd know that.

Plant identifiers was the second largest group in terms of number of apps at 23%, and for a good reason. According to our estimates, the category is the highest earning type of identifier app, responsible for a whopping 78% of the total revenue.

According to Appfigures Intelligence, that's $21M of consumer spend right there. No other group is even close!

Fun fact: The Photos app on iOS has a plant identifier feature. It's very hidden and not nearly as smooth as the competition, but it exists and clearly isn't hurting revenue.

There are a few more groups that are making much more than I expected. Coin finders make up 9% of the total number of apps and 13% of the total revenue, having grossed $3.5M in the last month from the App Store and Google Play, according to our estimates.

The only other group to gross more than a million dollars is the rock identifier group, which includes gems, stones, and minerals. There are a few more of those than coin identifiers, but revenue-wise it's only responsible for 4% of the total.

Birds, bugs, and mushrooms didn't get to a million individually, but do if you add them all up, which is more than I'd expected.

So... Should you stop what you're working on now and go build an identifier app?

Maybe.

On the one hand, there's a lot of money in this category. On the other, it's very saturated and competitive. Instead, what you should do is find the next category to take off like that and build for it.

2. Dating Apps End Their Best Month of Revenue Ever

It's 2025 and while AI is the hottest trend dating apps are still printing money. In April, the top three cashed their biggest checks yet. Even Bumble!

I analyzed the revenue generated by Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge expecting spending to stagnate now that there are so many alternatives. But that isn't the case at all.

Let's start with a big number - $4B. That's how much users spent in those three apps since the beginning of 2024.

This massive haul is a result of all three increasing prices and getting even more aggressive about monetization, introducing new subscription tiers and things users can spend on.

Hinge's basic subscription, which has a variable cost based on age and location, can cost as much as $45/mo. This same subscription cost less than half in 2020.

Bumble and Tinder have both done the same, and while I'm sure these high costs are prohibitive for some, the resulting revenue is still higher and growing.

Hinge, which is the smallest of the three, ended April with $64M of gross revenue (what users paid), up 67% from January of 2024. At this rate I expect Hinge to catch up to Bumble, which seems to be operating in slow motion lately, in just a few months.

Bumble has lost momentum in the last year, but even it is seeing revenue rise. According to our estimates, users spent $76M in app in April, up 25% from January of 2024. Not as high as Hinge, but still respectable. Bumble's revenue growth came despite the platform angering many of its users by making changes to the app and taking away free functionality, which shows the demand for dating apps has shifted from a "want" to a "need".

And last, but certainly not least, quite the opposite actually, is Tinder. The king of dating saw a whopping $171M of gross revenue (before fees) in April, up 35% from January of 2024.

Despite the competition, shifting trends, and even economic uncertainy, the OG dating apps are still the most popular and most trusted. I don't think that's going to change any time soon.

3. Is Blue the New Black? The Most Downloaded Games in April

April is behind us which means it's time to round up the data and rank the most downloaded games in the world. April continued a trend I was a little concerned about...

Proven warhorse Subway Surfers was not the most downloaded game in the world in April. This is the second month of it not being the top game after maaaaaaaaaaany months of it wearing the crown. Could this be the new norm?

Well, let's start at the top because April was a pretty active month for games.

Block Blast was the most downloaded game in the world in April. Appfigures Intelligence shows March's winner made it into 18M devices in April. Short of March's total, but that's the trend across the entire chart.

Roblox, which turned its icon blue from Black, was the second most downloaded game in the world in April, moving up a spot from March with 16M downloads. Like Block Blast, Roblox's downloads are also lower when compared to March.

Subway Surfers came in third in April with 16M downloads. Lower than March, but that's the trend in April. Subway Surfers has been stagnating for quite a while now. Partially as a result of increasing prices, technical issues, and the market evolving beyond ads. I really hope to see the game adapt to today's hybrid casual standards.

Ludo King and Free Fire round out the top five most downloaded games. Both are up in our ranks when compared to March but with fewer downloads.

There are lots of new names across all three lists, which is a great sign for game developers.

Together, the top 10 most downloaded games in the world made their way into 109M devices in April, according to our estimates. That's a 25% drop from March's total, indicating UA budgets tightened in April. This could be the result of economic uncertainty, getting ready for summer spend, and the success of UGC (User-Generated Content) on TikTok.

Check out our new 2025 Mobile Games Report for in-depth analysis of the mobile games, including trends and insight you won't find anywhere else.

4. China Regains Control - The Highest Earning Games in April

I crunched the numbers and used our App Intelligence and ranked the highest earning mobile games in the world in April. It was a big month for China!

Honor of Kings was the highest earning mobile game in the world in April, even though it's only available in China, earning a whopping $144M after fees, according to our estimates. March was a down month for Honor of Kings, but April saw it return to its full glory.

Whiteout Survival, March's winner, dropped back a spot, earning $131M of net revenue in April, according to our estimates.

Last War's revenue rose 9% in April to claim the third spot with $112M of net revenue. Royal Match and Monopoly Go dropped down a spot each and did not manage to outdo March's total. Our estimates show both saw revenue dropping below $100M.

Once again, China's dominance is on display having four of the top 10 titles in the App Store and three of the top 10 overall, even though Google Play doesn't operate in China.

Appfigures Intelligence shows that the top 10 highest earners added $898M of net revenue to their bottom lines. Net means what the publishers get to keep after store fees. This total is a good chunk lower than March's total haul, but I expect the trend to pick back up as we head into summer and cross into the B scale very soon.

Check out our new 2025 Mobile Games Report for in-depth analysis of the mobile games, including trends and insight you won't find anywhere else.

5. X Maintains Momentum Without the Noise

Elon's been busy in the last few months, but this time X wasn't as impacted as it has been by Elon's musings last year. For the most part, X was out of the news.

And as you'll see from the data, that's not a good thing...

It seems that around Elon Musk, no news is bad news. Well, unless there's no news at all.

According to our estimates, X ended April with $18.4M of net revenue (after store fees). If you've been following my monthly check-ins you'd know that this is almost X's best month but is just a tad short of March's total.

Maintaining revenue isn't bad, especially not at a time where there's a lot of financial uncertainty. But when we zoom out it's hard to ignore X's low revenue when compared to other social platforms.

X increased its subscription prices in April, which we'll see the result of in May as they, so expect the next check-in to be higher. Still, X is having a hard time monetizing its free users, something Elon was helping with when he was focused on the platform.

But X seems to be expanding. Over the last few weeks I've seen several accounts hinting at more offerings coming soon, and I'm not even talking about Elon's plan to bring payments to the platform, which I think will work very well.

These additions are very likely to increase revenue quickly as already paying users will at least give them a try.

App Intelligence for Everyone!

The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.

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All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.