This Week in Apps - All News is Good News

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. From Gossip to a Massive Data Leak: Tea's Wild Ride

Every now and then, an app comes out of nowhere and completely takes over the charts. In the last few weeks, that app was Tea.

Tea is a twist on the social network, giving women (yes, just women) a platform to share stories, compare notes, and, well, spill the tea on their dating experiences. It's a clever idea that has clearly struck a chord, and the numbers it's posting are staggering.

Since its release in January of 2023, Tea was downloaded 3.2M times, according to Appfigures Intelligence, but 2.5M of those came in the last 30 days.

That's because Tea started going viral on TikTok in mid-July.

Downloads exploded, growing nearly 10x overnight from around 15K per day to a peak of 142K.

And downloads are only half the story. What's even more impressive is that Tea isn't just growing but also earning.

Of the more than $1.8M consumers spent on Tea since inception, roughly $770K came in the last 30 days, according to our estimates, and more than $1M in the 60 days.

On Thursday, Tea hit its highest day of revenue, hauling a whopping $91K of gross revenue in a single day - more than double its previous all-time high, which happened the day before.

We've seen social apps like Tea go viral and get downloads before, but seeing their revenue spike almost as quickly is less common, especially for a social network. I know it isn't really, but it kind of is.

The Abrupt Ending that Wasn't...

Last week the I thought Tea's run would be over.

Someone discovered that Tea stored some of its verification data, including driver's licenses and selfies, in a publicly accessible folder online. That someone promptly downloaded them all and spread them around the internet which caused a lot of discomfort. A few days later, someone else was able to get private chats and those also made their way to the internet.

Tea called it a breach, but even though I'm not a lawyer, I can already see this turning into a barrage of lawsuits claiming Tea was negligent and that could push a small company with not-a-lot-of-funding into bankruptcy.

Downloads started declining fairly quickly, and that's when I thought Tea was done for. But no news is bad news, apparently, because Tea bounced right back up within a few days and is now the #2 most popular app in the US App Store right below ChatGPT.

That's amazing! But men can spill the tea too...

And while Tea is getting popular, a clone aimed at men called TeaOnHer came out a few days ago and while it has just 2 stars on the App Store, we estimate the app was downloaded over 275K times in the last few days.

Things move fast these days!

2. Demand for VPN Apps Skyrockets in the UK After Online Safety Act

A few weeks ago the Online Safety Act went into effect in the UK forcing many types of websites to verify the age of surfers before giving them access.

The idea was to protect minors online, but lots of people didn't like needing to show an ID to browse the web and many found a good alternative - browse the web with a VPN.

Ever since, downloads and revenue of the top VPN apps in the UK are at an all-time high.

Right now, there are several VPN apps at the top of the UK App Store: Proton VPN, NordVPN, VPN - Super unlimited Proxy, VPN.org, and Surfshark.

Looking at daily downloads for the last 30 days it's very clear when things changed:

Combined downloads of the group went from roughly 14K/day to nearly 70K/day! While downloads have dropped a bit since peaking at the end of July, they're still significantly higher than where they started.

One interesting thing I noticed is that even though this started in late July on the App Store, downloads on Google Play just started rising a few days ago. I'm not entirely sure why, but it's clear people have figured out a way around this and VPNs are raking it in.

And speaking of money...

According to our estimates, revenue has been on the rise just as well.

The group saw revenue rising from around $54K/day of net revenue to a peak of $268K in a single day during the last week of July - a 5x jump almost overnight!

The revenue trend declined fairly quickly, but even at its lowest point last Tuesday, it was still more than 3x higher than where it started.

VPNs are an interesting class of apps which has a few big brand name like Nord VPN and Express VPN but also a slew of no-name apps that rely solely on organic discovery in the App Store and Apple Ads.

I expect competition to increase in both in the UK.

3. Monopoly Still Makes Bank - The Highest Earning Games in the World

July brought some noticeable shake-ups in the top earning ranks, and one of them came with a monocle. Let's break it down

After months of dominance, Tencent's Honor of Kings remains a fixture at the top of iOS and overall charts, this time with an estimated $122M in net revenue worldwide. That's down from June's $137M, but still enough to hold its spot in China and Southeast Asia's hearts — even as it slips to #3 on the combined chart for the month.

The crown for July's overall earnings actually went to Last War from FunPlus, which pulled in $128M combined, up from $109M in June and driven by strong spending on both platforms. It's the first time the game has overtaken both Honor of Kings and Whiteout Survival in the combined ranking.

Speaking of Whiteout Survival, Century Games' chilly survival sim dipped to #5 overall with $117M, despite holding steady on Google Play at $39M. The bigger climb came from Monopoly GO!, which jumped from #4 to #2 overall thanks to $125M in combined revenue — a hefty $19M gain over June.

Other notable moves: Royal Match surged on iOS to #4 with $86M, matching Honor of Kings in combined total, while PUBG Mobile slid to #6 overall. Returning titles like Delta Force and Westward Journey added fresh-ish faces to the iOS chart, with Delta Force landing a respectable $59M combined.

All told, July's top 10 earned an estimated $1B after store fees — up 11% from June — positioning it as one of the strongest months we've seen so far this year.

4. Roblox Regains the Crown – The Most Downloaded Games in the World

The tug-of-war between Block Blast! and Roblox took another turn in July — and this time, Roblox came out swinging.

On iOS, Block Blast! still held the crown with 8M downloads, but Roblox closed the gap with 6M. Over on Google Play, however, Roblox dominated with 16M downloads, its best showing since early spring, and enough to claim the top spot in the combined ranking with 23M — up from 17M in June.

Block Blast! still had a strong month, reaching 19M combined downloads (up 1M from June) to hold #2 overall, while Subway Surfers maintained its perpetual momentum at #3 with 18M.

The big surprise? Tile Explorer from Oakever Games debuted at #5 overall with 12M combined downloads, knocking Pizza Ready! into a tie for that same total. Meanwhile, Vita Mahjong climbed to #6 overall, building on its steady growth from the past two months.

Lower in the top 10, Talking Tom Friends 2 is already in the top 10 after launching in July, and joins other familiar names like Ludo King, Moto Race Go, and Royal Kingdom.

The combined top 10 pulled in 124M downloads for July, up slightly by 6% from June, marking another month of steady growth for mobile game installs worldwide.

5. A Decade On, Clash Royale Just Did What Few Games Can

Give players something fresh, and they'll show up — and spend big. That's exactly what happened last month, when Clash Royale posted its highest monthly player spending ever and its best download month in more than three years.

Global player spending hit $82.7M across the App Store and Google Play, a huge 251% YoY jump from July 2024. It also blew past June's $51.4M, which had already been the best month since 2021. The reason? A brand-new seasonal mode called Merge Tactics.

Merge Tactics is a whole new way to play Clash Royale. Instead of the existing real-time lane mechanics, it's a turn-based, four-player auto-battler. That means players buy, merge, and position troops from a shared pool, then watch them fight it out automatically. With unit traits, synergies, and seasonal modifiers, this fresh design was built to energize long-time fans and draw curious newcomers.

Downloads tell the other half of the story. July brought in 5.2M installs — up 39% from June and the highest monthly total since April 2022's 5.6M. For a game that's been out since 2016, that kind of growth is rare.

Supercell didn't get here by accident. Back in April, it revamped progression — removing timers, expanding rewards, and making the Battle Pass grind less, well, a grind. Engagement started climbing, setting the stage for Merge Tactics to take the game into new territory.

When it did, players didn't just try it — they invested. Spending rose on card upgrades, passes, and seasonal cosmetics, turning a clever update into a record-shattering month.

With Merge Tactics positioned as a seasonal mode, Supercell now has both the template and the audience to make this kind of surge happen again. If July's numbers are any sign, Clash Royale might be entering its second golden age, with the piles of cash to prove it.

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.