Sales of South Korean mobile games fall 13 pc in H1 2025

Seoul, July 9 (IANS) Mobile game sales generated from South Korean companies fell 13 per cent from a year earlier in the first half of 2025, industry data showed on Wednesday.

Combined sales of local gaming companies from January to June totaled 3.3 trillion won ($2.4 billion), down from 3.8 trillion won a year earlier, according to market tracker Sensor Tower, reports Yonhap news agency.

The number of downloads reached 222 million in the six-month period, down from 245 million a year ago.

By platform, sales made via Apple's iOS accounted for 26.4 percent of total sales for South Korean mobile games, up slightly from 24.1 percent in the first half of 2024, while sales via Android declined to 73.6 percent.

In terms of individual titles, NCSOFT Corp.'s Lineage M ranked first in global sales, followed by China's Whiteout Survival.

Three other newly released Korean titles made it to the top 10 list, marking the first time multiple Korean titles became top sellers since the market tracker started compiling relevant statistics in 2014.

Meanwhile, the head of US gaming giant Epic Games said the company has dropped an antitrust lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co. involving the blocking of software originating from sources outside of app stores of Google and Samsung on the South Korean tech company's mobile devices.

"We're dismissing our court case against Samsung following the parties' discussions. We are grateful that Samsung will address Epic's concerns," Tim Sweeney, chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Epic Games, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Epic Games, best known for popular online shooter Fortnite, had filed the lawsuit last year in the U.S. over a feature on Samsung devices that automatically blocks the installation of apps from sources outside the Google Play Store and Samsung's own Galaxy Store, according to the report.

--IANS

na/