Global Mobile Game Rankings September 2026 — Top 15 Downloads & Revenue

Data Period: September 1–30, 2026

Data Source: FoxData Download & Revenue Rankings

Platforms: App Store & Google Play

Geographic Scope: Global

 

September looked quiet from the top. Block Blast! held #1 on both stores for a second month, Honor of Kings (王者荣耀) kept the App Store revenue crown, and the Google Play revenue chart let in nobody new for a third month running. Then you read one row down, and the month gets interesting: a Delta Force (三角洲行动) season launch lifter its iOS revenue by about 54%, a five-year-old auto-battler jumped 14 places into the iOS revenue Top 15, a bus-jam puzzle climbed 139 places on Google Play in thirty days, and a utility app Netflix built for its games lost seven places.

 

The totals tell the same story from a distance. The App Store revenue Top 15 earned about $617.5 million in September, down 4.6% from August's $647 million. The Google Play Top 15 added about $344.8 million, for $962.3 million across the 30 revenue slots. On downloads, the two Top 15 charts delivered roughly 201.6 million installs, and Google Play supplied 75% of them. A ranking that ignores Android misses three quarters of the volume.

 

This report gives you the full tables, but the tables are the easy part. For every major mover we checked what actually happened in the game (patches, anniversaries, store removals, collaborations) against official announcements, so you can tell a real signal from a coincidence. If you work in UA, live ops, ASO or market research, the section after the takeaways shows where to start.

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Quick Answers: September 2026 Mobile Game Rankings

• Most downloaded mobile game: Block Blast!, with about 23.75 million combined App Store and Google Play downloads.

• Top-grossing game on the App Store: Honor of Kings (王者荣耀), with $97.3 million.

• Top-grossing game on Google Play: Roblox, with $35.5 million.

• Biggest climb: Bus Fever Party: Ônibus Jogo, up 139 places to #9 on Google Play downloads.

• Biggest revenue riser: Delta Force (三角洲行动), up five places to #4 on the App Store with revenue up about 54%.

• Biggest fall: Netflix Game Controller, down seven places to #14 on App Store downloads.

Key Takeaways: Global Mobile Game Rankings, September 2026

• Block Blast! won the download double again, but the whole chart cooled. About 5.74 million iOS installs plus 18.01 million on Google Play make roughly 75 million combined, around 5% below August's ~25 million. Its lead over #2 Pizza Ready! on Google Play shrank to about 714K installs. On September 3 the franchise also opened a second front: an ad-free, no-in-app-purchase Block Blast!+ on Apple Arcade.

• Delta Force (三角洲行动) was the month's biggest revenue story, and the timing is more interesting than the headline. iOS revenue rose about 54% to $55.4 million (▲5 to #4). Spending peaked in the first days of September around end-of-season content and a new season on September 8, while the 2nd-anniversary celebrations only opened in the last week of the month. October will show how much of the anniversary is still to come.

• Teamfight Tactics' Chinese edition (金铲铲之战) climbed 14 places into the iOS revenue Top 15 at $19.9 million. A five-year anniversary celebration that began August 7, a new season on August 20, an anniversary push on August 30 and overlapping in-app events through September explain it.

• SLG revenue cooled more than the ranks suggest. Whiteout Survival, Kingshot and Last War: Survival each slipped about one place on iOS, but our estimates show Whiteout Survival's Google Play revenue down about 15% and Kingshot's down about 19% from August.

• Google Play's revenue Top 15 had zero turnover for a third straight month. Roblox finished #1 at $35.5 million. Gossip Harbor beat MONOPOLY GO! for #2 by only about $231K, a 0.7% gap.

• Download charts churned; revenue charts did not. Bus Fever Party (▲139), Meowdoku! (▲6) and Netflix Game Controller (▼7) were the big download movers, and none of them is anywhere near a revenue Top 15.

• Q4 is already scheduled. Delta Force's anniversary events run to October 15, Free Fire × NARUTO SHIPPUDEN runs to the same day, Google Play's Play Fest runs October 13–19, and Pokémon TCG Pocket's next expansion lands in late October.

 

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Who This Report Is For (and Where to Look First)

A ranking is only useful if it changes a decision. Here is how different teams typically read the same September data.

If you are…	Your September question	Start with this part of the report	FoxData tool that answers it
UA manager / growth lead	Which breakout is worth copying, and which will fade in 30 days?	Bus Fever Party!, Meowdoku!, Bus Traffic Fever!	App Movement and Ad Intelligence
Live-ops / game product lead	How did anniversary and season launches turn into revenue windows?	Delta Force, TFT, Clash Royale, Pokémon GO	Store Monitor and Estimated Revenue
ASO manager	Did iOS 27 and the iPhone 18 cycle change discovery in my category?	Q4 outlook, App Store download tables	Keyword Research and ASO Impact
Indie developer or publisher scouting a genre	Which sub-genre has room, and where is the moat too deep?	Zero-turnover revenue charts, arrow-puzzle and bus-jam clusters	Mobile Game Analytics and Free ASO Tools
Analyst, investor or agency	Which numbers can I defend in a deck?	Methodology note, publisher totals, month-over-month revenue changes	App Data API

What Shaped September 2026 Mobile Game Charts

Four forces set the backdrop for every chart below.

 

Seasonality. Northern-hemisphere students went back to school, and in China the summer holiday ended. The end of China's school holidays is the most likely reason Honor of Kings' revenue slipped after a strong summer. Back-to-school typically trims casual play time in many other markets too.

 

Apple's fall cycle. Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro on September 9, opened pre-orders on September 12, released iOS 27 on September 14 and put the new phones in stores on September 18. For about ten days, a slice of App Store traffic was busy updating devices rather than discovering games.

 

China's holiday calendar. The Mid-Autumn holiday ran September 25–27 and flowed straight into National Day (October 1–7), so Chinese publishers scheduled their biggest events for the end of the month.

 

Platform and publisher events. Block Blast!+ joined Apple Arcade on September 3. Pokémon GO's GO Fest: Mega Finale ran September 5–6. Roblox held its developer conference in mid-September and disclosed that creators earned about $1.7 billion over the 12 months to June 30, 2026. Free Fire's NARUTO SHIPPUDEN collaboration returned on September 16.

 

Global Mobile Game Rankings by Downloads — September 2026

The download charts split along platform lines. The App Store was restless: 11 of its 15 positions changed, one August title left, and one returned. Google Play was the mirror image, with the top eight positions frozen and every change happening from #9 down.

Data source: FoxData Download Charts, September 2026

 

I.  App Store Download Rankings (Top 15)

Block Blast! holds #1 and hedges with an ad-free twin

Block Blast! took the iOS crown with 5.74 million installs and the Google Play crown with 18.01 million, about 23.75 million together. That is roughly 5% below August, and the dip is seasonal rather than specific to Hungry Studio: the whole iOS Top 15 cooled with back-to-school.

 

The more interesting move happened off the chart. On September 3, Apple added Block Blast!+ to Apple Arcade, an ad-free version with no in-app purchases, at a time when the original was still attracting tens of millions of new players a month. Putting a subscription twin next to a free, ad-funded hit is a hedge: it captures players who dislike ads without touching the ad business that pays for the free version.

Smash Fest! holds #2 on one store

Flow Games' can-smashing puzzle kept #2 with 5.60 million iOS downloads, up about 12% from August's ~5 million, after peaking at 6.41 million in July, when it took #1. The catch is Android. Smash Fest! was removed from Google Play at the end of July and has not returned, so this result comes from a single store. Its mechanic is easy to film, which is exactly what short-video ads reward.

Netflix's two games moved in opposite directions

Red Dead Redemption NETFLIX climbed one place to #3 with 4.36 million downloads and has now sat in the iOS Top 5 for three consecutive months (July to September). Netflix Game Controller fell seven places to #14 with 2.47 million downloads, the largest fall on any September chart. It was #3 in July and #7 in August. Together the two generated about 6.83 million installs, roughly 15% below August's ~8 million.

 

The contrast is a clean lesson in product lifecycle. A game with a content library gives a subscriber a reason to come back; a companion utility solves a setup problem once. When the people who needed a controller have one, the downloads stop. Strong IP sustains demand; utilities fade.

 

Meowdoku! is the month's biggest iOS climber (▲6)

Meowdoku! rose six places to #12 with 2.51 million downloads, the largest upward move on the App Store download chart. It is a comeback rather than a debut: it held #12 in July, dropped out in August, and returned to the same slot in September. That yo-yo is normal for logic puzzles, where one well-performing creative can double installs for a few weeks before decay sets in.

 

The more durable signal is the publisher. Oakever Games also holds #8 on Google Play with Tile Explorer – Triple Match (9.20 million downloads), so the studio has a download position on both stores with two different puzzle sub-genres. That looks like a portfolio, not a lucky hit. The cozy-logic cluster around it (Vita Mahjong ▲2, Jigsolitaire ▲3, Solitaire Associations Journey ▲1) points the same way.

Clash Royale and Last War climbed, but only one of them is making more money

Clash Royale rose two places to #7 (2.87 million downloads) and held #14 on iOS revenue at $20.7 million. Supercell spent August rebalancing the game, then launched Season 87 "Minion Academy" on September 7 with a new Minion Giant card, followed by an 18-card balance patch on September 8 and a smaller second pass on September 16. A structural reset to win lapsed players back, then a season to keep them: downloads moved, monetization held.

Source: FoxData's In-App Events

Last War: Survival rose three places to #11 (2.53 million downloads), a rare download climb for an SLG. Yet it slipped one place on iOS revenue (#7) and held #9 on Google Play revenue. A download climb without a revenue gain looks like a user-acquisition push rather than a monetization recovery, and that gap between installs and revenue is the number to watch in this genre.

 

Subway Surfers, Whiteout Survival and Bus Traffic Fever!: the rest of the iOS download chart

Bus Traffic Fever!, August's seven-place climber, fell out of the Top 15 after one month near the top, a reminder of how short a breakout's life can be. Subway Surfers held #13 (2.51 million iOS, 9.56 million on Google Play, about 12.07 million combined) with a September 14 update that took the World Tour to Buenos Aires, added bbno$ as a playable character through the Subway Showdown mode (to October 4), and launched a Collections feature. Whiteout Survival held #15 and is one of only three games, with Roblox and Last War, that appear on three of September's four charts.

 

🦊 FoxData Insight:

September’s iOS download chart rewarded two very different things at once. Short-video UA still buys the spike: Meowdoku! went from outside the Top 15 to #12, Netflix Game Controller fell seven, Bus Traffic Fever! vanished. But the games that gained against a seasonal headwind were the ones with a calendar behind them. Spikes are easy to spot. What separates a keeper from a one-month wonder is whether the second month shows up, and you can only see that if you are watching rank daily instead of reading a monthly summary.

II.  Google Play Download Rankings (Top 15)

The Google Play download chart barely moved. Block Blast!, Pizza Ready!, Roblox, Ludo King, Free Fire MAX, School Party Craft, Subway Surfers and Tile Explorer all held their exact positions. In a category where monthly churn is the norm, eight games holding rank for 30 days says something about how much UA spend, or how much habit, it now takes to dent the top of Android.

 

Bus Fever Party: the biggest move of the month

Bus Fever Party: Ônibus Jogo climbed from #148 in August to #9 in September, recording 8.78 million downloads—the largest ranking jump among the four charts, rising 139 positions.

 

Brazil was the largest market we tracked for this title, with about 1.16 million estimated downloads (about 30% of the four-market total), followed closely by India (about 0.99 million) and Indonesia (about 0.93 million).

Source: FoxData, Country/Region Downloads Trend (September 1–30, 2026)

 

The game is a bus-jam puzzle published by Lumi Games. Its Portuguese-language listing title aligns with its strong performance in Brazil, while the developer's portfolio includes several similar casual titles built around comparable gameplay mechanics.

 

The spread matters more than the Brazil headline: three emerging markets contributed almost equally, so this looks like a multi-market breakout built on a simple, easy-to-localize puzzle rather than a single-country stroy. Whether it lasts is the real test. August's Bus Traffic Fever! left the iOS Top 15 within a month, and a 4.18-star average across roughly 151.1K Google Play reviews means rating management will mater once the traffic flattens.

Source: FoxData Rating & Reviews

 

Free Fire × NARUTO SHIPPUDEN held two builds in the Top 11

Garena's NARUTO SHIPPUDEN collaboration, which won an industry award for Best Use of IP or Licence in 2026, returned with Chapter One: Nine Tails Strikes on September 16, running to October 15. The updateadded Hinata Hyuga, a Ninja Academy in the Hidden Leaf Village, a Sharingan: Control mechanic that lets players command the Nine Tails, and Free Fire's first "Pick-One Grand Prize" reward system.

Source: FoxData, Free Free x NARUTO SHIPPUDEN's Version History

 

On the chart, Free Fire MAX x NARUTO held #5 (9.83 million) and Free Fire x NARUTO slipped one place to #11 (8.53 million), about 18.36 million combined versus roughly 19 million in August. The standard build also held #10 on Google Play revenue at $17.0 million.

 

Note what the rank markers say: both builds held rather than climbed, because the collaboration branding was already on the listings before the September relaunch. The September return protected a high position; it did not create one. Re-running a proven collaboration with new mechanics costs a fraction of a new licence, which is the point.

 

Football fades; arrow puzzles thin out; compliance matters

Football League 2026 slipped to #10 and is the only football game left in either download Top 15. After the July tournament window, football games have lost their traffic boost, and eFootball is absent from both revenue and download Top 15s. The tournament bump is spent.

 

The arrow-puzzle sub-genre went from three Google Play slots in August to one: Arrows - Puzzle Escape at #13. Amaze GO! and Arrow Puzzle: Tap Puzzle Games dropped out. Annoying Uncle Punch Game (#14) and Vita Mahjong (#15) each gained a place.

 

Finally, a reminder that Google Play rankings depend on more than traffic. Block Crazy Robo World Craft, #5 in July, was removed in August over malicious ad components, copyright infringement and privacy non-compliance, and Smash Fest! has been missing since late July. If your Android forecast assumes a Top 15 slot, compliance belongs in the risk model next to CPI and retention.

 

🦊 FoxData Insight:

Google Play in September was a two-speed market. At the top, scale and habit locked eight positions in place. At the margin, one localized bus puzzle jumped 139 places. In between, almost nothing moved. Note also how little the download leaders overlap with the revenue leaders: of the 15 most-downloaded Android games, only Roblox and Free Fire appear in the Google Play revenue Top 15. Downloads and revenue are now two separate competitions on one store.

 

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Global Mobile Game Rankings by Revenue — September 2026

Revenue told a different story from downloads. The App Store Top 15 shrank 4.6% to $617.5 million, and the pattern behind that number matters more than the number: a few Chinese titles with calendar-driven spikes absorbed most of the movement, while a long middle of casual and strategy games drifted down together. Google Play's Top 15 admitted nobody new, for the third month in a row.

Data source: FoxData Revenue Charts, September 2026

 

III. App Store Revenue Rankings (Top 15)

Honor of Kings (王者荣耀) earned $97.31 million on iOS, down about 14% from August's ~$113 million, and held #1 with a lead of $37.6 million over MONOPOLY GO!, bigger than the entire monthly revenue of seven other games on this chart. The most likely explanation is simple: China's summer holidays ended after a strong two months. A MOBA that earns $97 million in its quiet month does not have a revenue problem.

 

Delta Force: the biggest revenue move, and the calendar behind it

Delta Force (三角洲行动) rose five places to #4 with $55.45 million, up about 54% (+$19.4 million) from August's ~$36 million. Many readers credit the anniversary alone, but the dates show a more layered story:

• Early September: spending peaked around end-of-season content, driven overwhelmingly by players in China.

• September 8: a new season, the two-year-anniversary season on Garena's server, went live with a new support operator and a refreshed map.

• September 22–26: the anniversary celebration opened in stages, with an update on September 24 adding a 5v5 mode in beta, free legendary cosmetics, and up to 3,900 free limited-time Delta Tickets from September 26 (to October 25). Anniversary token events run until October 15.

So September's number is mostly a season-launch spike plus the first days of the anniversary, and the anniversary's own spending window sits largely in October. Whether the October chart shows a second hump is the single most useful Delta Force data point for planning your own Q4 calendar.

 

💡 See which updates and events move a game's rank.

Check any game's version history, in-app events and revenue curve side by side, the same view behind the Delta Force analysis above.

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Teamfight Tactics (金铲铲之战): ▲14 on a stack of three events

The Chinese edition of Teamfight Tactics entered the iOS revenue Top 15 at #15 with $19.86 million, up 14 places from #29 in August, and was the chart's only new entry.

 

Our In-App Events log then shows several events overlapping for much of September, so the paying window lasted for weeks rather than a weekend. A game that sat outside the Top 15 in September needed exactly that kind of stacked calendar to re-enter a global chart without any international marketing.

Source: FoxData's In-App Events

 

MONOPOLY GO! and Royal Match swap again, barely

MONOPOLY GO! moved up to #2 with $59.69 million, essentially flat on August's ~$60 million. Royal Match slipped to #3 at $57.21 million, down about 10.6% from ~$64 million. The swap came down to $2.48 million. Dream Games' answer to the pressure is portfolio depth: Royal Kingdom held #12 at $21.3 million on iOS, giving the studio $78.5 million across two iOS titles and about $122.8 million across both stores' Top 15s.

 

Pokémon GO: an event stack, not a single event

Pokémon GO rose one place to #10 with $32.06 million, up about 10.5% from August's ~$29 million. The calendar is public and dense: GO Fest: Mega Finale on September 5–6, a Gible Community Day Classic on September 12 with a $1.99 Special Research ticket, a Super Mega Raid Day on September 19, and a Phantump Catch Mastery event on September 26.

After July's tenth-anniversary peak and August's post-event dip, September shows the rhythm that event-led games live on: many small, dated monetization moments instead of one giant one.

 

SLG: the ranks barely moved, the revenue did

This is the section where reading ranks alone misleads. Every SLG on the iOS chart slipped exactly one place, mostly by displacement from Delta Force's five-place rise. The money tells a harder story:

Game	Sept iOS revenue (rank)	Sept Google Play revenue (rank)	Read
Last War: Survival	$39.3M (#7)	$20.0M (#9)	Downloads rose ▲3 while revenue slipped: UA is not converting
Whiteout Survival	$39.2M (#8), about −7% vs August	$26.4M (#7), about −15%	Both stores softened
Kingshot	$34.8M (#9)	$24.2M (#8), about −19%	Google Play fell fastest

Century Games' two titles still earned about $124.6 million across the two stores' Top 15s, the second-largest publisher total across these charts, after Tencent. But when the category's biggest games lose 7–19% of revenue in a month while their ranks barely move, the category is cooling, not just reshuffling.

 

Other revenue trends

• Candy Crush Saga (#6, $43.98 million) slipped one place on iOS but rose two on Google Play to #6 ($27.20 million): about $71.2 million across both charts.

• Clash Royale (#14) held its position through a season launch and two balance passes. Downloads moved; monetization did not.

• Coin Master (#13, $21.00 million) and Royal Kingdom (#12, $21.31 million) were unchanged, separated by about $306K.

 

🦊 FoxData Insight:

Two of September's three biggest iOS revenue moves, Delta Force (三角洲行动) and Teamfight Tactics (金铲铲之战), came from content resets stacked against an anniversary, with dates published weeks ahead. The third, Game for Peace's (和平精英) decline, came from not having an equivalent. In a month where the Top 15 total fell 4.6%, the winners were the publishers who put a date on the calendar and built a multi-week spending window around it. If you are planning Q4, your live ops calendar is a competitive asset, and your competitors' calendars are readable.

IV.  Google Play Revenue Rankings (Top 15)

Roblox led with $35.46 million, a $3.09 million cushion over #2. In August the margin at the top was $24,000, so the gap widened even though Roblox itself slid from above $40 million. The reason is that the games behind it fell faster.

 

Gossip Harbor ($32.38 million) beat MONOPOLY GO! ($32.15 million) by about $231K, a 0.7% margin, and MONOPOLY GO! dropped from above $40 million in August to about $32 million, a fall of roughly 20% or more.

 

That month included the Roblox Developers Conference, where the company said creators earned about $1.7 billion over the 12 months to June 30, 2026, with the top 10 creators averaging $65.7 million. It also announced "Roblox Everywhere" (games as standalone apps) and a Roblox Wallet for creator payouts. If you benchmark against Roblox, remember it is #1 on Google Play revenue but outside the App Store revenue Top 15 this month, so a blended number describes neither store.

Century Games' SLGs slid in the same month

Whiteout Survival fell two places to #7 ($26.44 million) and Kingshot one place to #8 ($24.15 million). Set against August's roughly $31 million and $30 million, those are declines of about 15% and 19%. Coin Master (▲1 to #5) and Candy Crush Saga (▲2 to #6) gained ground over the same weeks. Last Z: Survival Shooter held #11, another sign of how crowded survival SLG has become on Android.

 

🦊 FoxData Insight:

Google Play's revenue chart rewarded a steady live-ops rhythm over scale. The two clearest gainers, Coin Master and Candy Crush Saga, kept their event calendars running all months, while MONOPOLY GO! and Whiteout Survival lost two places each. And #2 versus #3 came down to about $231K out of $64.5 million. When margins are that thin, daily visibility is the only way to know which side of the line you finished on.

Why Teams Choose FoxData for Mobile Game Market Intelligence

Plenty of tools can show you a ranking. The question that matters is how fast you can go from "something moved" to "here is what we do." Here is where FoxData is built to be strong, and the questions worth asking any vendor you are comparing.

 

One workspace from chart to cause to action

Most teams stitch together a chart tool, a keyword tool, a creative-spy tool and an Apple Search Ads dashboard. FoxData puts market data (Top Charts, App Movement, Store Monitor), ASO (Keyword Research, ASO Impact Analysis, ASO Audit & Report), ads (Ad Intelligence) and Apple Search Ads analytics in the same platform. That matters on a day like Bus Fever Party's: the chart move, the country trend, the creatives and the keyword angle are four clicks apart instead of four logins apart.

 

Game-specific depth

Mobile Game Analytics covers downloads, revenue and ranking history across both stores, and the platform adds user-research modules (active users, retention, demographics, user behavior) so you can look past installs. Every number in this report comes from that same data.

Built around ASO and Apple Search Ads

If part of your job is moving keyword rankings and Apple Search Ads results, you probably want the research and the experiment tracking next to each other. FoxData's keyword views, metadata simulator and impact analysis were designed for that loop.

 

Data you can pipe into your own stack

Analysts and agencies often want the numbers outside the dashboard. The App Data API is there for that, and the platform is available in English, Chinese, French, Russian, Korean and Japanese.

Easy to try before you commit

You can start with the Free ASO Tools, then move to a 7-day free trial. When you are ready to scale, see the plans, including the Starter Plan introduced in 2026, or book a demo if you need API access or agency-grade data.

 

Comparing FoxData with other app intelligence tools? Ask three questions beyond price

1. How many tools does one question touch? If answering "why did this game move?" means opening a chart tool, an ASO tool and an ads tool, count the hours you lose to switching.

2. How quickly do you reach the first useful answer? Look at how long it takes a new teammate to reproduce a chart like the ones in this report, with their own app and market.

3. Can the data leave the dashboard? If your analysts or clients need raw numbers, check the API story before you check the feature list.

 

For a feature-by-feature walk-through, read our FoxData comparison guide for ASO teams in 2026.

 

Your First 7 Days With FoxData: A Practical Plan

A trial works best when you know what you are trying to prove. If you want a plan, this one is built around the same questions this report raises.

Day	Do this	Module	What you will have
1	Add your app and three direct competitors	App profiles, Competitors Analysis	A competitor set you can reuse everywhere
2	Save the chart views you check most (your category, your top three countries)	Top Charts, App Movement	A daily 5-minute market check
3	Run a keyword baseline and look at your top competitor's ranked keywords	Keyword Research	A keyword gap list
4	Scan your competitors' live creatives	Ad Intelligence	A creative angle library
5	Review competitors' update cadence and recent store changes	Store Monitor	A competitor release calendar
6	Compare your downloads and revenue against category leaders	Estimated Revenue, Store Insights	A benchmark table
7	Log any metadata change you want to test and review your first findings	ASO Impact Analysis	A one-page market brief and a decision on your plan

🚀 Ready to run it? Start your 7-day free trial of FoxData and follow the plan above. If you would rather talk it through with someone first, book a demo.

 

Q4 2026 Outlook: What to Watch Between Now and December

September was the last month of Q3. Q4 is where the year gets decided, and the first weeks are already on the calendar.

 

1. Golden Week lands in the first seven days of the quarter. China's National Day holiday runs October 1–7, straight after Mid-Autumn. Expect the October iOS revenue chart to favor Chinese publishers again, and watch whether Delta Force's anniversary events (to October 15, with free limited-time tickets to October 25) produce the second hump that September's number only hints at.

 

2. October 13–19 is a Google Play promotion window. Google's Play Fest bundles discounts, Play Points boosts and sweepstakes into one week, with leagues for Free Fire, Angry Birds 2 and 8 Ball Pool. Free Fire's NARUTO collaboration ends October 15, so the two overlap. Android download and revenue charts may move more than usual that week.

 

3. Pokémon has a dense October. Pokémon GO's calendar includes Max Battle Days (October 3 and 24), Community Day (October 10), Hatch Day (October 17) and a Super Mega Raid Day (October 31), and Pokémon TCG Pocket's next expansion, with its first dual-type cards, lands in late October. Pokémon TCG Pocket sits at #15 on Google Play revenue, so a strong release could move it.

 

4. Halloween decides the casual race. With Gossip Harbor and MONOPOLY GO! separated by 0.7% on Google Play in September, the casual giants' Halloween event stacks could settle the #2 slot.

 

5. Re-baseline your ASO after iOS 27. A new iOS release and new iPhone cycle are good moments to re-check what is working. October is the month to re-run keyword sets, check ranked keywords and review custom product pages before Q4 bidding gets expensive.

 

6. Test the cooling genres. SLG revenue slipped on both stores in September (Whiteout Survival and Kingshot lost about 15% and 19% on Google Play), and football games are in a post-tournament slump. Q4 will show whether these are pauses or resets. If you operate in either genre, set up tracking now rather than reconstructing the trend in January.

September 2026 Summary: What the Charts Say

1. Installs and revenue are two separate competitions. Only four titles (Block Blast!, Roblox, Subway Surfers and Vita Mahjong) appear on both download charts, and only three (Roblox, Whiteout Survival, Last War: Survival) appear on three of the four charts in this report.

 

2. Dated reasons to pay beat creative bursts. Delta Force (三角洲行动) and Teamfight Tactics (金铲铲之战) gained on the back of publicly scheduled seasons and anniversaries. Game for Peace (和平精英), with no comparable September event we could find, lost about a third.

 

3. Four publishers dominate the revenue Top 15s. Tencent ($196.1 million on iOS), Century Games ($124.6 million across both stores), Scopely ($123.9 million across MONOPOLY GO! and Pokémon GO) and Dream Games ($122.8 million) together earned about $567 million, roughly 59% of the $962.3 million across both stores' revenue Top 15s. Localized hyper-casual wins installs; established live-service publishers win revenue.

 

FAQ: September 2026 Mobile Game Rankings

What was the most-downloaded mobile game in September 2026?

Block Blast! ranked #1 on both stores: 5.74 million App Store downloads and 18.01 million Google Play downloads, about 23.75 million combined, roughly 5% below August. It also launched an ad-free version, Block Blast!+, on Apple Arcade on September 3.

 

What was the highest-grossing mobile game in September 2026?

Honor of Kings (王者荣耀) led the App Store with $97.31 million, down about 14% from August but $37.6 million ahead of #2. Roblox led Google Play with $35.46 million.

 

Which games had the biggest rank changes in September 2026?

The biggest climbs were Bus Fever Party (▲139) on Google Play downloads, Teamfight Tactics' Chinese edition 金铲铲之战 (▲14) into the App Store revenue Top 15, Meowdoku! (▲6) on App Store downloads, and Delta Force 三角洲行动 (▲5) on App Store revenue. The biggest fall was Netflix Game Controller (▼7) on App Store downloads.

 

Why did Delta Force's revenue jump in September 2026?

Two things overlapped. Spending peaked in the first days of September around end-of-season content, and a new season followed on September 8. The anniversary celebration then opened in stages from September 22–26. iOS revenue rose about 54% to $55.4 million.

 

Why did MONOPOLY GO! fall on Google Play?

MONOPOLY GO! dropped two places to #3 with $32.1 million, after earning above $40 million on Google Play in August, a fall of roughly 20% or more. It rose to #2 on the App Store at $59.7 million, roughly flat on August, so the weakness was specific to Android.

 

Is the SLG genre declining?

Revenue says it is cooling. Whiteout Survival's Google Play revenue fell about 15% and Kingshot's about 19% from August, while Last War: Survival gained downloads but not revenue. Rankings moved only one or two places, which is why ranks alone understate the change.

 

Why did Netflix Game Controller drop seven places?

It fell from #7 to #14 on App Store downloads (about 2.47 million installs) after peaking at #3 in July. It is a companion utility rather than a game with a content library, so demand tracks new setups. The same month, Red Dead Redemption NETFLIX climbed to #3.

 

What is Bus Fever Party?

Bus Fever Party! is a bus-jam traffic puzzle from Lumi Games. It climbed from #148 to #9 on Google Play downloads with 8.78 million installs in September, the largest rank movement on any of the four charts.

 

Why can FoxData's figures differ from publisher announcements?

FoxData's rankings are estimates of downloads and revenue by store, so absolute figures can differ from official publisher numbers. Compare direction and rank order rather than exact dollar amounts, and remember that some games, such as Honor of Kings or Roblox, lead on only one store.

 

How can I track mobile game rankings myself?

Open FoxData Top Charts to see live rankings by store, category and country, then use Mobile Game Analytics for downloads, revenue and history. You can start a 7-day free trial to save your own competitor set.

 

Where does the data come from?

All rankings, downloads and revenue figures come from FoxData's mobile game analytics for September 1–30, 2026. Month-over-month comparisons use August 2026. Event dates come from official game and platform announcements.

Conclusion: What September 2026 Means for Q4

September 2026 closed Q3 with a chart that rewarded preparation over momentum. The download rankings stayed as volatile as ever: a Portuguese-titled bus puzzle climbed 139 places, an August climber left the iOS Top 15 within a month, and Smash Fest! held #2 on iOS while missing from Google Play. The revenue rankings barely moved. Google Play's lineup stayed identical for a third month, and the biggest iOS gains went to games that put a date on the calendar and built a multi-week spending window around it.

 

That is the practical lesson for Q4. Installs can be bought in a month by anyone with a good creative and an under-priced market. Revenue goes to teams with a calendar, a paying audience and enough visibility into rivals' calendars to avoid crashing into them.

 

Will Block Blast! make it three months at #1 on both stores? Will Delta Force's anniversary produce a second hump in October? Can Gossip Harbor turn a 0.7% lead into a durable #2? The October rankings will answer.

 

Turn the September charts into your Q4 plan

1. See it: open FoxData Top Charts for your category and country.

2. Test it: start your 7-day free trial and follow the first-week plan above.

3. Scale it: see FoxData plans and pricing, or book a demo if you need API access or agency-grade data.

 

✨ Related reading:

• Global Mobile Game Rankings August 2026 — Top 15 Downloads & Revenue

• Global Mobile Game Rankings July 2026 — Top 15 Downloads & Revenue

• Garena Free Fire: How Local Strategy and IP Deals Took It Global

• The Future of Mobile Game Growth: How Analytics Drives Global Hits

• FoxData API Solutions for ASO, Ads & Market Intelligence

 

Previous months' rankings:

• June 2026 · May 2026 · April 2026 · March 2026 · February 2026