2025 has already been an exceptional year for mobile games. Game developers have pulled out all the stops this year to thrill their user base. So when we selected the winners of our Appdev Awards, we had our choice of eye-catching, top-performing games.
This year, we recognize midcore and casual mobile games in five categories: Best Collaboration Event, Best Social Event, Best Minigame, Best Newcomer, and Biggest Evolver. You can see the complete list of winners and nominees here. But to provide more context, we wanted to give an account of why we selected our winners and, more importantly, the lessons other game developers can learn from their accomplishments.
Best Collaboration Event: Diablo Immortal x World of Warcraft
Crossovers are increasingly common among the best-performing mobile games. Many franchises have already appeared in multiple games, including Transformers, Snoopy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Evangelion—we could go on and on. But every year, a few titles do something special with their collaborations, taking the best elements of a franchise to provide players with a truly memorable experience.
At our AppDev Awards, we recognized titles that did this well, including Diablo Immortal’s crossover with World of Warcraft. From the outset, this was likely to be a strong pairing because the same developer, Activision-Blizzard, helms the two properties. Diablo Immortal players were likely to be familiar with World of Warcraft, at least in some capacity.
Titled Eternal War, the event series had a lot to offer, especially considering it was Diablo Immortal’s first large-scale collaboration. Players collected Frozen Boons from special events such as special WoW-themed limited-time modes, unlocking exclusive rewards. The modes were impressive, with exceptionally high production values and a strong appreciation for World of Warcraft as an IP.
For example, one of the events that staged one of the most famous moments in the MMORPG was the battle against the Lich King. These events were based on existing limited-time modes, but the aesthetic redesign made them feel new. Players could also earn a vast assortment of cosmetic rewards based on World of Warcraft’s 20th Anniversary, which generated a lot of positive sentiment across the user base.
Takeaways From the Diablo Immortal and World of Warcraft Crossover
Usually, collaboration events introduce a franchise to bring something entirely new to a game. The PUBG Mobile x Venom: The Last Dance or Brawl Stars x SpongeBob SquarePants, for example, introduce freshness without making substantial changes to the gameplay.
By contrast, Diablo and World of Warcraft successfully combined two similar properties by offering varied and enjoyable gameplay combined with a strong appreciation for the World of Warcraft IP. The successful collaboration depended, in no small part, on strong backing from Activision-Blizzard.
The main lesson here mainly applies to publishers with a strong portfolio of IP—bringing your many franchises together can pay dividends when done correctly. As a bonus, you can also use this as a testing ground to see how players might react to a full-fledged mobile installment of a video game franchise available only on PC and/or console.
Best Social Event: League of Legends: Wild Rift – Arcane: Battle of Twin Cities
Social events have proven to be one of the most effective ways to drive engagement on mobile, but that’s hardly surprising. After all, what could be better for keeping players interested than encouraging them to play along with their friends? But the standout social event for this year, at least on the midcore market, was League of Legends: Wild Rift – Arcane: Battle of Twin Cities.
The event was a collaboration too. It was similar in approach to the Diablo Immortal event in that it was a closely related crossover. The collaboration featured Arcane, timed to support the launch of season two of the incredibly popular League of Legends TV series. The series took the top spot on Netflix’s most popular charts in over 60 countries in November.
As the name suggests, the event revolves around two warring cities, Zaun and Piltover—the same overarching narrative thread of Arcane’s second season. Players chose to align with a city and then had to cooperate with their Zaun or Piltover comrades to complete various tasks, such as Arcane-themed quizzes.
The faction would capture more territories on the event’s world map as it progressed, and the side that controls the most territories at the end of the event was crowned the winner. Winning members received a bonus exclusive Zaun or Piltover-themed profile icon, in addition to the rewards accessible for all players regardless of faction. That blend of social and competitive elements was powerful. They tapped into multiple player motivations and rode the hype around the highly acclaimed series effectively.
Takeaways From League of Legends: Wild Rift – Arcane: Battle of Twin Cities
It’s no secret that many mobile games encourage players to become part of guilds or factions. When players join these thriving, established communities, they are more likely to remain engaged. They’re not only enjoying playing the game, they’re given a chance to support others and work toward bigger, better rewards.
However, the one drawback to guilds is that they can be intimidating, especially for newer players. Some games have hundreds, if not thousands, of guilds, and choosing the one that’s right for you can be a bit of a learning curve. For example, there’s a strong chance you might end up in a guild that just isn’t your style, or more frustratingly, one that’s right for you but on the cusp of disbanding, leaving you back at square one.
The League of Legends: Wild Rift – Arcane: Battle of Twin Cities event took the benefits of guild-based events and applied them to the entire Wild Rift player base. Everyone could join in, regardless of their experience level or existing guild commitments. This enhanced the event’s appeal and helped guarantee its overall success.
Best Minigame: Merge Mansion – Secret Supply
Games within games have existed for almost as long as video games have, but this concept has come into its own over the past decade. On PC and consoles, some minigames have become so popular that they’ve spawned standalone titles, such as in the case of The Witcher 3’s Gwent. On mobile, minigames have also proven incredibly effective, providing ways to introduce all-new gameplay ideas and experiences without disrupting the core gameplay.
A standout example of mobile minigames in action is Merge Mansion’s Secret Supply, our Best Minigame for the casual market. The event introduced a casino-style arcade machine where players pulled a lever to generate mergeable items, carefully managing limited energy to maximize the score before the machine overheated.
The event is aggressively monetized, requiring players to purchase premium currency to continue. The game’s revenue performance reflects that, as it often spikes whenever this event is active (typically around once every other week).
This event is such a success story because it’s a dramatically different experience from the main game. Usually, Merge Mansion is relatively slow and relaxing, whereas this minigame had you pull the “machine” repeatedly like you’re in an actual casino. The event is so successful that Merge Mansion’s competitor, Gossip Harbor, released its own version of the event, Big Drop Rush.
Takeaways from Merge Mansion’s Secret Supply
Merge Mansion’s minigame highlights the power of hybridization: introducing gameplay elements from a genre different from your own. Merge Mansion players are accustomed to a more laid-back gameplay experience, so throwing them into the social casino genre is a significant change of pace.
While that might risk alienating some of the user base, it generally works because players don’t have to engage any more or less than they want to because this is a minigame. If they love it, they can jump in whenever the event pops up in the rotation and even invest in premium currency to make the most of its active period. If they find it too much, they can ignore it entirely, or just play around for small intervals when they want a change of pace.
Best Newcomer: Pokémon TCG Pocket
Thousands of new mobile games enter the market daily, but one title stood out: Pokémon TCG Pocket. While it didn’t quite manage to exceed the monumental impact of Pokémon GO’s launch in 2016, where hordes of players could be seen parading through the streets, the game made many headlines when it launched towards the end of October last year. It earned $33.7 million in its first week and hit the $100 million milestone after just 17 days on the market.
More impressively, it’s largely maintained its performance in the following months, with an average sustained gross rank of seven in the US and two in Japan. We have a few different theories about why the game has proven to be such a hit. For one, Pokémon already has a colossal following as a real-life trading card game, but despite numerous attempts, it hasn’t been able to replicate that success in video game form—until now.
TCG Pocket differs from past attempts because it revolves around collecting rather than focusing on actual battles. That’s a good fit for mobile as a platform. It’s easy for casual players to engage with: they log in for a few quick sessions a day to open up some card packs, get a surge of nostalgia, and continue to go about their routine. It also aligns well with the IP as a whole—Pokémon’s catchphrase is literally “gotta catch ‘em all”.
TCG Pocket also caters to more advanced players who want to focus on battling or are curious to learn more about it. The actual mechanics of this are much simpler than the real-world version of the Pokémon TCG game, which has been around for so long that it isn’t very approachable for newcomers. One could almost argue it’s like an expanded tutorial that builds your confidence enough to jump into the physical game, should you want to.
Takeaways from Pokémon TCG Pocket
For most mobile games, in-app purchases are an add-on to the user experience—whether it’s extra in-game resources that give players an edge in battle or flashy skins that will impress other players. However, few mobile games manage to embed monetization into the core experience in the same way that TCG Pocket does—especially without alienating freemium players.
Simply put, people play TCG pocket because they enjoy collecting Pokémon cards. And if they want to open more packs and get extra cards, they need to spend six PokéGold, which costs around $1.20. That’s a fairly reasonable outlay, so much so that the game has a limit to stop certain players from buying too many card packs, too soon (720 PokéGold per day).
Biggest Evolver: Brawl Stars
Let’s move from new games to the seasoned veterans. Countless titles have been on the mobile market for years, adapting to changing market conditions and evolving to meet the needs of their user base. Some mobile games even go so far as to turn themselves from moderate success stories into absolute chart toppers, and one such particular example really surprised our team over the past year.
When Supercell’s Brawl Stars first launched in 2018, it was reasonably successful. Still, the game struggled to maintain that momentum in the following years. Between 2022 and 2023, Brawl Stars saw a significant decline in performance, and questions lingered over how they could turn things around. Thankfully, after releasing some enjoyable new content and well-thought-out updates, Supercell managed not just to revive the game but push it to new heights.
But how did they do it? There were numerous changes in Brawl Stars, but three truly hit the mark. First, Brawl Stars launched large-scale collaboration events, partnering with beloved franchises like SpongeBob SquarePants, Toy Story, and Godzilla, which helped encourage lapsed players to return to the experience. While these collaborations weren’t the first Brawl Stars ever launched—the game had previously released skins based on the likes of Paris Saint-Germain soccer team and BT21—it was the first time the game had launched events based entirely on a recognized IP.
Second, Brawl Stars made several clever tweaks to its gameplay systems at the beginning of 2024. These included a new linear progression system called Starr Road, which enables players to unlock new characters and upgrades using credits. They also introduced the ability to hypercharge characters, reworked the game’s battle pass, and implemented a more streamlined ranked mode to better appeal to competitive players.
Finally, Supercell also enhanced its live events by introducing limited-time boosts and skills for characters. For example, the Angels and Demons event introduced limited-time boosts that added a layer of progression during the event and resulted in the game’s biggest daily revenue spike in its entire lifetime.
Takeaways From Brawl Stars
Brawl Stars offers a powerful masterclass on sustaining and reigniting user engagement for any mobile game developer—even those working with an established title. It’s a testament to the fact that even ageing titles can survive and genuinely thrive by being proactive.
If you enjoyed this blog post and would like to learn more about our 2025 AppDev Awards, remember to check out the full list of winners and nominees here and listen to the latest episode of our podcast.
