(Jakub Porzycki/Getty Images)

Four more mobile games joined the $1 billion club last year as the industry continues to print money

Two games owned by Tencent cracked the list for the first time, and Microsoft’s “Candy Crush” continued to be a stalwart.

Max Knoblauch

1/23/25 2:41PM

There’s a reason you see so many ads for mobile games all over your screens: they make their owners massive amounts of cash.

Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower just released its State of Mobile 2025 report, which showed that four more mobile games surpassed $1 billion in revenue last year. You probably recognize the titles — or, even more likely, the addictive ads. Chinese tech company Tencent owns two new entrants, “Brawl Stars” and “Dungeon & Fighter.” Heavily advertised games “Last War: Survival Game” and “Whiteout Survival” also reached the revenue milestone for the first time.

Other well-known hits like Roblox, “Candy Crush Saga” (which is ultimately owned by Microsoft after the Activision Blizzard merger deal), and “Royal Match” made the list again. Altogether, 11 mobile games reached the nine-zeros club in 2024, a record high, according to Sensor Tower.

The lucrative nature of mobile games, which are way cheaper to produce than, say, “Grand Theft Auto 6,” is behind their proliferation. Beyond microtransactions for things like extra lives or in-game currency, many mobile hits are themselves major advertising hubs, selling ad space at a premium based on their massive user numbers.

That advertising can be pretty shady, too. Many games — including some billion-dollar giants — utilize rage bait strategies that manipulate users to download the app and play it correctly. Other frustrating features that could be classified as “dark patterns” (like pop-ups that are difficult to close or ads featuring “fake” gameplay) are also common.

The FTC has taken some notice of mobile games, reaching a settlement with Tapjoy, a mobile-ad company, over allegations that the company misled consumers about in-game rewards. In a statement, two FTC commissioners said that app-store giants Apple and Google share most of the blame:

“Tapjoy is not the only platform squeezing developers. In fact, the firm is a minnow next to the gatekeeping giants of the mobile gaming industry, Apple and Google. By controlling the dominant app stores, these firms enjoy vast power to impose taxes and regulations on the mobile gaming industry, which was generating nearly $70 billion annually even before the pandemic...
Under heavy taxation by Apple and Google, developers have been forced to adopt alternative monetization models that rely on surveillance, manipulation, and other harmful practices.”

According to several ad experts Sherwood News spoke with, these practices have helped create a multibillion-dollar industry that tries to reel in users by infuriating them — and it’s only getting bigger.

Jon Keegan3/27/26

Judge blocks Pentagon’s move to blacklist Anthropic

A federal judge in Northern California has granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Pentagon from labeling Anthropic as a national security supply chain risk.

The ruling temporarily prevents the Defense Department from restricting the AI company’s access to federal contracts amid a dispute over its refusal to allow certain military and surveillance uses of its technology. The designation could also have shifted lucrative government work toward competitors, including OpenAI.

Earlier this month, Anthropic, the company behind Claude, sued 17 federal agencies and their heads, alleging the government exceeded its statutory authority.

Rani Molla3/27/26

Report: SpaceX’s record IPO may grant preferential access to retail investors and Tesla shareholders

SpaceX’s impending IPO could raise $40 billion to $80 billion and rank as the largest ever — as well as one of the most unconventional.

The Wall Street Journal reports several ways CEO Elon Musk is considering breaking with IPO norms:

Investors in his other companies, including Tesla, could receive preferential access to shares.
Individual investors may get a third or more of the allocation, far above the typical ~10% mark.
Instead of a traditional road show, Musk wants investors to visit SpaceX facilities in person.

Exclusive | The SpaceX IPO Will Be Just as Unconventional as Musk Himself

Investors in his other companies, including Tesla, could receive preferential access to shares.
Individual investors may get a third or more of the allocation, far above the typical ~10% mark.
Instead of a traditional road show, Musk wants investors to visit SpaceX facilities in person.

Rani Molla3/26/26

Tesla released estimates for Q1 deliveries and they’re lower than analysts expected

Ahead of first-quarter earnings next month, Tesla released its own company-compiled Wall Street consensus estimate for deliveries: 365,645 vehicles. While that’s lower than the 382,000 FactSet consensus estimate, it represents a nearly 9% jump from Q1 2025, when Tesla sold 336,681 vehicles.

Tesla started releasing its own consensus estimates to the public — not just institutional investors — for the first time in Q4 2025. The move was seen as a way to temper investor expectations, as other estimates were too high. Last quarter, Tesla’s compilation was closer to actual numbers, which fell 16% year over year.

The market-implied odds from event contracts suggest 64% of traders think Tesla’s Q1 deliveries will be more than 350,000, 44% think it will be higher than 360,000, and just 21% have it at higher than 370,000.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

The toughest AI benchmark just got a whole lot tougher

ARC-AGI-3 is the latest version of a clever benchmark that challenges AI models to solve mini video games with no written instructions.

Jon Keegan3/26/26

Rani Molla3/26/26

The US leads the world in robotaxi deployments

Every day it seems another robotaxi launches somewhere in the world. But most of them are in the US.

Of the 171 active robotaxi deployments globally, 69 — or 40% — are in the US, according to a new report from the Bank of America Institute. China, the next largest market, accounts for 24% of deployments.

Most of those deployments are still in testing or early commercial stages. Only 10 US cities currently have fully commercial robotaxi operations, defined as services that operate on public roads, carry paying passengers, run fully driverless without a safety driver, and function all day in any weather.

For now, that effectively refers to Alphabet’s Waymo, which operates commercially in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio, and the San Francisco Bay Area. That definition excludes competitors like Tesla, whose Robotaxi service uses safety monitors, and Amazon’s Zoox, which has yet to charge customers for rides.