Puzzle Games Overtake RPGs: What the Record 2026 Match-3 and Merge Boom Means for Players

Puzzle games just had their biggest half-year on record, and the numbers explain why every mobile studio is paying attention.

According to AppMagic's Casual Games Report for H1 2026, puzzle games accounted for more than 44% of all player spending across the entire casual mobile genre, pulling in $4.9 billion in six months. Match-3 alone made up $2.5 billion of that, more than half of puzzle's total, even though the segment's revenue actually dipped slightly year over year while downloads climbed 10%. Merge games were the real growth story: $1.3 billion in net spending, up 74% on the back of a 24% jump in downloads.

It's a brutal genre to break into, though. AppMagic found that of 120 new match-3 games launched, only one reached $100,000 in monthly revenue even once during the half year, a success rate of 0.8%. The games at the top keep pulling further ahead: Royal Match still leads, Candy Crush Saga holds second, and Dream Games' newer title Royal Kingdom grew 188% and could soon overtake Candy Crush. On the merge side, Microfun's Gossip Harbor topped $100 million in a single month for the first time and made over half a billion in H1 alone, while Century Games' Tasty Travels nearly doubled its earnings to close the gap.

This is exactly the territory Anahata Interactive plays in. Mithai Masti is a match-3 game, Idle Plants is a merge title, and Cyber Block is a puzzle game in its own right, so a genre pulling in $4.9 billion and still tightening its grip is good news for where we've chosen to build. It also comes with a warning built into the data: a 0.8% success rate for new match-3 launches means polish, retention, and a genuinely satisfying core loop matter more than ever, not less. That's the same discipline behind our own retention and instrumentation work across the portfolio right now.

If you play any of our games, you're part of a market that just crossed $4.9 billion in six months. Thanks for being here early.