The lineup of top-grossing mobile games experienced a new addition during the third quarter. According to Sensor Tower, Kingshot, Century Games’ new 4X (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) game, broke into the top 10 for the first time. It joins Century Games’ other notable 4X game, Whiteout Survival, which ranks as the third-highest grossing mobile game. 

Century Games finds itself in an incredibly advantageous position with two market-dominant mobile games in its portfolio. This is quite, a feat given Kingshot only launched earlier this year and that the 4X subgenre is incredibly competitive. 

If you want a deeper primer, we wrote an essay about the 4X evolution of Century Games(with Whiteout Survival) last year and also covered Last War’s success in the 4X subgenre earlier this year. Those titles continue to dominate the 4X market and mobile game market at large. However, as Century Games continues to unlock greater success in this genre, it is worth taking a deeper look at how the company is manifesting its winning titles.

The Story of Kingshot’s Rise

Despite having launched less than a year ago, Kingshot already claims the third position in top-grossing 4X strategy games of 2025. While First Fun’s Last War is ranked No. 1, Whiteout Survival and Kingshot combined are enabling Century Games to generate more revenue from this genre than their top competitor. 

One might be tempted to believe that Kingshot’s recent success can be attributed to an aggressive user acquisition strategy powered by unsustainable marketing spend. The download growth trends certainly support this perspective: While Kingshot has outstripped its 4X peers in terms of downloads, its active user base remains smaller compared to Whiteout and Last War.

However, underneath the UA growth, Kingshot demonstrates robust fundamentals. Its ARPDAU has caught up to the market leaders, indicating that Century Games has taken learnings from Whiteout Survival’s 4X legacy and applied it to their next game. 

Another interesting dynamic is evident in revenue trends of the top two 4X titles post Kingshot’s launch. Kingshot’s revenue has scaled while Last War and Whiteout’s remain stable. It does not appear that Century Games’ new 4X title Kingshot has actively cannibalized its existing 4X game Whiteout Survival, nor has it captured revenue or players from its competitor Last War. Kingshot seems to have slightly expanded the core 4X market, at least beyond the two largest games, creating additional revenue opportunities for Century Games.

Kingshot’s Monetization Driven by Learnings from Whiteout

How did Kingshot achieve this in such a short time? Kingshot has carried forward Whiteout’s core 4X systems while simplifying them for casual audiences. For instance, Whiteout Survival’s pay-to-progress monetization system relies on resources such as gears and charms that enable upgrades, i.e., leveling up assets. As an example, Whiteout Survival has four gears — chief gears, hero gears, pets, and experts — whereas Kingshot has three gears — governor gears, hero gears, and pets — that serve identical purposes. Interestingly, the initial progression levels for gears in the game design are very similar in the two titles.

There are also similarities in monetization levers such as items, game mechanics, offers, VIP systems, and packs. For example, both titles use speed-up timers as a way to drive hard currency sales.

Finally, Kingshot takes the most successful aspects of Whiteout’s live-ops and repurposes them into its own events calendar. For example, Whiteout Survival runs Lucky Wheel a spin-the-wheel or roulette event that gives out hero shards. Kingshot has an identical event named Hero Roulette. Hall of Chiefs is a competitive PvP event with ranks and leaderboards in Whiteout, and it is replicated as Hall of Governors in Kingshot. Bear Hunt is a Whiteout Survival event where players in an alliance work together to trap a bear. In Kingshot, an identical event is named Pitfall.

 Kingshot has also replicated Whiteout’s fishing tournament minigame. We may presume that Century Games saved significant costs while transcribing Whiteout’s live-ops events into Kingshot. In some cases, the company retained even the names of these events. Both games include identical recurring events such as alliance mobilization, plan your city, develop new tech, working overtime, city development, beast whisperer, and more. This may have led to lower production costs for Kingshot and a higher return on investment for its monetization features, which in turn could have released resources to invest in marketing and UA.

To understand how Century Games was able to execute this, let’s take a look at the company’s portfolio.

Century Games’ Portfolio

Century Games has been developing mobile games since its founding in 2010 when it was known as DianDian Interactive. The company was acquired by Zhejiang Century Huatong Group in 2018 and rebranded as Century Games. According to Sensor Tower estimates, the company has generated nearly $4B in lifetime revenue from in-app purchases globally from mobile games — and that doesn’t count non-IAP revenue streams such as ads or ex-iOS China revenue. Unsurprisingly, a significant portion of this revenue comes from Whiteout Survival, which launched in 2023 and made the company a top contender in the mobile gaming industry. Since then, Whiteout Survival has grossed over $2.5B in lifetime revenue and nearly $1.3B in 2025 alone.

Century Games’ second-highest grossing title is now Kingshot, which launched in February 2025. Kingshot has already grossed an estimated $330M in revenue in 2025 and is chasing Whiteout Survival’s phenomenal success. With an average of 1.7M daily active users in October 2025, Kingshot still does not have as large a player base as Whiteout Survival, which boasts over 3M daily active users, according to Sensor Tower. However, Kingshot’s in-app purchase ARPDAU in October 2025 was $1.45, overshooting Whiteout Survival’s $1.21. If Kingshot can maintain its strong monetization trends while continuing its marketing investments, it should be set up for great success in 2026.

Other notable titles in the company’s portfolio include Family Farm Adventure (2021), Family Farm Seaside (2012), DragonScapes Adventure (2020), Idle Mafia (2020), Valor Legends (2022), Bingo Aloha - Bingo Live At Home (2023), Tasty Travels: Merge Game (2024), Truck Star (2024), and Frozen City (2022). (Check out our deconstruction of Frozen City.) Notably, Family Farm Adventure and DragonScapes grossed $212M and $164M in lifetime revenues, respectively. The company’s more recent titles, Tasty Travels and Truck Star, which were released last year, grossed an estimated $40M and $26M, respectively, in 2025. 

Clearly, the largest portion of Century Games’ revenue is generated from 4X strategy games. However, its portfolio spans diverse genres and markets ranging across 4X, strategy, puzzle, merge, simulation, board games, and more. The company is a global leader in delivering exceptional gaming experiences and is dedicated to connecting the world with happiness. It champions a philosophy of cross-functional collaboration and rapid experimentation. 

Century Games has invested in technologies such as ThinkingData that unify analytics for user acquisition and live-ops in one platform. Reportedly, over 60% of Century Games employees — including product managers, designers, live operators, and UA specialists — use these technologies to monitor player friction points, test fixes with zero-code updates, track event performance in real time, and adjust live-ops and campaigns on the fly. 

The company even saw Roblox as an opportunity and found success in developing Roblox games such as LiveTopia and MetroLife, which have tens of millions of monthly active users. 

Another key success factor for Century Games is its data-driven user acquisition strategy that uses real-time data to optimize and control its cost of acquisition. The company’s close collaboration with social media platforms such as Snapchat enables it to build rich creatives, better target players, and test successfully. For instance, Century Games optimizes user acquisition on Snapchat through an install goal-based bidding(GBB) that achieves scalable acquisition of high-quality players. The company is willing to take risks and try new things to build a competitive edge. Another example of this is how Century Games leveraged the rewarded user acquisition channel MistPlay to run AI campaigns that drove a 30% uplift in D7 ROAS and a 14% boost in IAP spenders.

We have categorized the company’s top mobile game titles across genres in a chart.

Not only are these games diverse in terms of gameplay, but they cater to diverse audiences. For example, in the U.S., among Century Games’ top four titles, Whiteout Survival is largely enjoyed by millennials across genders; Kingshot is played mostly by millennial men; Tasty Travels appeals to millennial and Gen X women; and Truck Star appeals to Gen X and older women. Clearly, Century Games has developed expertise in targeting a wide range of mobile gamers. 

The company’s games are also diversified across regions. For example, excluding the non-iOS China data we can’t see, Whiteout Survival is highly successful in Asia, with an estimated 36% revenue being generated in South Korea, 8% in Japan, and 3% in Taiwan. The game also has a substantial presence in Tier 1 Western markets since it generates 22% revenue from the U.S. and 5% from Germany, according to Sensor Tower.

Kingshot, meanwhile, is mostly focused on Tier 1 Western gaming markets, with 33% of the revenue being generated in the U.S., 5% in Germany, and 4% in the U.K. The game also maintains robust monetization in Tier 1 Asian gaming markets, with 20% of the revenue generated in South Korea, 5% in Japan, and 3% in Taiwan.

How Century Games’ Portfolio Strategy Drives Success

Century Games’ massive success has not occurred overnight. Over time, Century Games has grown strategically through M&A, studio investments, and publishing. The company describes itself as “a full spectrum game business, including but not limited to computer and smartphone software design, research, development, maintenance, and publishing.” It is not seeking to build one-off hits, but rather develop winning formulas that are sustainable and repeatable.

The company experiments across platforms and shares that it is “pioneering the exploration of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and mixed reality.” Century Games also takes pride in having developed and published titles across genres that include casual, RPG, and strategy games, and it appears the company intends to continue this diversified growth strategy.

While most of Century Games’ customers are playing its 4X titles, the company’s diversified portfolio of games has enabled it to cross-leverage game development expertise, reuse learnings, blend genres, and accelerate live-ops for its key titles. 

For instance, Kingshot has been criticized for being a reskin of Whiteout Survival and similar 4X titles. The differentiator is that Kingshot has more casual gameplay elements and is more accessible when compared to typical 4X titles. It uses bright colors and a minimalistic 3D art style. The themes in Kingshot, while similar to Whiteout, are more light-hearted and neutral. For instance, instead of a “furnace” in Whiteout Survival, Kingshot has a “town center.” The characters in Whiteout are called “survivors,” while in Kingshot they are “townspeople.” These themes are also reflected in Kingshot’s gameplay. Early gameplay in Kingshot focuses on new, casual tower defense and idle mechanics, while 4X elements such as resource management are introduced slowly. 

This reskin goes beyond visuals and extends to the core game design, progression, and tuning. For instance, the heroes or characters in Kingshot are often very similar to Whiteout Survival. When comparing heroes from the first season of both games, we see that the characters are identical in class, stats and abilities. It is worth noting that character collection and upgrades are a significant driver in both games’ economies. By essentially reusing character profiles, Century Games is able to accelerate production timelines.

We can reason that in Kingshot, Century Games has successfully replicated Whiteout Survival’s midcore mechanics into a game with fresh graphics that appeal to younger players and has augmented it with casual game elements leveraged from the rest of its portfolio. A key example of this is how Kingshot is more tactile and interactive than Whiteout Survival. In Kingshot, the player (i.e., the governor) can move around the screen to complete tasks, continuously engaging the player. This feature is not available on Whiteout Survival, but is present in its closest competitor and top 4X strategy game Last War. These intelligent updates are key to Century Games’ success with Western audiences.  

Through blending genres in Kingshot, Century Games has created an accessible entry point into 4X mobile games. Coupling this with an aggressive user acquisition strategy, Century Games is effectively expanding the 4X strategy market in mobile. There is no reason to believe that this evolution of 4X games needs to be restricted to one genre. Century Games can reapply this playbook of genre-blending strategically to grow its portfolio of games.

The Path Ahead

Having a diverse portfolio of titles gives developers the ability to transfer learnings, iterate, and experiment with variations of their own games on specific user segments before deciding to scale. Century Games is doing just that, creating products that feel familiar but are better than the games that came before. This incremental portfolio strategy can be replicated across markets and genres. 

The future holds great potential for Century Games. The company can continue to level up its portfolio through strategic acquisitions that bring in genre or design expertise, enabling it to replicate Whiteout Survival’s monetization success in other genres. It can embed midcore live-ops systems into reskinned casual games and explore strategic targeting in tier 1 Western markets. 

In line with this big, bold vision of portfolio expansion, we predict that Century Games’ next milestone is not to try building another 4X reskin of Whiteout Survival like Kingshot, but to build another megahit like Whiteout in a casual genre such as puzzle, simulation, or casino. With Kingshot, Century Games proved it can replicate success in 4X, but can it push beyond? We will be eagerly watching.

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According to InvestGame, founders selected Lightspeed as the #1 lead investor in the gaming industry in 2023 and 2024. Selected portfolio companies include Anthropic, Believer Entertainment, Epic Games, Gardens Interactive, Inworld AI, k-ID, Mistral, Pika Labs, Snap, Suno, Tollbit, Tripledot Studios, Volley, xAI, and 1047 Games.

Lightspeed also hosts the annual CEO Forum at GDC, the annual gathering of gaming, media, and AI CEOs, in partnership with Goldman Sachs and McKinsey. Together with GamesBeat and Nasdaq, the firm runs Game Changers, an annual list that celebrates and accelerates extraordinary gaming and interactive media startups.

The investment team and its Advisory Council combine deep gaming, consumer, and enterprise technology expertise with an international multi-stage investment platform and a culture that puts founders first.

In Other News

💸 Funding & Acquisitions:

• AppsFlyer sale enters final phase, seeking valuation of $2.7B to $3B.
• Arcadia Gaming Partners invests $4M in Iron Games studio led by former Gram Games execs.
• Hoora Games raises $1.3M to accelerate its mobile ambitions.
• Web3 giant Animoca Brands plans to go public through a reverse merger.

📊 Business & Products:

• Nintendo increases its full-year forecast as H1 sales jump 110% to ¥1.1T.
• GTA 6 delayed to November 19, 2026 for "additional polish".
• Jordan’s $312.8M games market could nearly double by 2030.
• Mad Hook partners with Audiomob to expand in-game audio monetisation.
• EA insists it will "maintain creative control" and "creative freedom" if sale to consortium goes ahead.

👾 Miscellaneous:

• Daily play dominates as 85% of mobile gamers return multiple times.
• ByteDance is reportedly building a PC gaming platform.
• Japanese publishers demand OpenAI's Sora 2 stops using their copyrighted creative works without permission.
• Space Ape-developed Beatstar and Country Star go offline.
• Olympic Esports Games no longer taking place in Saudi Arabia.

A Word from Our Sponsor: Overwolf

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For game developers, Overwolf offers CurseForge For Studios. CurseForge For Studios is a white-label solution that lets game makers and publishers easily integrate mods safely and seamlessly into their games, both existing and new, at zero cost. It’s battle-tested by AAA studios and games, including Krafton (inZOI), Studio Wildcard (ARK), Take-Two Interactive (KSP), and others.

CurseForge For Studios offers:

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Content Worth Consuming

Deus Ex Machina (owenmahoney.ai): “If you have a strong opinion about the future of AI in games, you are probably wrong … Every real medium shift is alien at first and therefore frightening. We focus on the visible disruptions of job losses, cost cuts, and the collapse of familiar systems. What is harder to see, and far more important, is the opportunity it creates. Each previous wave of new technology in games multiplied the number of creators: from thousands in the PC age, to hundreds of thousands in the console and online era, to millions in the mobile wave, to tens of millions in the age of UGC platforms like Roblox. AI will multiply that again, by empowering new developers and vastly expanding the creator economy in game development.”

Dan Houser: GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar, Absurd, & Future of Gaming (Lex Fridman Podcast): “Dan Houser is co-founder of Rockstar Games and legendary creative mind behind Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and Red Dead Redemption series of video games.”

More Than Just a Name — Leveraging IP in Mobile Games with Rovio’s Kentaro Sugiura (Mobile Games Playbook): “In today's hyper-competitive app stores, intellectual property is the ultimate power-up for mobile games. Join us on this episode of the Mobile Games Playbook as we explore the strategic value of licensing, from the instant recognition of beloved brands to the revenue boost of limited-time events. Join host Jon Jordan and Rovio’s User Acquisition (UA) Manager Kentaro Sugiura as they dive into the critical factors for IP selection (Affinity vs. Expansion), the challenges of UA creative approvals and balancing IP expectations, and the future trends of deeper integration and crossover events.”

The Future of Game Engines and Creative Play with Nuno Leiria (Playing With Inference): “In this episode, we delve into the concept of playful creation with Nuno Leiria, founder of Nilo — a platform designed for creating games as easily as playing them.  With over 15 years of experience in the game development industry, Nuno has worked on titles like Fortnite and Fable, focusing particularly on game engines. He shares his journey, explaining how generative AI is transforming game development by making complex tasks easier and more enjoyable. Learn about Nilo’s innovative approach to combining AI-driven game creation with collaborative, browser-based technology and discover how players can become creators in an ecosystem designed for both solo and social play. ”

Supercell ft Ilkka Paananen — How an Early Pivot Led to Clash of Clans and Brawl Stars (sequoiacap.com): “Founder and CEO Ilkka Paananen set out to create a different kind of game company — one where the game development teams would have decision-making power, not upper management. Ilkka recalls the early decision to scrap their first game and pivot to focus exclusively on mobile. The decision launched one of gaming’s most remarkable success stories: By obsessing over quality and treating failures as learning opportunities, Supercell created enduring hits and defined a new standard for mobile gaming. Ilkka reveals how the company reinvented itself once again after a slowdown, and discusses Supercell’s future.”

Games Writing with Lis Moberly, Creative Lead at 20th Century Games (The AIAS Game Maker’s Notebook): “Alexa Ray Corriea chats with Lis Moberly, Creative lead at 20th Century Games. Together they discuss how the path towards game development has changed over the years and the difficulties young people face with job placement; working with and helping junior writers join and stay in the games industry; the importance of institutionalized knowledge; and the value of collaborating with writers from mediums outside of games.”

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