October 13, 2026

Weekly roundup covers seven industry reports spanning mobile performance, marketing, game sales and global market trends. In September, Honor of Kings led mobile revenue with $135M, while Meowdoku recorded 11.5M downloads and Bus Fever Party! reached 12.8M. Meanwhile, mobile game acquisition costs rose 9.3%, the top 2% of video ads captured 60.7% of spending, and S&P Global forecast the games market reaching $229.1B by 2030. The recap also explores PC and console free-to-play trends and Europe’s game development industry, where Istanbul leads with 9,370 workers.

BAFTA has awarded over £270,000 to 112 emerging creatives across the UK and North America through its 2026 bursary and scholarship programs. Funding includes grants of up to £2,000 for training, equipment, software and relocation, alongside UK scholarships worth up to £12,000 and US scholarships reaching $60,000. This year's bursary program grew 40%, with several game artists, designers and developers among the recipients.

Apple has kicked off App Store Indie Games Week, spotlighting seven indie games making their iPhone and iPad debut, including Sifu, No Man’s Sky, Vampire Crawlers, Dome Keeper and 9 Kings. The week-long event features daily editorial spotlights and curated collections, giving independent developers greater visibility on the App Store. Most titles are available now, while No Man’s Sky arrives October 28 with all major expansions included.

The inaugural Cozy After Dark Showcase featured more than 50 indie game trailers and developer spotlights, highlighting games that blend cozy gameplay with horror, mystery and darker themes. Organized by Dames 4 Games, Draknek & Friends and Continue, the event showcased titles including Scarlet Hollow, Grave Seasons and Usual June. A companion Steam event runs October 12–19, offering demos, discounts and wishlist opportunities for featured games.

Developer Casriel has created Cinnamon, an open-source GameMaker runner that lets games built with GameMaker: Studio run on older Nintendo consoles, including the 3DS and Wii U. A demo shows Pizza Tower running on the 3DS, while the tool also supports fan ports of Undertale, Deltarune and Undertale Yellow. Built as a fork of the Butterscotch project, Cinnamon could eventually bring even more GameMaker titles to legacy hardware.

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