The most-played iPhone and Android games, by hours played

Carlo Allegri/Reuters

New data from mobile research firm Apptopia shows how many hours Android and iOS device sunk into the most popular smartphone games — and there were a few surprises on the list.

Most notably, the data reveal that “Fortnite: Battle Royale,” the international sensation, still claims fewer playing hours than years-old games like “Clash of Clans” and “Candy Crush Saga.” However, it’s worth noting that “Fortnite” wasn’t even available on Android during the time covered by the report, and still made a strong showing for itself.

The data shows how many hours the game was played worldwide, across both Android and iOS devices, between the May and July of 2018. The list includes two battle royale titles, a few “Bejeweled”-inspired color-matching games, and a handful of games for younger children. 

As a heads up, every game on this list is free to download, largely relying on in-app purchases and subscriptions to make money.

Here are the top mobile games, ranked by the total number of hours users spend playing them:

“Fortnite: Battle Royale” makes the list at number four, with 2.98 billion hours spent in the app. That number doesn’t tell the whole story, though: During the three-month period in question, it wasn’t available for Android, at all. That means that it was fourth place overall with only iPhone players.

Epic Games

One of the largest contributing factors to Fortnite taking forth place is that the game isn’t available on the Google Play Store, making it significantly less accessible for Android users. 

In a dataset only looking at games downloaded from the Apple App Store, Fortnite is at the very top of the list. 

Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Fortnite creator Epic Games told Business Insider that they decided not to host the game on the Google Play Store in order to avoid paying a portion of their profits to Google.