A new report from analytics firm Sensor Tower confirms that battle royale mania spread to mobile, as Rules of Survival [Free] and Knives Out [Free] were the two most downloaded games on iOS in the fourth quarter of 2017 when they released. Both titles, published by NetEase, were downloaded over 15 million times globally. Rules of Survival was downloaded more of the two games, though it wasn't the top game in the US overall, with Dune! [Free] and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp [Free] each getting more downloads. However, on a global scale for iOS users, Rules of Survival is a top title.

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Over on Android, Rules of Survival isn't in the top 20 of the most-downloaded apps (which includes non-game apps), but it got enough downloads from Android to rate in the top 20 most downloaded apps overall, with approximately 30 million total since October 1st. This makes Rules of Survival one of the most popular battle royale games in the world. For comparison, the free-to-play console and PC battle royale Fortnite: Battle Royale has hit 40 million downloads. Meanwhile, PLAYERUNKNOWN's Battlegrounds has hit over 30 million downloads across PC and Xbox One releases.
Given Fortnite's sudden popularity, players and observers should start taking Rules of Survival seriously. This is not like some Asian successes where the publishers fail to replicate the game's performance in western territories. Instead, this is a truly global hit, and is showi...