Monster Strike is Japan’s new number one app, dethrones Puzzle & Dragons after two years

This article originally appeared on the Metaps Blog. It has been modified slightly for style.
Founded by Katsuaki Sato, Metaps is a Japanese company which specializes in maximizing app downloads and monetization. The firm also offers an online payment service, called Spike.

For the past two years, Puzzle & Dragons by GungHo Entertainment has reigned supreme atop the Google Play and App Store charts in Japan, raising the bar for all apps to try and attain the top ranking on both charts. In November it became apparent that Monster Strike from Mixi has surpassed Puzzle & Dragons as the number one app in Japan.

A look at the Japan Google Play and App Store top grossing charts in 2014 reveals that November was the first time that Monster Strike spent more days than Puzzle & Dragons at number one on both charts in one calendar month.

Mixi found success in Japan as a social networking service (SNS) in the pre-smartphone era of the mid-2000s. Back then, it had struggled to compete with other SNS services, but Monster Strike has offered it a lifeline and the company is back to profitability as a result.

The level of dominance by Monster Strike and Puzzle & Dragons is made more evident by the fact that no other app has reached number one on the Google Play top grossing chart in Japan this year. Even on the App Store, only Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light from Square Enix and The White Cat Project from COLOPL have managed to attain the number one ranking on the top grossing chart.

With Metaps data, we produced original top grossing charts for the Japan App Store and Google Play stores for the month of November. Monster Strike, Puzzle & Dragons and Line: Disney Tsum Tsum sit in the top three spots of both charts; apps from COLOPL, Supercell, KLab, and Marvelous also make appearances on both charts.