Midcore Insights Q2 2026

A snapshot of the biggest shifts across Midcore in Q2 2026, from Strategy and RPG to Shooters and Simulation, covering market leaders, breakout launches, LiveOps trends, and UA strategies.

2026-08-13 — Anya Zelenina and Andrei Zubov

Our fresh Midcore Insights Q2 2026 report breaks down both the broader market shifts and the key trends within each major midcore subgenre, from Strategy and RPG to Shooters and Simulation. Top performers driving the market, a few fresh hits, LiveOps trends, and hot UA strategies—it’s all there.

Here are some of the key highlights to give you a taste:

• Shooter outperforms almost every major midcore genre. It was the only major genre with YoY revenue growth: +13.9% to $845.3M.
• RPG, Strategy, and Simulation all lose YoY revenue. RPG plunged –16.9%, Strategy retreated –10.2%, and Simulation declined –14.8%.
• Strategies grow in downloads, but not in revenue. Card Battlers’ revenue, for example, dropped a steep –50.7% even with flat installs, largely affected by Pokémon TCG Pocket's decline.
• Hypercasual mechanics move into 4X LiveOps. More midcore titles—Whiteout Survival and Puzzles & Survival among them—are borrowing catchy hypercasual loops and running them as in-game events.
• Creative trends worth watching: stylized AI-hook video intros tied directly to core gameplay and growing "tycoonization" of UA creatives.

The market may look like it's slowing down, but midcore studios are keeping more than busy, and this short report proves it. It goes deeper into the segment, with over 20 slides of actionable data and key takeaways on where the market is headed, and which strategies are shaping it right now.