Hearthstone on Android cracks the top-grossing charts despite limited availability

Publisher Blizzard’s free-to-play card battler finally made its way to Android tablets last week, and that opened the game up to a whole new audience.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is the 25th highest-grossing game on Android for all of Finland, according to App Annie. That’s despite the fact that the game is only available on tablets running Google’s mobile operating system and not phones. The game has shot into the top 100 highest-grossing apps in 19 countries. That includes important markets like Canada (56) and United Kingdom (92). Hearthstone has moved up to No. 89 on the highest-grossing charts in the United States on Google Play’s chart. Analysts expect the mobile market to generated $21 billion this year, and Hearthstone has the potential to capture a significant portion of that by selling card packs and other in-game items.

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Hearthstone’s strong start on Android has it grossing more than hugely popular games like FIFA Ultimate Team from EA Sports, and that is available on both phones and tablets.

Blizzard has already started making a lot of money from Hearthstone. It has bounced up and down the iPad grossing charts, but it had hit a low in recent months when it fell out of the top 50 in the United States. The game has seen a resurgence, however, in recent weeks. That’s likely due to a combination of new content in the form the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion as well as the renewed excitement with Android players getting access for the first time. Hearthstone is now No. 18 on the iPad top grossing charts in the United States.

None of this includes the PC or Mac version, which likely make more money than the iPad or Android versions since Blizzard has a huge base of fans on that platform.

With Hearthstone performing well on iPad and now Android tablets, the game is potentially on track to meet expectations of analysts. In February, Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz said Hearthstone had the potential to make as much as $200 million for publisher Activision Blizzard’s fiscal year. The company has only said so far that it is happy with the game’s performance, but it hasn’t provided any solid numbers.

Blizzard should have an even easier time generating revenue next year, which is when it plans to release Hearthstone for iPhone and Android phones. The company originally planned to release the app for those platforms this year, but it wants to improve the user interface for smaller screens.