The Most Profitable Mobile Games In The World Aren't Made By Zynga

Publisher: Backflip Studios

DragonVale, a game in which you breed your own pet dragon, was released in September 2011 by Backflip, a studio based in Boulder, Colo. It's still going strong.

Publisher: Mojang

Minecraft started out as a PC game, but its Swedish publisher revealed that mobile versions of the building-blocks game outsold desktop and game-console versions last year.

Publisher: NaturalMotion

An arcade-style racing game.

Publisher: Kabam

This kingdom-building simulation is a big hit for Kabam, a Silicon Valley games startup that has raised $125 million from investors including Google and Intel.

Publisher: King.com

This British publisher has challenged Zynga on Facebook games—but on mobile, it's just crushing it.

Publisher: Supercell

FarmVille players might find some parts of this Finnish games maker's agricultural simulation familiar. But Inside Social Games has actually said that Zynga's FarmVille 2 sequel is "reminiscent" of Hay Day. Never mind who's copying whom—Hay Day's a hit.

Publisher: GungHo Online

This popular puzzle game may be generating between $54 million and $75 million a month, according to reports of GungHo's financials. (That's for both iOS and Android versions.)

Publisher: Electronic Arts

A familiar brand name and voiceovers from the real actors behind the cartoon characters helped this game overcome a rocky launch.

Publisher: Supercell

Another financial hit for the Finns—this medieval battle game is reportedly making more than $1 million a day. The secret: carefully rolling out features so new users don't get overwhelmed.

Here you can see who rose and fell compared to the previous month.

The Complete Timeline Of Zynga's Disastrous 2012 >