It’s the beginning of a new year, but it looks like many of the best selling games of 2016 continue to bring in a lot of cash to their creators. There are exceptions, of course, and we’ll discuss some of them in this article.

Let’s start with a “free” game. I have used the quotes on purpose, because very few of these free games are actually free. Their makers are regular human beings, just like you and me, so they need money to feed themselves, pay the rent and yes – even buy the various apps that make their lives easier!

Most of these free games include a limited set of levels, or don’t allow you to get past a certain game section because you need a $10 super-knight to level the battle winning chances. Others are much more annoying, because they bombard you with ads or force you to watch various 30 second movies, rewarding you with virtual cash that unlocks new worlds, new characters, and so on.

The first free game on the list is Super Mario Run, which has moved quickly towards the top. It’s not a surprise, considering its huge fan base, and the fact that the gameplay experience is really good. It’s also the first Nintendo game to be ported as an app. The company will continue to port its most popular console titles to iOS and Android devices, and thus make a decent profit without putting a lot of work into this. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy to do that, but being a (now retired) game developer myself, I guarantee that it’s definitely easier to port a game to any other O.S. in the world than to create it from scratch.

The free section of the Super Mario Run game consists of a single world; then, if you like the game, you’ll have to pay $10 to unlock the rest of the worlds, boosting the number of accessible levels from 4 to 24. I’d say that it’s not a huge price, especially if you are a fan, considering the fact that the game manages to capture and provide an authentic Mario experience – all of this while you’re using a single hand to play it! And Nintento should be very happy about it as well – though its officials aren’t amazed yet – because the mobile versions of the game have brought in close to 50 million US dollars so far.

The second game is… Minecraft, what else? According to thinkgaming.com, its creators make about $30K / day, an impressive figure by anyone’s standards. Sales had their ups and downs, with the game ranking from #1 to #89 in Play Store within the last 3 months, according to the number of sold copies.

I’m not the only one who thinks that Microsoft has gotten much smarter under its new CEO, and investing in Minecraft was definitely a profitable idea.

Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle was downloaded by over 100,000,000 people – yes, 100 million! I can’t even believe that close to 1.5% of the world population has this game installed on their devices! But I am forced to believe it once that I see the 400K+ game ratings in Google’s Play Store.

It is true that the title has been produced by  BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment, a company that knows a thing or two about game development. It’s a combat game, and it has got some interesting features. Board game style gameplay, for example. Or the ability of assembling your Dragon Ball dream team.

Many people say that this is the best game they’ve ever played, so if you are into combat games you should definitely check it out.