Transactions on mobile games in South Korea reached a record high in the first quarter of this year, data showed Wednesday, amid the pandemic-driven online gaming trend.

Mobile game transactions stood at 1.66 trillion won ($1.48 billion) in the January-March period this year, compared with 1.48 trillion won the previous year, according to local mobile app tracker IGAWorks, which reviewed data from 40 million mobile devices running on Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

IGAWorks said the endless running game Cookie Run: Kingdom was the most popular game by monthly active users in March with 3.06 million, followed by battle royale game Brawl Stars with 2.03 million and racing game KartRider Rush+ at 1.98 million.

Monthly active users refer to unique users who interacted with an app at least once a month.

South Korean game giant NCSOFT Corp.'s massively multiplayer online role playing game Lineage M, however, ranked as the top game by sales in March at 70.26 billion won, followed by sequel Lineage 2M at 55.49 billion won and Cookie Run: Kingdom at 20.02 billion won.

Cookie Run: Kingdom, which was released on Jan. 21 this year, has experienced rapid growth in users, with daily active users hitting over 1.2 million last month.

Female users accounted for 57.4 percent of its total userbase in March, according to IGAWorks.

Shares in Devsisters Corp., the developer behind the endless runner, closed at 142,300 won Tuesday, a dramatic hike from 17,250 won on Jan. 21 when the game was launched. (Yonhap)