> A new framework like SpriteKit requires at least a year (an iOS release cycle) before it sees WWDC ... and then a shipping iOS. My recollection is that this is pretty close to the timeline I described
It’s not. Cocos got popular in the iPhoneOS 2.x days. SpriteKit came along in iOS 7. We’re talking about a period of five years, not one or two.
> If it did plateau pre Sprite-Kit, what replaced it?
Plateau means it stayed flat, not that it went away. Nothing replaced it. It just didn’t keep getting more and more popular.
A new framework like SpriteKit requires at least a year (an iOS release cycle) before it sees WWDC ... and then a shipping iOS. My recollection is that this is pretty close to the timeline I described where Cocos starts to show up in abundance in the iOS apps submitted and as a result a team is spun up at Apple to create what ends up being SpriteKit.
You'll have to educate me on the plateauing of Cocos. If it did plateau pre Sprite-Kit, what replaced it?