The hybrid–casual market is accelerating, with global net revenue reaching a new high of $174.8M in March 2025 across the App Store alone for iPhone and iPad.

That’s a significant step up from ~$100M in early 2024, reflecting sustained momentum over the past 12 months. The U.S. remains the top driver with over $68M in revenue, followed by China at $42.8M, and Japan at $ 11.9 M. Notably, Western markets are leading revenue growth, but key Asian territories like Taiwan and South Korea also posted strong gains. This climb suggests hybridcasual games are not just pulling in installs, they’re converting and retaining at a level that supports long-term monetization across regions.

Downloads & Sessions: The breakout hits drew huge download numbers (often 5–20 M+ after global launch in just months). Color Block Jam is now sitting on 30M+ downloads.

• For example, Color Block Jam’s session count is increasing from 2 to 3 on average since the global launch, thanks to a carefully tuned difficulty.

And oh boy, this hybrid casual game is growing like crazy.

Retention: Hybridcasual titles leverage “power progression” to keep players coming back. In practice, this means day-7 retentions are around 20% and day-30 is around 10%, far above the near-zero D30 rates typical of hypercasual. In other words, layering progression (levels, metas, battle passes) turns a quick gameplay core into a months-long game.

Real-life example Screw Master 3D: Pin Puzzle with strong long term retention

EOGAMES Studio launched the first iteration of Screw Master 3D: Pin Puzzle on WeChat Games, one of China’s largest hybrid platforms. Thanks to the game’s unique blend of difficulty and strategy, it quickly became a massive hit in China. However, the studio soon faced a significant challenge: scaling the success of their WeChat mini-game into a fully-fledged mobile game for a global audience.

The game’s early retention rate was strong from the start. After advanced testing, EOGAMES Studio worked with Supersonic to shift their focus to improving late retention. This involved adding more levels and creating engaging LiveOps events.

The Supersonic team worked closely with EOGAMES Studio to design seasonal LiveOps Christmas and Valentine’s Day events, deeper meta layers with daily calendar challenges, a medal system, and simulation levels.

Like the Christmas LiveOps event before it, the Valentine’s Day event was a big hit. The special event drew in 21% of all Screw Master 3D: Pin Puzzle players and boosted revenue by 3% compared to the previous week.*

The Daily Calendar challenge allowed players to unlock exclusive screw skins and boosted engagement. If players missed a day, they could watch ads to stay in the challenge, keeping them returning over time.

A room-filling meta-system added visual progression after level completion, allowing players to fill spaces with objects like beds and cupboards.

CPI & ROAS: Industry reports note that hybrid casual games can afford higher CPIs than hypercasual games because blended ad + IAP LTV is much higher. User acquisition budgets may shrink due to shorter payback periods, but creative UA (see below) and blended ROAS campaigns help maintain healthy ROAS.

Hybrid-casual games usually have a 40-50% revenue profile driven by IAPs. This gives them the unique ability to drive traffic on blended UA campaigns and optimize the CPI funnel. Still, most revenue for a hybrid-casual game is driven by ad revenue.

Major Hybrid Casual Trends in Q1 2025

• Puzzle Hybrids Rule: Q1 2025 saw an unprecedented puzzle takeover. Nearly half of hybridcasual revenue came from puzzle-centric subgenres: block puzzles, screw puzzles, and sort puzzles. Block Puzzle hybrids (like Color Block Jam) alone accounted for 71% of puzzle revenue. Screw puzzles (e.g. Screwdom, Screw Master 3D, etc contributed 20%, and sort puzzles (e.g. Block Jam 3D) 9%. This puzzle momentum is a continuation of 2024’s trend (sort puzzles grew 5.6× year-over-year). In practice, this means that simple match/block mechanics with hypercasual appeal, combined with casual-like progression, are the winning formula right now.
• Arcade Remains Strong: Classic Arcade hybrids (e.g. Mob Control, Alien Invasion, All in Hole) still made up ~45% of top-grossing hybridcasual revenue. These games often use “bite-size action” (eating, shooting, racing) as a core loop, but layer in extras like multiples, skins, or goals. The split between Arcade and Puzzle shows developers can succeed with either style; puzzle mechanics are trending, but arcade simplicity still works when married to hybrid design.
• Monetization Innovations: Many Q1 hits experimented with new monetization formats. Mob Control, for instance, introduced “Skipits” (purchasable tickets that let players skip rewarded ads but still gain rewards) to balance ad and IAP revenue.
• Subscriptions proved valuable too: in Mob Control, buying any IAP removes all ads and grants some skip tickets, gently nudging first-time spenders without killing ad income. Overall, hybrids are pulling ~20–50% of revenue from IAP while still using ads liberally for non-payers. We’re also seeing creative IAPs (battle passes, cosmetic bundles, “retry” packs) and ad uses (ad chests, revive ads, quick boosters) borrowed from casual F2P

• Retention Mechanics: Beyond progression, live ops and social elements are increasingly common. All in Hole (Homa Games) drove retention by adding time-limited events, daily/weekly missions, and a battle pass. But stressing this again, All in Hole looks more like a casual game based on the monetization profile than a hybrid.

• Even Color Block Jam, which has only basic events, keeps engagement high through a sharp difficulty curve and a fairness perception (deterministic puzzle levels) that encourages retries. We also see a nod to social features: Color Block Jam has (optional) team competitions, and some new hybrids include guild or PvP challenges to boost group retention.

In summary, successful hybrids use a mix of live events and inherently challenging gameplay to keep players coming back.

Spotlight on Breakout Hits (Jan – May 2025

Color Block Jam (Take-Two Interactive / Rollic)

• Downloads: 30.4M (8.1% of total)
• Net Revenue: $43.6M (16% of total) — the #1 hybridcasual earner in Q1 2025

I know I am mentioning Color Block Jam a lot, but that game just hit monthly record revenue 14 mil/month (only IAP!!! which is 20 mil+ in total revenue)

Why it works:
Color Block Jam is a masterclass in balancing casual polish with hybrid monetization. It takes the familiar joy of block puzzle mechanics and adds a subtle twist—parking logic and deterministic levels—which gives players that perfect “just one more try” loop.

Key strategies:

• Deterministic puzzle design = fail states feel fair → boosts retention
• Monetization ramps gently (ads appear after onboarding, IAPs offer smart retries)
• UA is massive: TikTok-style gameplay clips and aggressive Facebook campaigns drive scale.
• Events and liveops are light but effective, just enough to re-engage without clutter

Hexa Sort (AppLovin Corp)

• Downloads: 8.7M (2.3%)
• Net Revenue: $9.5M (3.5%)

Why it works:
Hexa Sort proves that even a visually simple sort puzzle can punch above its weight with smart retention and monetization. Its core loop, sorting colored objects into hexagonal containers, is instantly understandable but deceptively satisfying. A minimal UI and tactile interactions make it feel polished.

Key strategies:

• Quick level loops (<2 minutes) keep the ad inventory flowing
• Introduces pressure with limited moves, making users consider retries or boosters
• Frequent checkpoint rewards and mid-session offers help convert ad-only users into payers
• It’s a hybrid that doesn’t overcomplicate, but executes core loops flawlessly
• ad placement on the active spot in the level

Triple Match City (Radiant Cat Studio)

• Downloads: 740K (0.2%) — very low install base
• Net Revenue: $9.1M (3.3%) — off-the-charts monetization efficiency

Why it works:
This is the whale magnet. With fewer than a million installs, it still out-earned games with 10x the reach. That means one thing: monetization depth. Triple Match City likely layers a traditional match-3 mechanic with deep meta systems like collection goals, level mastery, gacha-like upgrades, or VIP boosts.

Key strategies (inferred):

• Likely uses higher-priced IAP bundles and soft gating
• Encourages daily session streaks with hard progression gates
• Probably skews toward older, higher-LTV players in developed markets
• A textbook case of “LTV > scale”: this game wins with fewer, better-converting players

Raid Rush: Tower Defense TD (Panteon)

• Downloads: 1.8M (0.5%)
• Net Revenue: $7.6M (2.8%)

Why it works:
Tower defense hybrids are having a moment, and Raid Rush hits the sweet spot between mid-core and hybrid casual. It offers action-packed, quick-fire tower defense gameplay with visual clarity and satisfying upgrade systems.

Key strategies:

• Monetizes through power progression: upgrades, unit unlocks, tower fusions
• Likely uses daily PvE goals, challenge levels, and speedrun incentives
• Ad-supported base with clear IAP opportunities (e.g. energy refills, coin bundles)
• Great potential for long-term engagement with new content drops and competitive modes

UA and Creative Strategies

User Acquisition for hybridcasual is as evolved as game design:

• Creative Diversity: Developers continually refresh ad creatives. High-tier studios generate dozens of video ad variants (showcasing different levels, power-ups, and characters) to avoid fatigue. Hybrid ads often mimic a hypercasual style (fast-paced gameplay clips, catchy music) because that still drives the highest CTRs.
  • For example, Color Block Jam regularly pushes out new color palettes and animations in ads, matching trends on TikTok. Using AI-assisted design tools is now common, speeding up iteration cycles.
• Targeting & Optimization: Campaigns balance broad reach with deep learning. Many teams run blended campaigns (combining IAA and IAP LTV) and optimize them for ROAS.

The move blended ROAS campaigns

To achieve these goals, Panteon migrated to MAX mediation, unlocking new opportunities to optimize its growth strategy. The move to MAX allowed it to tap into AppLovin’s blended ROAS campaigns. These campaigns target users who generate revenue through both IAPs, engagement with ads, or both – a different audience than its IAP ROAS campaigns.

The blended ROAS campaigns gathered momentum quickly, delivering the incremental growth Panteon sought without negatively impacting the value of the existing IAP ROAS campaigns.

By the second month, the blended ROAS campaign’s spending surpassed that of the IAP ROAS campaigns, indicating that it had discovered an abundance of new users meeting campaign criteria and underscoring the complementary nature of these two strategies.

Additionally, after introducing this new campaign strategy, Panteon saw significant improvements in Average Revenue Per Daily Active User (ARPDAU).

Panteon found its success in the ability to run multiple, complementary UA campaigns side by side:

• IAP ROAS campaigns target users who make in-app purchases, resulting in higher revenue per user.
• Blended ROAS campaigns focus on acquiring a larger, more cost-effective set of users likely to generate meaningful ad revenue.

Hybrid-casual games usually have a 40-50% revenue profile driven by IAPs. This gives them the unique ability to drive traffic on blended UA campaigns and optimize the CPI funnel. The onboarding of the game resembles a hyper-casual smooth funnel, which lowers the CPI, but later on, the game unfolds multiple progression vectors to achieve spend depth similar to casual/ mid-core game mechanics.

As mentioned in some of my talks and podcasts, hybrid casual, 50:50 IAP vs Ads is the UA manager’s wet dream because it allows you to leverage both IAP and IAA-based campaign optimizations available on multiple channels as mentioned above with Raid Rush example and UA diversification image.

• New Channels: In addition to Applovin, Mintegral, Facebook, and Google, publishers are experimenting with platforms like TikTok and programmatic video networks.

Actionable Recommendations for 2025

Based on these insights, hybridcasual developers and marketers should consider:

• Design for Retention: Build a simple, addictive core plus clear progression. Target 15-20% D7 retention as a benchmark. Even without heavy events, ensure levels get meaningfully harder so players feel compelled to return. Use “rewarded trials” (like Color Block Jam’s boosters) to reduce churn on tough levels.
• Embrace Puzzle Mechanics: Given puzzles’ dominance, explore block, sort, or screw puzzles as your core. These genres have proven cross-demographic appeal and integrate well with booster/IAP loops. For example, adding 3D or physics elements (as in Screwmaster) can refresh a puzzle formula and boost engagement.

• Hybrid Monetization Mix: Incorporate both ads and IAP from day one. Implement dual streams: plenty of ways to spend (coins, boosters, subscriptions, passes) alongside frequent rewarded ads or interstitials. Consider innovative formats like skip tickets (to protect premium users’ experience) offer one-click IAPs after frustrating moments (e.g., “Failed Level Pack”) as done in top games.
• Smart UA & Creative: Allocate budget for aggressive UA early on, but focus on efficiency. Continuously A/B test ad creatives (try different hooks: humor, failing climax, power-up reveal) and use data to kill underperforming ads quickly.
• Leverage AI tools for creative ideation and lookalike modeling. Remember that hybrid casual can absorb higher CPIs if ROAS stays strong, so aim for the highest-value players (e.g., via contextual ad targeting) and optimize toward D30 ROAS.
• Leverage LiveOps: Plan live events that tie back into your core loop. For instance, holiday-themed levels or temporary mini-games can spike engagement, as seen in All in Hole. But keep it manageable: use simple recurring events if resources are tight. Ensure your economy is robust (adjust in-game currency availability during events) so players feel rewarded for participation.
• Measure & Iterate: Rigidly track retention curves (D1, D7, D30), CPI, and LTV. Hybridcasual success comes from tuning: It’s normal to refine gameplay difficulty, ad frequency, and IAP pricing post-launch. Build analytics dashboards to monitor how each tweak affects ROAS. Engage with community feedback as well; small changes to game feel or balance can greatly impact longevity.

ROAS curves for hybrid casual games