Fortnite is back! After 5-year Apple ban.

Fortnite is back! After 5-year Apple ban. Let's take a look at their purchase flow.1. Tap an item to purchase, then choose payment method: Epic or 'In-app purchase'2. That 'In-app purchase' button doesn't look very inviting to me, Epic store has a nice icon AND a 20% back kicker. Probably will choose that route. 😅 3. No scary popup confirmation after tap!Wild.Is this the beginning of a new era?

Matthew Emery May 26

Journal

Any actionables from Epic vs Apple rulings?

F2P mobile game publisher: "Any actionables from Epic v. Apple ruling(s) to consider NOW (Q2)?" 🤠 𝗧𝗟𝗗𝗥: 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀• For US users, you can 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬-𝘰𝘶𝘵 '𝘣𝘶𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘸' 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘣❗• You can do this 𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵• So the 'shop' can still be native, in-App UI• E.g. see XSolla's new 'Buy Button' (pictured, rel. May5)🧑‍⚖️ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴:• iOS apps can include ext. payment links• Apple can't collect 27% 🙄 of web-based revenue• Apple has appealed, but must comply for now...📍 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼:• U.S.-based players only (for now). • Other countries = biz as usual.Note that Apple's popup conf. still required: "You are about to leave and go to an external website."That said, pretty cool! 🤠

Matthew Emery May 21

Journal

Puzzle & Dragons “0” launches in May!

Puzzle & Dragons "0" launches in May! 😮 Its predecessor is an absolute juggernaut.• 7.3B gross revenue • WW RPDs over $100 🧠 💥Staggering.That said, the revenue trend has been slowly negative since IDFA deprecation in April 2022.It ONLY made $43M (net) in Q1... so I suppose its a good time for a reboot.Anyone else looking forward to playing this one? 🤠Revenue data from AppMagic 🪄✨

Matthew Emery May 20

Journal

An Android game competed against 32K other game advertisers.

On a monthly basis, in 2024, an Android game competed against 32K other game advertisers. 👀 • Ad Creatives competed with 4.2M others.• From 2023 to 2024, the number of game advertisers increased 35%• But, the number of US advertisers (publishers) decreased 7% 😔More goodies and insights in the SocialPeta 2024 report.

Matthew Emery May 16

Journal

Can hyper-casual still work?

Last week a client asked: "Can hyper-casual still work?" My answer: "Anything is possible, but, I'd recommend against it."Best evidence: The pubs best at hyper-casual have pivoted to hybrid.Client: "Well, how did Block Blast do it?"𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.So I did a bit of digging...Here is how Block Blast scaled from 15M to 42M monthly downloads over the past several months.A 60-cent Ad LTV (given insane retention) would put them at a $300M / year run rate on ads alone. 😮So, how did they do this, in 2025?1. 𝟯𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗔/𝗕 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀: They iterated aggressively since 2022, ran 3000 A/B tests, some with AI players. 😶 2. 𝗗𝟲𝟬 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 of 𝟮𝟴%: The fruit of this iteration. 🍒3. 𝟭𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 concepts in past 2y. 🤠So... that's ALL it takes to have a hit! 😆A D60 retention higher than most games' D7, 3000 A/B tests, […]

Matthew Emery May 13

Journal

Those who buy are more likely to repurchase, so drive those initial conversions!

Unity Report 2025: "Those who buy are more likely to repurchase, so drive those initial conversions!" 😠 ⚠️ 𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗔 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗨𝗧𝗘 ⚠️ 😠 This argument has been a subtle pet peeve of mine for years.⚠️ Disclaimer: I acknowledge that the world faces larger problems than arguments about correlation vs. causation and IAP purchase behavior. 😅YES, the 2% of people who buy are most likely the type of people who will buy again, vs the 98% of players who don't spend. 🙄This is not the same as saying:"If you can coax Bob into making an initial purchase, this further inclines Bob to make a second purchase."𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.Except when it is... In this case, the casual relationship here 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 exist. It might even feel intuitive that it should.👆 But, over the past 4 years we have run hundreds of split […]

Matthew Emery May 8

Journal

A Might and Magic TCG powered by Immutable?

A Might and Magic TCG powered by Immutable? 😮 As of April 23, Ubisoft said 'coming soon' to mobile and PC.And, I'm here for it!TGC's and NFTs certainly feel made for each other. 💕As a kid who grew up on Magic The Gathering, 🤓 3rd party marketplaces for buying & selling cards is very intuitive.Not saying this is a groundbreaking first.NFT-powered TCG's already exist in spades: Gods Unchained, Splinterlands, Sorare, Skyweaver, Parallel Alpha to name a few.But it's fun to see this going mainstream via Ubisoft. 🚀The NFT TCG Market was valued at $1.2B in 2024, and is forecasted to grow at CAGR of 18.5% from 2026-2033, reaching $5.6B by 2033 (verifiedmarketreports(dot)com).

Matthew Emery May 5

Journal

Royal Kingdom: Search Rank Defensibility

🕵️‍♂️ So, I had a hunch… Part of me wondered if 𝘙𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘭 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘥𝘰𝘮 was launched (at least in part) as a search defense strategy — a way for Dream Games to own both the #1 and #2 slots in App Store results for “Royal Match” –adjacent keywords.Did some digging and looks like the answer is no...But it's worth sharing why!According to Apptweak data, ranking #2 nets just 6.6% of the installs that the #1 result gets.(Conversion drops from 27% to just 1.8% 😬)So even if 𝘙𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘭 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 and 𝘙𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘭 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘥𝘰𝘮 are effectively “flanking” each other in search… #1 and #2 for each other's title keywords, the value of owning those #2 slots looks pretty modest.So, scratch that theory...Still, it's 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 #1 for as many relevant keywords as possible.Rank 1: 27% CVRank 2: 1.8%Rank 3: 1.13% […]

Matthew Emery May 1

Journal

Hyper/Hybrid-Casual Puzzle had a banner Q1

Hyper/Hybrid-Casual Puzzle had a banner Q1. 🍾𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗝𝗮𝗺 (Rollic) and 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗜𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗲 (Homa) have gone Super-Saiyan. From Feb to March, • Color Block Jam 2x'd IAP Rev • All In Hole grew by 50%This drove Hyper-Casual category IAP up 35% MoM. 😮𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻, and what can we take away?• AppMagic's latest blog post is worth a read; digs into how the top Hyper/Hybrid-Casual games exploded in Q1 and some of their product-side strategies.• According Appmagic’s Ad Intelligence, it looks like both games hyper-scaled their UA creative pipelines via AI tools.If folks are interested, I'll do a deeper analysis on these two games' Q1 growth. 👋 Reply with "𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘑𝘢𝘮" or "𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘐𝘯 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘦" if interested.Meanwhile, May the odds be ever in your favor. ✌️

Matthew Emery May 1

Journal

Maximize LTV without hurting retention?

Founder: "How to maximize LTV w/o hurting retention?"Me: Use 👏 a 👏 proven 👏 economy 👏 model! 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 '𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗻' 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀?, 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱?This is the easy part.𝗙𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 have seen broad adoption and success.You are likely familiar with all five:1. Puzzle Progression + Loss Aversion (Royal Match)2. Energy-gated recipe redemption (Gossip Harbor)3. Legendary Gacha: collection & fusion (AFK Journey)4. Sprawling Tech Trees (Whiteout, Clash of Clans)5. Casino Progression (Coin Master, Monopoly GO)When founders use language like "we haven't quite figured out our monetization strategy,' this is usually a clear signal that we've a problem on our hands. 😅Failing to use a proven economy model, capable of producing $25k (casual) / $200k (core) spend depth is one of the most common points of failure I've seen when working with F2P game teams and products.What makes these models special, and […]

Matthew Emery April 29