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Voodoo’s Epic Plane Evolution: 3 Small Steps to Enter Top 10

Epic Plane Evolution by Voodoo may look like just another Hypercasual title, where players pilot planes and chase distance records. And yet, released in June 2024, it pulled off something big in Q2 2025. The game landed in its category’s top-grossing chart, with monthly IAP revenue jumping from $592K in April to $1.4M in May. We noticed this growth when preparing our Top 10 Hybridcasual Games in Q2 2025, and such a breakout stood out as a case worth deeper investigation. Turns out, for a long time, the game has struggled to move past the $10–12K mark in daily IAP revenue. However, in April 2025, things shifted dramatically: revenue began to climb, driven primarily by the US market. This title had been acquiring US users before, but this time, the payoff was striking. Even more interestingly, the surge wasn’t spread evenly: the App Store became the main […]

Andrei Zubov August 28

Journal

Making games is harder than building any other startup.

Making games is harder than building any other startup. And I've gone through it countless times. With a SaaS product, you ship an MVP and iterate based on feedback. Users tell you what they need. You build it. They pay.Games don't work like that.You can spend 2 years crafting something beautiful. Perfect mechanics. Stunning art. Flawless code. Then you launch and... crickets.Why? Because fun isn't a feature you can A/B test.At Next Games, I remember that we killed 14 games for every 1 we launched. And we were the "experts."The brutal math:• 95% of games make less than $1000• Top 1% of games make over 80% of revenue• Often, you won't know where your game lands until it's too lateUnlike other startups, you can't pivot a bad game into a good one. You can't add a feature to make it […]

Joakim Achren August 28

Journal

I listed 8 genres shifting in 2025.

I listed 8 genres shifting in 2025. 3 collapsing, one giant among them. What does this really mean? ↘️ For the falling genres: Short answer:Low retention.Long answer:Strong d7-d60 retention cohorts that depends on same players for too long to monetize,Yet fails to capture new "power" users.Top of that, add these:-> Lack of New Games,-> High cost of new players,-> Saturated monetization channels,-> Aggressive early monetization walls.↗️ For the rising genres:Short answer:Low(er) cost of new usersLong Answer:Iterating creative videos along with gameplayTop of that, add these:-> Strong d30,-> Sticky gameplay, -> Paying user cohorts --> d90-> And you know, Roblox :) Cheers PS: Comparing mobile game genres is a big task, this chart has August YoY with IAP only, and games with * on them are only Asia titles. Worldwide data.And yes, it takes second to see charts, but hours to […]

Gökhan Üzmez August 28

Journal

Self-publishing games vs. working with a publisher?

Should you self-publish your game or work with a publisher?Both paths can lead to success, but they come with very different trade-offs. 𝗣𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗔 𝗣𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗘𝗥 ✅ Upfront funding reduces your financial risk✅ Access to expert marketing and distribution teams✅ Industry connections for better visibility✅ Help with QA, localization, and compliance❌ You’ll give up a large share of revenue❌ Less control over your creative vision❌ Pressure to hit milestones can hurt quality❌ You may not retain IP ownership 𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗙-𝗣𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✅ You keep 100% of your game revenue✅ Full creative freedom from day one✅ Build stronger connections with your players✅ You can pivot faster without external pressure❌ Higher upfront costs and personal financial risk❌ Tougher marketing without a network❌ Limited resources for things like QA and localization❌ Everything — from success to failure — is on youSo which path is right […]

Anton Slashcev August 28

Game Radar

Ace Games’ Clue Chase: A New Challenger to Monopoly GO

Ace Games - Let’s Remember Ace Games was founded in 2019 by Hakan Baş as a mobile game company developing hyper-casual titles. At the pre-seed phase, they raised $1.5m from angel investors and you may remember their early successes with games like Mix and Drink, Serial Burglar, and Prison Life!. After the success of Mix and Drink in hyper-casual, the company reappeared with a $7m seed round at a $25m valuation, led by NFX and Actera. More than $2m of this $7m was used to buyback shares from first-round investors, while the rest was allocated to a strategic shift, developing a Casual Puzzle project that we didn’t know the name of at the time: Fiona’s Farm. In November 2022, the company announced that it had raised another $25m, equal to its previous valuation. This time the investment came from Playtika, […]

Yagiz Gur August 28

Journal

One creative winner can change the CPI vs LTV equation.

You are always one creative winner away from success. One creative winner can change the CPI vs LTV equation. I know, I know. It’s easier said than done. What to do then? Kill losers after a day. You already see after a day if the creative is getting traction. 5x your creative production with AI. IMHO, we are getting to a point where only a “few” creative concepts are working: Freezing families Save “me” Street interviews Gates AI videos UGLY ads AKA Authentic/native ads Real gameplay doesn’t work anymore. Statics do, but only for certain genres. 🐊 Cornelius: The Suspicious Investi-gator True detective-like exploration of creative trends and historical influences. Delving deep into the world of creatives to uncover hidden patterns and inspirations: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zySUtlqn2UY 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆. You need a camera, a street corner, and a good question. […]

Matej Lancaric August 28

Analysis

Ad Creatives Market Review

Here are the wild, weird, and wildly successful trends shaping mobile game creatives today. There are dozens of ways to market your game, but the most efficient and predictable is still performance marketing. Let’s look at what the leaders of the market are doing to find those rare successful cases. Save the Character Match Villains Their production quality is very high, though their output volume is low. The animations are smooth and expressive, and the materials and lighting are detailed. It feels almost like a scene from a cartoon. The concepts are very basic, and they adapt what’s working for their competitors. Nothing is unique, but it’s very solid work. They haven't released anything new for the past few months. It looks like they really invested in production and worked on those videos for quite a while. After that, they […]

Aleksandr Dadaev August 28

Journal

Unity to give up on the Mediation Wars?

𝗜𝘀 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻?Or just shifting the battlefield. Unity’s LevelPlay had a unique edge: Ad Quality.The best tool to minimize retention drag from bad ads.Until now, a LevelPlay exclusive.𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘂𝗻𝗯𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗱 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆.Any publisher. Any mediation.Which raises the real question: Is LevelPlay Unity's goal anymore?Broad adoption gives Unity something even MAX can’t wall off:👉 Which games are advertising where👉 Which creatives are scaling fastest👉 Which players click on which genreGranular creative data doesn’t just help optimize ad quality.It slowly chips away at MAX’s data moat.Unity isn’t trying to win the mediation throne.𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.By itself, this won't change the game. Not even close.But it shows where Unity is aiming.

Josh Chandley August 27

Journal

Duolingo, Strava, and Revolut all use gamification better than games.

Duolingo, Strava, and Revolut all use gamification better than a lot of actual games imo. Revolut even hired people from King and Playrix to help grow their user base, so they’re clearly serious about it!

Gil Tov-Ly August 27

Journal

Performance marketing is hella expensive.

CPMs are up 20-40% YoY (and for some vertical it's 100%+), but here's what matters more: payback periods doubled from 6 to 12-24 months. Some verticals now take 2 years to break even. Your margins are evaporating faster than you realize. Good luck growing LTV at the same pace.Your profit is ad network's loss. If you think ad networks want you to win, this is delusional - they want you to see the money once and die trying to chase the money back - it'a s pure gambling behavior.The numbers tell the story: - Meta's DAU in US/Canada: 199M (Q2 2025) vs 196M (Q4 2022). Zero growth. - Your budget is spent on the ever increasing # of impressions per session and lucrative formats like 4 ads collage in one go - obviously, both 4 impressions have 4x less value […]

Nikita Zatsepin August 27

Journal

Ad networks don’t care about you.

Some bitter facts that nobody talks about, but every performance marketer needs to understand. Ep 2. Ad networks don't care about you. Your $100k/month budget is a 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳.Their entire system is optimized for the top 5% of spenders who drive 80% of revenue. Everyone else just fills the auction and pushes prices up.What they don't want you to know:Auctions are 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘆High spenders get 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺, 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺. The algorithms change weekly and you have no clue what changed. Your "winning formula" from last month is already obsolete. Our brains want to believe our experience matters, this is rooted inside us by evolution. In fact, it doesn't. I've seen so many times that "bad" creatives that failed at testing 6 months ago were actually good enough today. You're playing casino where rules change every hand.And the […]

Nikita Zatsepin August 27

Journal

Every performance marketer needs to understand this.

Some bitter facts that nobody talks about, but every performance marketer needs to understand. Episode 4. You're paying more for 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀. Every quarter. Every year. 𝗡𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.Traffic quality is in freefall. Banner blindness is here. 4 impressions at once, endless carousels, ads everywhere. Users are numb.The companies that built billion-dollar valuations on paid acquisition 5 years ago - their playbooks would bankrupt you today. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲.To survive, stop playing their game entirely: • Find channels they don't control • Build direct relationships • Own your distribution • Create unfair advantagesBecause in their casino, the house always wins. And you're not the house.The future belongs to those who refuse to play by their rules.

Nikita Zatsepin August 27

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