Puzzle Insights #18

5 typical old vs new generation of mobile publisher mindset on the new production for game devs (4 will surprise you) : As an ex big publisher professional myself,I listed 5 things to help you understand.Old - 1Puzzles are high CPI, don't do it.New - 1Puzzles are high retention, go ahead! Old 2 We need the game yesterday, rush!New 2Take your time till its actually playable.Old - 3Let's randomly generate 100 cpi videos.New - 3Strategically align 4 selected creative videos.Old - 4Levels don't matter, produceral generated works.New - 4Level design above all, craft it carefully.Old - 5We will let you know what works so you do it.New -5Watch the market and innovate on your own, as well.Carefully follow your competitors andInnovate on your own pace,Create your next hit!Bite Size Puzzle 18 with 6 new puzzle gamesTo watch, play and learn […]

Gökhan Üzmez June 6

Journal

Treasure Hunt Event Guide

Treasure Hunt Event Guide Here's a full breakdown of a treasure hunt event loop.❓ 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆? • Players dig on a grid to find hidden items. • They use tools earned by playing the core game. • The goal: uncover and collect all target items.🎯 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽:1. Earn pickaxes by beating core levels2. Enter the event via a home screen button3. Tap tiles to dig4. Reveal hidden objects or empty tiles5. Collect full items automatically6. Complete the grid → move to next stage7. Repeat until all stages are done🪓 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀:• Linked to main game progress• Harder levels = more tools• Give a small starting amount to everyone🧱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱:• A tiled grid covered with “soil”• Hidden items (e.g. gems) placed randomly• Items can be different sizes (2x1, 3x3, etc.)• Some tiles are empty• Dug […]

Anton Slashcev June 6

Highlights

SensorTower Southeast Asian Mobile Gaming Market Report 2025

The mobile gaming market in Southeast Asia (SEA) continues to surge in 2025, cementing its position as one of the most promising regions for game developers and publishers. This report, based on SensorTower data, explores App Store and Google Play performance across SEA, including top-performing genres, market-specific trends, and leading games by downloads and revenue. 🌏 SEA is a mobile gaming powerhouse, ranking #2 globally for downloads (1.93B in Q1 2025) with $625M in IAP revenue (ranked #7). 🇮🇩 Indonesia leads SEA in downloads (870M in Q1 2025), while Thailand tops IAP revenue ($162M). 🎮 Arcade & Simulation subgenres dominate downloads, while Strategy, RPGs & Shooters lead IAP revenue. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang remains the top earner. 🔎 Subgenre deep dives are included for Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. 💼 A special case study on Mobile Legends: Bang Bang […]

Ömer Yakabagi June 6

Journal

Ad Monetisation in Mobile Games in 2025

We continue to see AppLovin, Unity & ironSource and Mintegral dominate the ad revenue share on iOS with Google holding its pole position on Android. Ad revenue on Android also remains more diversified outside of the US and comprises a higher percentage of revenue for its apps. That said, US still remains the top audience for ad revenue monetization.Feel free to go through the slides or check out the link to the previous data sets below.

Christopher Farm June 6

Journal

Project Makeover’s New Summer Event Proves its Strategy Works

Project Makeover couldn’t start the summer better than by introducing a new collectible card album with a summer theme — ‘Summer Tale Cards’ 🃏🏝️⚙️ MechanicsEach album includes 24 sets of 8 cards with varying rarities. Cards can be earned by completing events, levels, via Cliques, offers, and passes. Completing sets and albums grants rewards like hard currency, unlimited lives, and more.⏳ Period Project Makeover launched its first album in summer 2024 and has since completed a full seasonal cycle with four releases. This year, the event returns— proof the mechanic performs well. ‘Summer Tale Cards’ will run for the three month of summer.✨ Effect 1️⃣ Randomized gacha keeps players engaged, while duplicates slow down content consumption.2️⃣ Cards tie into other events and level progress, boosting boosting short, mid and long-term motivation simultaneously. 3️⃣ Albums also encourage social interaction — players can […]

Andrei Zubov June 6

Journal

Advisor Equity Ranges?

I often see founders giving advisors 2% to 5% of their company. That's nuts. You want to save your precious equity for people who will actually work 100% for your company. If you want an advisor, but they ask for more than 1%, share them this picture. Bookmark it for future reference.

Joakim Achren June 6

Journal

Trends in Different Mobile Gaming Genres

What are the trends and opportunities in different mobile gaming genres after the first few months of 2025? I did quite deep analysis (based on Sensor Tower data) and I am sharing part of it here. In that data: - each of the categories is presented with 2024 data (illustrating the growth from 2023 to 2024), - and with 2025 data (illustrating the growth from Jan-April 2024 vs Jan-April 2025) - Size of the bubble presents the in-app/subscriptions revenue (2025 is extrapolation from current data). - iOS data from China is excluded (I do not see it relevant for 99.9% of developers) - you can see the "journey" of specific genre in the last years.Limitations of the analysis - the data does not include web stores data - for that reason especially core gaming genres will be a little underrepresented […]

Mariusz Gąsiewski June 6

Highlights

Outplay Entertainment layoffs 15% of staff

Outplay Entertainment has laid off 21 employees as part of a restructuring move aimed at adjusting to current business conditions. CEO says, "This was not a decision we took lightly," The studio, based in Dundee, Scotland, claims to be the UK’s largest independent mobile game developer with a team of 135, although it’s unclear whether this number reflects the recent job cuts, roughly 15% of the workforce. CEO Douglas Hare explained to MobileGamer that the decision affected team members across multiple departments and was part of a shift toward working more closely with publishing partners on future projects. He emphasized that the layoffs were not taken lightly and expressed gratitude to the affected staff, highlighting their contributions to the company and committing to help them during the transition. Outplay is known for mobile titles such as Gordon Ramsay's Chef Blast, […]

Gamigion June 6

Highlights

How Applovin Scared Google

I recently spoke with The Information for a feature titled “How Applovin Scared Google”. It examines how one of the most aggressive ad tech players successfully challenged Google in the Mobile ad monetization and user acquisition space. The article dives into: How Google’s growth in app install ads slowed as Applovin gained ground Google reversed its privacy policy to allow IP tracking again How Applovin got publishers to switch to MAX mediation from competing platforms How MAX’s growth surged after acquiring MoPub and consolidated supply One point I touched on was how MoPub’s shutdown shifted the balance in mobile mediation: “With the acquisition of MoPub, Applovin got a lot more market share. Before then, it was quite an even distribution between MoPub, Google, Applovin and IronSource.” Based on my experience working with publishers that generate between $10,000 and $350,000 per […]

Felix Braberg June 6

Journal

Review Radar #8 is back with 15 games!

Review Radar #8 📡 is back with 15 games that we already covered on the two & a half gamers podcast in last 3 months, as we keep them on our "radar" 😅. Get the latest status updates from big names such as RiverGame, Century Games, tap4fun, Habby, Dream Games, KRAFTON Inc., Grand Games, Hungry Studio, Rollic, King 😎. So the winner's 🏆 bracket -Triple match continues to scale on amazingly high revenue 🤑 per download, with its new casual approach to hidden object. Dark War Survival is scaling up as expected of Rivergame's new 4X games. Royal Kingdom is going bananas after one of the biggest celebrity campaigns in mobile gaming 👀. Block Blast is still hitting new record heights with its download volumes, 31,4 Mil. for the last 30 days 😱. Both Goods Puzzle, Blossom Sort and Magic […]

Jakub Remiar June 6

Journal

80,000 new Mobile Apps are added each month. Games?

An estimated 80,000 new mobile apps are added each month, with mobile games accounting for approximately 10-15% of this total...😲 (based on 42matters data) With that each of stores has ~2 mln apps in total. Of course majority of downalods and revenue comes from small number of them (around 50% of those Google Play and 60% of iOS apps have not received a single rating).On the other side of the story, number of apps is rather declining than growing (comparing with some 2024 data). ...

Mariusz Gąsiewski June 6

Journal

TOP 10 Hybrid Casual now?

TOP 10 HYBRID CASUAL# 5 WEEK, MAY, 2025 Hi, Hybrid Maniacs! 😜The newcomer to the Top 10 list in the fifth week of May is “Knit Out”. 💫Published by Rollic and developed by SuperBlast, “Knit” is a clever sort jam puzzle.Instead of cars and trucks, the Turkish giant's 🇹🇷 new hit uses bobbins as containers.This means the items don't have to be unitary, like dolls, but have a variable amount of thread 🧶, making the gameplay more complex.It brings a freshness to the sub-genre.My proudest moment. 🤩💖 I mentioned “Knit Out” in my Releases and Transfers List for the first half of March. 💝Let's list the top 10 hybrid casual games by revenue from the 26th of May to the 1st of June.🥇- “Color Block Jam” by Rollic & Gybe Games.🥈- “Screwdom” by Zego Studio (iKame Global).🥉- “All In Hole” […]

Carlos Pereira June 6

Journal

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