Mobile Ad Monetization #7

2025 is the year of the app developer. 🤔Who’s Being Downloaded the Most?🤔 40-50% of all downloads on Mobile are paid. That’s just a fact. Here are the mobile games companies that have amazed the most downloads in the last 30 days. What’s nuts is that the large non-mega-app companies are gaining serious traction in absolute download terms. I keep hearing anecdotes about more and more developers shifting their focus to developing apps instead of games. Will 2025 be the year of the app? Azur Interactive Games - 96m DownloadsSayGames - 78m DownloadsSupersonic - 76m DownloadsVoodoo - 70m DownloadsMiniclip - 66m DownloadsEmbracer - 62m DownloadsiKame - 59m DownloadsOutfit7 - 57m DownloadsTencent - 55m DownloadsBabybus Group - 47m Downloads But what about App Companies? I’ve excluded the normal e-commerce and social media giant apps to show you the largest app companies […]

Felix Braberg January 21

Journal

Designing a Great First-Time User Experience

How to design a great First-Time User Experience Together with devtodev, we’ve compiled a list of tips for FTUE:𝟭. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗸. • First impressions matter. • Grab attention with visuals, a quick story, or a fun challenge. • Highlight what makes your game unique (art, story, mechanics). 𝟮. 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿. • Show players what to do immediately. • Use short, skippable instructions (e.g., tooltips, highlights). • Let actions teach—avoid long explanations. 𝟯. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆. • Unveil one mechanic at a time. • Reinforce learning before adding more. • Reward players for mastering new features. • Use animations or story to connect mechanics to gameplay. 𝟰. 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻. • Early wins = emotional investment. • Keep first levels easy for high success rates. • Show progress with bars, collectibles, or milestones. • Celebrate with sound or visual […]

Anton Slashcev January 21

Journal

Game Economy Loop

Better game economy means better retention. Why? The best game design lesson you’ll see today: A player-focused economy strikes a fine balance:1. Room to grow and grind.2. Fun and satisfaction in spending.If you lose this balance, you lose the player.At the core of every GREAT game economy,is a main currency loop that flows.1. Players earn resources through gameplay,2. Resources feed into upgrades, and rewards,3. Currencies drain (or convert) back into gameplay.How do you perfect this loop?✦ Track player behavior: ↳ Use data to identify spending and earning points.✦Excel sheets are your best friend: ↳ Map out EVERYTHING.✦Iterate based on data, often:↳ Adjust to maintain engagement.Combine this with fun, engaging game mechanics, and you get yourself a ticket to a successful game After all, Every successful game achieves one thing:Perfect economic balance.

Gökhan Üzmez January 21

Journal

Block Blast by Hungry Studio is doing $1M a Day

Block Blast by Hungry Studio is currently doing 🤑 $1 Mil. a day with around 1 Mil. downloads a day on 40 Mil. daily active users 😱. This is the biggest Ad revenue game on the planet right now. We got our review ready for you 😎... There is of course the very close likeness to Tetris 🟦, that the game cleverly uses, but it definitely has its own iteration. Blocks are coming in trios at the bottom, and until you place all 3 you won't get new ones. Blocks are destroyed by placing full 8 blocks both horizontally or vertically. You are given points based on your moves, which gives you your score. This creates a very satisfying blasting environment , with even callouts such as Perfect or Excellent, based on your placements. The secret of success is of […]

Jakub Remiar January 21

Journal

Digging deeper with Gossip Harbor!

🛠️ Digging deeper with Gossip Harbor! Loving this 1+1 offer from Micro Fun! It’s a great way to keep players engaged and progressing in the event while providing more value. Simple yet effective design for rewarding gameplay.

Michael Kopelovich January 21

Journal

Game development isn’t just about coding.

Game development isn't just about coding. It's about beating the ultimate bosses in life and business.Here’s the breakdown of difficulty tiers:🔴 S+ Tier: Final bosses: Peak challenges• Securing funding.• Balancing team burnout.• Delivering on tight deadlines.The pressure here is immense.🟠 S Tier: Legendary: Honing the essentials• Art, animation, bizdev, game design, legal, • Game/level/sound design, localization, QA • Marketing, production, tech art, narrative This is where games become unforgettable.🟡 A Tier: Advanced: Nailing the details• Ensuring ladders are climbable.• Making doors open smoothly.• Polishing online multiplayer.Here, details shape the experience.🟢 B Tier: High Difficulty: Building core• Configurable gamepads.• Performance optimization.• Creating effective tutorials. This is where ideas begin to take form.🔵 C Tier: Hard: Good Ideas🟣 D Tier: Easy: IdeasGame dev mirrors life and business.Success hides in the small things.It’s easy to dream. Hard to execute.

Sergei Vasiuk January 21

Journal

Finding Your USP and Value Propositions

How deep you usually go for defining your game’s unique selling points (USPs) and value propositions (value props)? Do you just play a competitor game quickly and scratch the surface of this layer, or do you go deeply in breaking down your competitor games? This article focuses on discussing USPs and value props for games and why they matter — as well as giving an example exercise (one way among many) on defining USPs more better, if you haven’t ever done it thoroughly (which you should always do). Why USPs and Value Props Matter In today’s industry, where competition is fierce and player expectations are ever-evolving, the importance of USPs and value propos cannot be overstated. USPs and value props aren’t just marketing buzzwords — they are the DNA of your game’s success. They guide development, attract the right players, […]

Antti Kananen January 21

Highlights

Gaming Investments: 2025 Predictions

Written by our partner InvestGame. 2024 was a year of recovery and strategic recalibration for the gaming industry. After years of pandemic-related challenges and shifting market dynamics, the sector is gradually finding its footing. As demand for gaming fell post-COVID, many public companies struggled to demonstrate positive organic revenue growth (i.e. growth excluding revenue from recently acquired companies), often missing analyst expectations. Rising interest rates and broader macroeconomic uncertainty further affected valuations for publicly traded gaming firms, making company stock less attractive currency for new acquisitions. This led sellers of acquisition targets to prefer cash over buyers’ illiquid, risky, and typically depreciating stocks. Meanwhile, debt raised during the pandemic to finance acquisitions has become more expensive to service. Coupled with weaker organic performance, these factors tightened debt covenants and led numerous public strategic players to announce strategic reviews, lay off […]

Gamigion January 20

Analysis

Top Casual Games LiveOps Strategy

Top Casual Games LiveOps Strategy Based on Playliner research, here’s what’s working for the top titles: 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗽𝗼𝗹𝘆 𝗚𝗼 • $92M/month revenue, 3M downloads • Focus: Co-op activities • Supporting features: Collection, passes, mini-games, task-based rewards 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲𝘀 • $41M/month revenue, 4M downloads • Focus: Expeditions & Adventures • Supporting features: PvP, tournaments, win streaks, passes 𝗥𝗼𝘆𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 • $120M/month revenue, 4M downloads • Focus: Tournaments • Supporting features: Co-op, mini-games, collections, gacha 𝗖𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 • $53M/month revenue, 2.8M downloads • Focus: Task-based rewards • Supporting features: Tournaments, passes, win streaks 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘆 𝗖𝗿𝘂𝘀𝗵 • $86M/month revenue, 7.7M downloads • Focus: Win streaks • Supporting features: Mini-games, tournaments, task-based rewards 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 • $35M/month revenue, 6.5M downloads • Focus: Expeditions & mini-games • Supporting features: Co-op (Regata), passes, tournaments 𝗚𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗽 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗿 • $23M/month revenue, 2M downloads • Focus: Mini-games & decoration events • Supporting […]

Anton Slashcev January 20

Journal

Most Downloaded 2024 Release Puzzle Games

If new game alerts were paid in 2024, I’d be writing this on my private jet, thanks to color sort puzzles. What do you mean you don’t get new game alerts?If you’re competing in this market, Which by now, I assume you are because you’re still readingit’s about time to subscribe to AppMagic.Competitors keep those new puzzle games coming,In fact, as you read this, another color-sort game Has been probably released for testing.As the majority stayed in the “Color” lane in 2024,How much will they scale in 2025? Let’s see who’s really going to take off.

Gökhan Üzmez January 20

Journal

Archero 2: Onboarding done right!

🚀 Onboarding done right! Archero 2, the sequel to the popular Archero game by Habby, has a fantastic 3-day offer for new players. It's clever because it tackles retention right from the start—once you buy the pack, you’re motivated to log in daily to claim the rewards you’ve already paid for. This helps bring players back during the critical first few days, setting strong engagement habits early on. What’s even better? The twist! They’ve added three pricing tiers, offering better rewards as you move up, ensuring value at every level. It’s a smart mix of monetization and retention.

Michael Kopelovich January 20

Journal

20 metrics all game devs should hold close.

20 metrics all game devs should hold close. (there are more, but I’ll keep it simple)First, remember 3 core pillars:1. New Players ↳ How you acquire your audience.2. Active Players ↳ How you retain your audience.3. Paying Players ↳ How you monetize your audience.Second, there’s no one-size-fits-all set ofmetrics, but here's the truth:20% of your game’s metrics drive80% of your game’s performance.Here are the 20 most important metrics:📊 Acquisition Metrics• New Daily or Monthly Active Users• CPA (Cost Per Install/Login/Battle)• Fraud Share: Invalid ad metrics• New Players Retention Rate• New Players Churn Rate• K-Factor: Viral growth📊 Retention Metrics• Daily/Monthly Active Users• 1, 7, 30 Day Retention• Session Length• Session Count• Churn Rate• Lifetime📊 Monetization metrics• LTV: Revenue over player Lifetime• ARPPU: Revenue Per Paying User• Daily/Monthly Paying Users• Average Transaction Value• ARPU: Revenue per User• Number of Transactions• Payer Retention• […]

Sergei Vasiuk January 20

Journal

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