Parental controls in Mobile Games?

Parental controls in mobile games? Now that's a smart move! 👏 Just noticed that Royal Match has a built-in parental control option, allowing parents to set PIN-protected restrictions on in-app purchases and chat. With younger audiences engaging more with mobile games, having built-in safeguards is a great step towards responsible gaming. 🎮🔒 A few things I like: ✅ Easy toggle for purchases and chat ✅ Requires an email to activate, ensuring parents set it up ✅ Keeps the interface simple and accessible While many platforms offer parental control at the OS level, integrating it directly into the game makes it more visible and user-friendly. What do you think? Should more mobile games adopt in-game parental controls? 🚀

Michael Kopelovich April 9

Highlights

Applovin vs. Unity: How Applovin Has Been Winning It All!

We are at a dangerous crossroads where Applovin is poised to dominate the mobile ads market completely. What's going on? How did this happen? And what's next? Pay attention, folks, this one is a banger and has critical implications for the games industry's future. Something strange has happened in the mobile ads market since the failed merger between Applovin and Unity in August 2022. Applovin has quietly been dominating and significantly growing its share of the market. Source: GameMakers 2025 We can easily see the relative performance of both companies reflected in their market valuations. What happened? How did Applovin win vs. Unity? Why does Applovin have a massive competitive advantage and iron grip customer lock-in? How does the current situation critically impact the games industry (this is important)? How can Unity or anyone else help create a healthier market […]

Joseph Kim April 8

Journal

Publishing the most successful VR Games on Mobile?

Estoty's I am Cat and I am Security are currently making $300K a day 🤑 in ad revenue together with 500K downloads a day. Is publishing the most successful VR game on mobile the best trick you've heard about? 😱 This is one of the most craziest stories that we covered this year, where literally the most viral VR game got ported on mobile, it spams interstitials like there is no tmrw 😵, has rewarded videos even for basic interaction (like you see in the piano image) still keeps its viral traffic and then ... profit 💰 I am Cat has 62K reviews and 4.9 score on the Meta VR store, which is more than Beat Saber! (52K) The mobile version is already past 15 Mil. downloads in a little bit more than a month. I am security is already […]

Jakub Remiar April 8

Analysis

Pizza Ready! – From Dough to Domination: The Idle Arcade Success

If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that pizza is a universal love language. So when Supercent decided to channel that into a mobile game, it’s no wonder they struck gold. Or in this case, a piping hot slice of success. Pizza Ready! didn’t just show up – it dominated. It became the mozzarella on the hyper-casual genre’s crust, the sauce that bound mobile gamers together. But how did it manage to do that? Well, buckle up, because we’re about to dive into the gooey, cheesy center of why Pizza Ready! became one of the most downloaded and, surprisingly, most monetarily delicious games of the past year. 🎮 The Simulation Gold Rush - Why Everyone’s Making Arcade Idle Games Here’s the thing – making an arcade idle game might seem like the easiest recipe in the book. You’ve got the simplified […]

Aylin YAZICI April 8

Highlights

The making or breaking of your incentivized campaign?

And so it’s true, in our burgeoning corner of UA - as advertisers in the incentivized space know all too well, how you choose to pay for traffic can determine the ultimate success or failure of your campaign. There are two primary models for paying incent networks: CPI (Cost Per Install): The advertiser pays a fixed amount when a new user installs the game. MRCPE (Multi-Reward Cost Per Engagement): The advertiser pays per engagement milestone completed by the user (e.g., reach level 10, make a purchase, complete a mission). Both have their merits - and risks. Let's break them down. CPI: give control to the incent network to make your life easier Fixed cost Knowing exactly what you’ll pay per install is a compelling proposition. With a fixed CPI, advertisers lock in costs at the moment of install - no […]

Paul Bowen April 8

Journal

Cake Sort’s x2 Rewarded Video Option

Cake Sort’s x2 Rewarded Video option After the daily login reward is a solid idea, easy extra rewards for players, more engagement for the game. Would you watch an ad for double rewards?

Michael Kopelovich April 8

Analysis

Monopoly GO makes $104M per month. Their 3.7K Ads Strategy?

🎲♟️ Monopoly Go is making $104M per month. Here’s what I saw in their 3.7k ads strategy 👇 🎯 Winning Ads Run for 30+ DaysMost of their Meta ads stay live for over a month, which means (for me) they’re betting more on branding than rapid iteration.👵📊 Older Players == More Spending PowerUnlike many mobile games, 40+ users make up a bigger share of their audience. And older players tend to spend more.🥐 France #1France gets the most ad impressions in Europe, which matches its high download ranking.📱 Google Play Gets More TrafficThey drive 64.5% of their traffic to Google Play vs. 35% to Apple. I am not sure why that is, honestly.🎥 Simple Ads Work (again)Their best-performing ad? No voiceover, just in-game animations and a catchy hook:✅ “Simple Tips to Get Rich!” (will also work in 100 years, I […]

Sven Jürgens April 7

Journal

Weekend LiveOps Events

🚀 Are you making the most out of weekends in your LiveOps strategy? Weekends are your LiveOps cheat code. Weekends bring the highest DAU, but many games still treat them like just another day.In this carousel, I’m sharing why weekend events are a must-have (and how to use them to boost both engagement and monetization — even mid-week!).

Michael Khripin April 7

Analysis

How does PvP counter play systems work?

Warning ☢️ Heavy Game Design post ahead 😁 How does PvP counterplay systems work? We already talked about the elemental system driving PvE games, but how about Player versus Player games? Again, similar to the elemental system, PvP counterplay systems can go from pretty straightforward (rock-paper-scissors ✂️) to some very advanced mechanics as faction and unit synergies, specific traits, direct immunity mechanics, and environment advantages. This system is powering some of the most biggest games on the market, such as Riot Games's League of Legends or Supercell's Clash Royale & Brawl Stars. Again, it is the hidden reason why you need to be able to master and, most importantly, collect or upgrade all or most of the characters in the game to stay competitive 😎. This takes much more skill than just playing with elemental affinities and throwing water dungeons […]

Jakub Remiar April 7

Analysis

What’s Wrong With Vita Mahjong?

Want to know what's wrong with Vita Mahjong from Vita Studio? My wife got seriously hooked on this game, and I resisted for a while before giving it a try. Then I saw it ranked in the Top 15 Free Games on the App Store, and decided to run a poll—should I review it or not? Only one person voted yes, which felt odd… but I went ahead anyway. According to my wife, the game is overloaded with ads—which drives her crazy. But when I launched it for the first time, I saw zero ads. NONE. The gameplay was chill, familiar from other mahjong titles, and surprisingly soothing. And then I played for three hours straight. Can you imagine that kind of session for a mobile game? And again—not a single ad. There’s even a “No Ads” option in the […]

Michael Khripin April 7

Journal

2 Growth Hacks by Supercell on Mo.co

2 actual growth hacks that worked to soft launch. Supercell’s newest game mo.co, and why it worked: Supercell used 2 super known tactics for soft launch1- Create mystery and curiosity with invite only play,2- Picked a popular social platform to announce it.1-> Invite only strategy worked because:Well, they are Supercell…There are no other big western mobile mmorpgthat can appeal to younger generation Z and Alpha. 2-> Linkedin Marketing Growth Hack:Linkedin notifies everyone on job changes,Many Supercell employees just did that..Linkedin has the most potential of paying players.So thats their soft launch strategy in a nutshell.And in my opinion, it’s not perfect, but it’s DIFFERENT.Not many companies can pull that off. Notify potential paying players: --> game industry audience <--Let them know their friends and familywho are also Gen Z and Gen AlphaAnd potentially paying players as well..As far as I […]

Gökhan Üzmez April 7

Journal

Top 10 March Releases by Revenue

Top 10 March Releases by Revenue 🔥 Remember last week when we showed how to spot top-performing new releases using Advanced Search? 😉Now it’s time to put that to work — let’s take a look at last month’s new gaming releases and how they performed in Tier-1 West!☑️ Just follow these steps:Apps → Advanced SearchRelease period → March 2025Tags → GamesGeography → Tier-1 West💥 A solid dose of inspiration — whether you’re building a product, crafting a UA strategy, or just staying sharp on market trends.And while the image shows just the top 10, there were over 3,000 new releases in total! This link takes you straight to the list.

Andrei Zubov April 7

#Marketing

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