Brainium
Company
18 documents in the library are about Brainium, from writers such as Brutally Honest and Playstudios. Each has a summary and key insights with the page they come from.
- Articles
- 13
Connections
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Key figures from the reports
Playstudios reported $157.9 million in net revenue for the first half of 2023, a 13.8% increase driven by the integration of the Brainium portfolio and Tetris.
Playstudios, 2023 · Form 10-Q: Playstudios Q2 2023
Strategic expansion efforts included the $70 million acquisition of Brainium Studios and the $3.56 million purchase of WonderBlocks to diversify the mobile gaming portfolio.
Playstudios, 2022 · Form 10-Q Quarterly Report: Q3 2022
Documents about Brainium
Brutally Honest #232
This industry analysis focuses on optimizing user acquisition (UA) and creative strategy within the mobile gaming sector.
- Effective User Acquisition (UA) strategy requires granular analysis of creative performance across specific channels and geographies rather than relying on blended, high-level metrics.
- The 'Sort' game genre is currently generating approximately $120 million per month in ad revenue, with titles like Colony Flow reaching $500,000 in daily revenue and Cube Away earning $60,000 in its first week.
- Modern UA teams can overcome bandwidth limitations by using AI-driven tools, such as MMP MCPs integrated with Claude, to perform daily, deep-dive data cuts that were previously too time-consuming to execute.
Brutally Honest #230
This analysis focuses on mobile game user acquisition (UA) and creative optimization strategies as of late 2026.
- Aggressive monetization and removing friction can transform underperforming titles, as seen with 'Draft Showdown' scaling to over $120,000 daily revenue and 400,000 DAU by adopting a roguelite draft model and aggressive battle pass monetization.
- Creative strategy in mobile UA is increasingly reliant on 'fake' ads that do not reflect actual gameplay, with top-performing titles like 'Bulldozer Master' and various 4X strategy games utilizing high-volume, misleading hooks to drive massive daily install numbers.
- The Kinoa platform reports significant performance gains for mobile games, including a 43% increase in ARPDAU for Carry1st and a 31% revenue lift for Playstudios' 'Tetris Block Party' by enabling non-technical operators to manage LiveOps and monetization.
Brutally Honest #229
This industry analysis provides a mid-2026 update on the mobile game user acquisition (UA) landscape, focusing on shifting creative trends, network performance, and monetization strategies.
- AppLovin has become the dominant UA channel for iOS, shifting the center of gravity away from the traditional Meta and Google duopoly.
- Successful UA diversification in 2026 relies on format depth—specifically allocating 40-60% of creative budgets to playables—rather than simply increasing the number of advertising networks.
- Revenue mix diversification, specifically the shift toward hybrid IAA (In-App Advertising) and IAP (In-App Purchase) models, is currently the most effective strategy for de-risking mobile game performance.
Brutally Honest #228
This analysis provides insights into mobile game user acquisition (UA) and creative strategy, focusing on current trends in the post-IDFA landscape as of September 2026.
- AppLovin campaigns should utilize both CPM and CPI billing models: use CPM for creative testing and pacing across 24 hours, and CPI for scaling proven winners based on strict ROAS targets.
- Meta has quietly introduced interactive playable ads into the Reels placement, which now accounts for approximately half of Meta's total ad inventory.
- High-performing mobile game creatives are increasingly leveraging AI-generated, absurd themes, such as 'cat-themed' 4X strategy ads, which have demonstrated success in driving acquisition for casual titles.
Brutally Honest #227
This analysis provides actionable guidance for mobile game user acquisition (UA) managers, focusing on campaign structure, geographic segmentation, and the evolving role of playable advertisements in the post-IDFA landscape.
- Avoid worldwide Facebook campaigns to prevent algorithmic waste in low-monetizing regions; instead, use a three-bucket structure: US+T1, T2 (e.g., Brazil, Turkey, Poland), and a curated ROW list to minimize attribution fee losses.
- Tier lists for user acquisition should be built from internal D30/D60 ARPU data rather than generic industry standards, as Android and iOS LTV curves differ significantly by region.
- Meta's Reels inventory is increasingly shifting toward interactive formats, requiring advertisers to prepare vertical MRAID builds to capture early, lower-cost inventory.
Brutally Honest #226
This industry analysis provides a mid-2026 update on mobile game user acquisition (UA) strategies, emphasizing the shift toward playable ads and the dominance of specific ad networks.
- AppLovin has overtaken Meta as the primary source of iOS ad spend, capturing 40% of respondent budgets compared to Meta's 33%.
- Playable ads have transitioned from a secondary format to the core of UA strategy, now accounting for 40–60% of creative budgets for the largest teams.
- Meta's Reels inventory is increasingly shifting toward interactive formats, making vertical MRAID playable builds a critical priority for gaming advertisers.
Brutally Honest #225
This industry newsletter provides actionable insights into mobile user acquisition (UA) and creative strategy in a post-IDFA environment.
- Meta has quietly introduced interactive playable ads into the Reels placement, which now accounts for approximately half of its total ad inventory.
- Mobile game advertisers should prioritize the development of vertical MRAID builds to capitalize on early, lower-cost inventory as interactive ads expand into Reels.
- To ensure accurate user acquisition data, developers must map 8 to 12 meaningful progression events in their MMP, with S2 firing within 8 to 13 hours of install and S5 occurring between day 2 and 2.5.
Brutally Honest #224
This industry newsletter provides expert analysis on mobile user acquisition (UA) and creative strategy, focusing on the evolving landscape of playable ads and monetization in the post-IDFA era.
- Supercent’s game 'XP Hero' generates approximately $500,000 in daily revenue, split evenly between in-app purchases and ad revenue, despite an aggressive monetization strategy featuring 47 rewarded ad placements.
- Meta’s Reels inventory is shifting toward interactive ad formats, and advertisers should prioritize vertical MRAID builds to capitalize on early, lower-cost inventory as this placement evolves.
- Playable ads have transitioned from a secondary format to the core backbone of mobile user acquisition, particularly when integrated into video-led funnels and AI-driven creative workflows.
Brutally Honest #223
This industry analysis focuses on optimizing user acquisition (UA) and creative strategies within the mobile gaming sector as of August 2026.
- Successful mobile game testing now prioritizes proving underlying economics—specifically 2–3 month LTV and D7 retention—over immediate CPI optimization or rapid scaling.
- The game 'Bus Traffic Fever' generates an estimated $400k–$500k daily, with approximately 75% of revenue derived from ad monetization, particularly through revives after failure.
- Effective UA strategy involves testing with small budgets to validate product potential, followed by aggressive, short-term spending to capture profitable traffic before market saturation.
Brutally Honest #222
This industry newsletter provides strategic guidance for mobile game User Acquisition (UA) managers, focusing on operational scaling, creative strategy, and monetization trends in a post-IDFA environment.
- UA team structure should scale based on spend rather than ambition: a single generalist suffices for under $50k/month, while $500k+/month requires a specialized team including a UA lead, channel specialists, a creative strategist, and an analyst.
- In competitive game categories, execution velocity and creative volume consistently outperform first-mover advantage, as evidenced by Royal Smash's superior scaling compared to the original Smash Fest.
- Playrix is testing ad-monetization in Gardenscapes for the first time in markets like India and Indonesia, utilizing hybrid-casual creative styles to drive a 5x spike in downloads.
Brutally Honest #221
This industry newsletter provides actionable insights into mobile user acquisition (UA) and creative strategy within the post-IDFA landscape.
- AppLovin user acquisition campaigns should target at least 10 payers per campaign, with budgets increased if this threshold is not met.
- Effective AppLovin testing requires running CPM and CPI methods simultaneously, using CPM for initial product validation and CPI for scaling once historical data is established.
- Blended monetization—combining IAP with ad revenue—has become a critical UA strategy, as evidenced by successful casual puzzle games leveraging high-volume rewarded and interstitial ad views.
Brutally Honest #220
This industry analysis focuses on the evolving landscape of mobile game user acquisition (UA) and monetization, emphasizing that successful growth is increasingly driven by operational execution rather than game design alone.
- The game 'Meowdoku' is generating approximately $200,000 per day through a 100% ad-monetized model, achieving 400,000 daily downloads and over 2 million DAU by combining Minesweeper and Sudoku mechanics with a cat theme.
- Playrix is testing 'no-ads' game creatives for Gardenscapes in India and Indonesia, resulting in a nearly 5x increase in downloads within those markets.
- A comprehensive UA audit must evaluate the entire system—strategy, measurement, creative engine, team, and decision-making—rather than focusing narrowly on reporting, specific campaigns, or individual channels.