Global reports and market data
Documents
Ramadan App Trends Decoded: Benchmarks and Insights for 2026
Ramadan 2025 app performance data from the Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Pakistan (METAP) region is used to help marketers plan for Ramadan 2026.
- Ramadan drives a 11% increase in average daily installs and a 6% rise in session counts across the METAP region compared to the two weeks prior.
- Gaming apps maintain the highest engagement levels during the season, with average session lengths reaching 35.6 minutes.
- The Ramadan growth cycle extends beyond the fasting period, with overall install growth climbing from 10% during Ramadan to 13% in the post-Eid period.
The Shopping App Insights Report: 2025 Edition
The global e-commerce landscape, currently valued at $6.42 trillion, is undergoing a significant transformation as marketers navigate economic volatility and evolving consumer expectations.
- Global e-commerce app installs declined 14% year-over-year in H1 2025, though sessions grew by 2%, indicating a shift toward re-engaging existing users over new acquisition.
- Global reattribution share for e-commerce apps rose to 0.18 in H1 2025, up from 0.14 in 2023, with the UAE (0.40) and U.K. & Ireland (0.36) leading in win-back activity.
- Global e-commerce app install per mille (IPM) reached nearly 3.0 in Q1 2025, with North America maintaining the highest regional performance at 5.21.
The Gaming App Insights Report: 2026 Edition
Adjust's 2026 gaming app report argues that the mobile gaming market has moved from a volume-driven model to one centered on retention and lifetime value, as acquisition costs climb and growth in installs slows.
- Global gaming app CPC rose 33% from $0.03 to $0.04 between 2024 and 2025, while global CPM increased 20% from $3.63 to $4.34.
- Hyper-casual games maintained the largest market share of installs at 29.1% in 2025, while action games dominated session share at 17.1%.
- Strategy games saw the most significant increase in session length, growing 18% to 37.51 minutes, and experienced a 133% surge in CPC from $0.03 to $0.07.
Rovio Sustainability Report 2025
The Rovio Sustainability Report 2025 outlines the company’s voluntary environmental, social, and governance performance for the fiscal period spanning April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.
- Rovio reported a total carbon footprint of 20,980 tons of CO2e for the fiscal period ending March 31, 2026, with Scope 3 emissions representing 98.6% of that total.
- The company expanded its carbon accounting to include downstream emissions from initial game downloads, a change that improved data coverage but prevented direct year-over-year comparisons.
- Rovio maintains a workforce of 508 employees across six global locations and reports an adjusted gender pay gap of 1.4%.
Video Game Market Update: Q2 2026
The global video game industry experienced a period of divergent performance during the second quarter of 2026, characterized by a resilient PC sector and a stagnant console market.
- Private investment in the gaming sector surged sixfold year-over-year to $3.1 billion, with capital increasingly shifting away from content development toward infrastructure, AI, adtech, and immersive hardware.
- The PC sector remains a primary growth driver with Steam recording a 13 percent year-over-year revenue increase, while the console market remains stagnant as Switch 2 gains offset declines in PlayStation and Xbox hardware.
- Mobile gaming is facing a downturn, evidenced by a 4 percent contraction in gross revenue and a 12 percent decline in new installs, with top charts remaining stagnant due to a reliance on legacy titles.
Direct-to-Consumer: A $17 Billion Market for Mobile Gaming
The mobile gaming industry is undergoing a fundamental structural shift toward direct-to-consumer (DTC) distribution models, a transition that has already established a $17 billion market.
- The mobile gaming direct-to-consumer (DTC) market has reached a valuation of $17 billion as publishers shift away from traditional app store ecosystems to reclaim platform fees.
- The global in-app purchase market is projected to grow to $721.4 billion by 2034, signaling a long-term shift toward DTC distribution across the digital economy.
- DTC models allow publishers to secure ownership of first-party player data, which is being used to drive long-term retention and competitive differentiation.
Is There a Shift from Content to Tech Startups Among Gaming VCs?
The analysis examines venture capital activity in the gaming sector from 2020 to early 2024, focusing on whether investment priorities are shifting from traditional content creation and publishing toward technology-driven startups.
- Content creators and publishers remain the primary focus of gaming VC, accounting for over half of all capital deployed (approximately $1.76 billion) and the majority of deal volume across all stages.
- Gaming-focused VC funds, including VENTURES, BEHOLD Venture, and Lightspeed Lvp., significantly increased their activity between 2020 and H1 2024, with capital deployed rising from $1.3 billion to over $2.4 billion.
- The number of VC-led funding rounds grew substantially from 67 in early 2020 to 289 by H1 2024, reflecting an overall increase in investment activity.
The Alumni Effect: Studios Founded by Ex-Activision, Blizzard, and King Employees
The analysis examines venture capital activity directed toward studios founded by former Activision Blizzard employees between 2020 and 2024.
- Between 2020 and 2024, 30 studios founded by former Activision Blizzard employees secured approximately $0.7 billion in venture capital across 45 funding rounds.
- Ex-Activision studios demonstrate a 'first-round momentum' effect, being roughly four times more likely than peer startups to secure a second round of financing within the same calendar year.
- Investor confidence in alumni teams peaked in 2021, when 43% of ex-Activision studios raised a subsequent round compared to only 9% of broader gaming startups.
Game & Network Services Segment Presentation
Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Game & Network Services segment demonstrates a clear trajectory of growth and increasing operating leverage.
- Sony’s Game & Network Services segment has achieved a significant financial turnaround, growing from a $4 billion operating loss in 2000 to $13 billion in operating income by 2024.
- Revenue is increasingly driven by services, the PlayStation Store, and peripherals, which now account for 52–54% of the segment's total revenue.
- The PlayStation ecosystem has reached 124 million monthly active users, representing a 14% year-over-year increase, with a life-to-date spend of $846 per console.
Public Mobile Gaming Publishers: Resilience & Adaptation in a Shifting Landscape
The analysis examines the post-IDFA mobile gaming landscape, focusing on revenue dynamics, user acquisition spending, profitability trends, and market valuation shifts across key publishers.
- Aggregate market capitalization for major mobile gaming publishers has plummeted by more than 50% since January 2022, with most stocks remaining below pre-IDFA valuation peaks.
- User acquisition costs have surged to as high as $40 million per firm, while diminishing returns on these campaigns have compressed EBITDA margins and forced a shift toward cost control.
- MTG outperformed the broader market with a 50%+ share price increase and 9% organic growth in Q4 2024, driven by disciplined M&A and operational efficiency.
Enabling Growth: Cohort User Acquisition Financing
Mobile gaming has rebounded from the downturn of 2022-23, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 5.0% from 2020 to 2025, driven largely by a 16.2% rise in in-app advertising and the continued popularity of casual puzzle titles.
- Mobile gaming is projected to grow at a 5.0% CAGR from 2020 to 2025, supported by a 16.2% increase in in-app advertising and AI-driven ad tech.
- Cohort-based UA financing allows studios to fund up to 80% of monthly acquisition costs by leveraging future revenues, providing an alternative to scarce venture capital.
- Studios utilizing cohort-based financing have demonstrated the ability to increase monthly marketing spend by 16–38% while maintaining founder control over equity and IP.
The 2025 Benchmark Report: Roblox Platform Trends
The report establishes that Roblox’s player base is sharply divided between casual users who spend only a few minutes per session and core players who log in multiple times daily, often exceeding 30-minute sessions.
- Games with median session lengths under six minutes suffer from negligible Day-1 retention of approximately 6% and ARPPU below $1, while top-tier titles achieve ARPPU exceeding $6 with average transaction values of $3–$4.
- The top 5% of Roblox games generate over $20 per day from a single player, demonstrating that sustained engagement is the primary driver of high-value monetization.
- Platform discovery algorithms prioritize games with consistent 7-day spend and high engagement, causing low-engagement titles to fall below 5% Day-1 and 2% Day-7 retention.