Global reports and market data
Documents
The 2025 Benchmark Report: Roblox Platform Trends
The 2025 Benchmark Report on Roblox Platform Trends analyzes aggregated data from thousands of top Roblox titles to provide developers with critical insights into player engagement, retention, and monetization.
- 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.
The Rise of the Financial Kingmakers: Private Equity’s $21B+ Bet on Gaming
Private equity (PE) firms have invested over $21.1 billion in the gaming industry through 68 deals from 2018 to the present, indicating a significant and growing financial interest in the sector.
- Private equity firms deployed over $21 billion into the gaming sector between 2018 and mid-2025, with annual deal values consistently surpassing $1 billion.
- Control acquisitions represent the primary investment strategy, accounting for approximately 60% of total capital deployed in the sector.
- Content creation studios holding strong IP portfolios are the most targeted assets, securing 42 of the 68 total private equity-led deals identified.
The Take-Two Diaspora: Why Alumni Win Big in Mobile, Not AAA
The document analyzes investment trends in gaming studios founded by alumni of Take-Two Interactive and its subsidiaries between 2020 and 2025 year-to-date.
- Former Take-Two senior executives founded 23 startups between 2020 and 2025, securing $1.2 billion in capital across 43 deals.
- Dream Games, a prominent alumni-led studio, achieved a $2.5 billion exit in July 2025, highlighting the high valuation potential of these ventures.
- Alumni-led firms significantly outperform industry benchmarks, with a 60% rate of raising a second funding round within one year compared to the 20% industry average.
Beyond the Game: How Gamification is Becoming Mainstream
This analysis examines the mainstreaming of gamification in B2C consumer-focused non-gaming apps, covering transaction activity from 2020 to Q2 2025 YTD.
- Gamified non-gaming apps have surpassed mobile games in net revenue, generating $21.2 billion in Q2 2025 compared to $19.8 billion for games.
- Gamified apps are driving a 24% year-over-year growth in mobile consumer spending, while traditional mobile gaming revenue has stagnated.
- EdTech, Fitness & Wellness, and Entertainment & Social account for $20.7 billion in transaction value, with EdTech dominating deal volume (43%) and exit activity (45%).
Investing and Financial Management App Market and Advertising Trends 2025
The investment and financial management app market is undergoing significant expansion, primarily fueled by the rise of mobile-first trading and cryptocurrency platforms.
- Global downloads for investment and crypto trading apps rose 12% in 2025, reaching approximately five billion total downloads.
- User demographics are heavily male-skewed, with crypto apps reaching over 90% male users and emerging markets like India and Vietnam reporting only 13–17% female participation.
- Market preferences are geographically fragmented: U.S. and Japanese users favor established brokerages, while consumers in India and Southeast Asia prioritize local, mobile-centric platforms.
1H 2025 Amazon Retail Media: An Inside Look at How Brands Are Showing Up
This report analyzes Amazon's retail media landscape during the first half of 2025, leveraging data from Sensor Tower's Retail Media Insights.
- Amazon Retail Media dominated the market in 1H 2025 with $618 million in ad spend, significantly outpacing Walmart ($236 million) and Chewy ($105 million).
- Amazon’s advertiser base is nine times larger than Walmart’s, hosting 9,542 unique advertisers compared to Walmart’s 1,076.
- Samsung, Unilever, and L’Oréal were the top spenders in 1H 2025, contributing $7.1 million, $5.7 million, and $5.3 million respectively.
State of Mobile 2025: Why Community Wins on Mobile
The "State of Mobile 2025: Why Community Wins on Mobile" report, developed in collaboration with Reddit, Adjust, and Sensor Tower, examines the current mobile app landscape and emphasizes the critical role of community in driving long-term app growth.
- Reddit-acquired users demonstrate significantly higher lifetime value, with 41% higher Day-1 spend than other social platforms and 159% higher than digital media.
- Reddit users exhibit superior long-term retention and engagement, spending 55% more time in-app on Day 1 and 103% more by Day 30 compared to other channels.
- Global mobile in-app purchase revenue reached $150 billion in 2024, representing a 13% year-over-year increase, while total usage hit 4.2 trillion hours.
Where the UGC Dollars Flow: Mapping $9B Investments in Creator Economy
The document analyzes approximately $9 billion in investments across 80 User-Generated Content (UGC) gaming and modding companies and games from 2020 to 2025 YTD.
- The UGC gaming sector attracted $9 billion in total investment between 2020 and 2025, with $8.9 billion concentrated in late-stage and corporate deals.
- Strategic investment from industry incumbents is a primary driver, highlighted by Sony/Kirkbi’s $2 billion commitment in 2022 and Disney’s $1.5 billion investment in 2024.
- Creator monetization is scaling rapidly, with Roblox and Fortnite collectively disbursing approximately $1.5 billion to developers in 2024 and reporting a 38% quarterly earnings increase between Q2 and Q3 2023.
Game Data: Building vs Buying
The document analyzes the strategic decision for game studios and publishers regarding whether to build an in-house data pipeline or purchase a third-party solution.
- Building an in-house data pipeline for a studio with 5 million MAU costs approximately $50,000 per month, compared to $5,900 per month for a third-party solution like GameAnalytics’ PipelineIQ Pro.
- Human capital is the primary cost driver for both approaches, accounting for 89% of the budget for in-house builds and 78% for vendor-managed pipelines.
- Third-party solutions offer significantly faster deployment timelines, ranging from hours to days, whereas custom in-house pipelines typically require months to implement.
A Shortcut to Your Own Game Insights Platform
This document outlines GameAnalytics' turn-key data solutions, "Player Warehouse" and "Raw Export," designed to provide game developers with deeper, more flexible access to their game data.
- GameAnalytics provides a turnkey data pipeline that eliminates the need for custom ETL development, proprietary SDKs, and ongoing infrastructure maintenance.
- The platform offers two primary data delivery methods: Player Warehouse for daily refreshed, SQL-ready event tables and Raw Export for real-time JSON streaming.
- A publisher utilizing Raw Export achieved a 50% increase in lifetime value (LTV) across 19 titles, while a VR MMO leveraged Player Warehouse to improve player engagement.
Your Data Tracking Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide for GameAnalytics
This guide outlines a five-step process for developing a robust data tracking plan within GameAnalytics, emphasizing the importance of a structured approach to ensure valuable and actionable data.
- Establish a structured tracking plan by aligning business objectives and player behavior questions with seven predefined event categories: Session, Business, Resource, Progression, Error, Ads, and Impression.
- Limit custom events to a maximum of 50 unique identifiers to maintain data integrity and prevent system clutter.
- Adopt a consistent Category > Sub-Action naming framework to ensure clarity and prevent redundant or misleading data collection.
East vs. West: Monetization Trends
Mobile gamers in Eastern markets demonstrate higher spending frequency and larger average purchase amounts compared to their Western counterparts.
- Eastern mobile gamers demonstrate a significantly higher propensity for large transactions, with 76% of purchases exceeding $10 compared to only 42% in Western markets.
- Western mobile gamers are more likely to make small-scale purchases, with 8% of spenders in the West opting for transactions under $5, contrasted with 30% in the East.
- Monetization strategies in the West should prioritize value-based bundles, as these resonate more effectively with the purchasing preferences of Western players.