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Session: Leveling Up Loyalty: Essential Lessons From Rewarded Gaming For Loyalty Leaders.
Rewarded gaming programs serve as a powerful tool for app developers to drive user retention and incremental revenue by creating an equitable value exchange.
- The global gaming market is projected to reach $125 billion by 2025, presenting a significant opportunity for non-gaming sectors like fintech and e-commerce to leverage rewarded engagement.
- Rewarded gaming programs drive user retention and incremental revenue by establishing an equitable value exchange where users receive real-world benefits for active participation.
- Implementation should follow a phased strategy, starting with low-friction tests like simple ad units before scaling to permanent, integrated features.
Session: 2026: The Year UA Could Become Good, Fast, & Cheap? - Alex Engel, Layer AI.
The mobile gaming industry is approaching a pivotal shift in User Acquisition (UA) where the traditional constraints of the "iron triangle"—balancing quality, speed, and cost—are being dismantled by advancements in generative AI.
- By 2026, the integration of AI reasoning models and node-based workflows is expected to resolve the 'iron triangle' of UA by enabling the production of high-quality, low-cost, and rapid creative assets at scale.
- The cost of generating high-definition video assets has dropped significantly, with current models like Cling 2.5 costing approximately 10 cents per second and V03.1 costing 27 cents per megapixel second.
- New training frameworks and custom LoRA models now allow for style-consistent asset generation using as few as a dozen images in a training set.
Fireside Chat: How Yodo1 Grew Transformers: Earth Wars Webshop Revenue Share 2.2× In Under A Year.
This discussion examines the successful implementation of a direct-to-consumer (DTC) web shop strategy for the mobile game Transformers: Earth Wars, which resulted in a 2.2-fold increase in web shop revenue share within one year.
- Yodo1 Games increased the webshop revenue share for Transformers: Earth Wars by 2.2x in under a year by shifting player spending away from in-game stores to a direct-to-consumer (DTC) web platform.
- Moving transactions to a webshop allows developers to bypass the 25-30% commission fees typically charged by Google and Apple, significantly increasing profit margins.
- To drive initial traffic and habituate users to the webshop, Yodo1 offered free gifts and lower-value conversion bundles that were not available inside the game.
Panel: David vs Goliath: How Can Smaller Studios Compete With Big Studios In The UA Space?
The current user acquisition landscape has shifted away from the pursuit of unsustainable scale toward a model defined by precision, accuracy, and rigorous fundamentals.
- Smaller studios should prioritize precision and controlled spending over high-volume capital expenditure to avoid the inefficiencies inherent in large-scale, automated acquisition strategies.
- High-quality, human-centric creative and founder-led storytelling consistently outperform mass-produced, automated assets in driving meaningful user engagement and conversion.
- Developers should validate product-market fit through early community feedback and data literacy before committing to paid acquisition to prevent premature creative burnout.
Session: Re-Engagement In 2026: How To Design & Scale Winning Retargeting Campaigns - Joseph Iris.
Retargeting has evolved into a critical component of mobile marketing, now accounting for approximately 30% of total app marketing spend.
- Retargeting now accounts for approximately 30% of all mobile app marketing spend, driven by shorter user attention spans and the maturation of probabilistic retargeting on iOS.
- Probabilistic retargeting, which matches IP addresses to users, has seen a 600% growth in industry adoption over the past year as a primary method for measuring iOS campaigns.
- Inactivity windows—the time before a user is considered dormant—are trending shorter, with many apps shifting from 7-day windows to 4-day windows or 28-day windows to 14-day windows to remain competitive.
Fireside Chat: Money Talks - Listening To Buyer Signals - Adam Smart & Edik Mitelman, AppsFlyer.
The data collaboration platform SignalHub, developed by AppsFlyer, enables gaming companies to leverage real-world consumer spending data for highly targeted user acquisition.
- AppsFlyer’s Signal Hub platform allows game studios to build custom user acquisition audiences based on real-world consumer spending data from partners like Mastercard, Factures, and Equifax.
- The platform enables targeting based on specific merchant transactions, product SKUs, spending ranges, and socioeconomic status, allowing studios to reach users with high propensities for in-app purchases.
- Data is processed through a privacy-compliant, hashed, and encrypted environment where no raw data is downloadable or shared, meeting strict audit requirements from major financial institutions.
Session: You Grew D2c In 2025. Now What? How To Level Up D2c In 2026 Chip Thurston, FastSpring.
Direct-to-consumer (D2C) revenue has evolved from a nascent strategy into a critical pillar of gaming monetization.
- The D2C landscape is maturing rapidly, with 57% of publishers currently operating a web store and 96% of those without one planning to launch one.
- Recent regulatory shifts have accelerated investment, as 95% of existing web store operators have increased their capital allocation toward these channels following landmark Epic versus Apple and Epic versus Google rulings.
- The era of 'fee-free' steering is ending, with new legislation like Japan's Mobile Software Competition Act likely to introduce platform fees on linked payments that could reach 20% or more by 2026.
Panel: Best Practices For Navigating The Rewarded UA Space.
Rewarded user acquisition has evolved from a volume-centric strategy into a sophisticated, data-driven channel focused on long-term player loyalty.
- Rewarded user acquisition has evolved from a high-fraud, low-quality volume play into a data-driven channel that provides high-intent users who engage with games deeply to reach specific milestones.
- Unlike traditional media sources that may require up to 365 days to realize ROI, rewarded UA allows developers to recover costs and generate revenue earlier, facilitating faster reinvestment and scaling.
- Modern rewarded platforms utilize adaptive economy models and real-time automation to personalize reward structures based on individual user behavior, moving away from outdated fixed-CPI models.
Session: Rewarded UA In 2026: The Growth Playbook - Jan Sommerfeld, Almedia.
Rewarded user acquisition (UA) is evolving from a simple volume-based strategy into a sophisticated, data-driven channel that functions as a long-term loyalty program.
- Rewarded user acquisition has shifted from focusing on install volume to prioritizing long-term engagement, with platforms now extending reward windows from 30 days to 90 days and beyond to drive Day 360 performance.
- The US market for rewarded platforms has grown to an estimated 100 to 150 million users, with major players like Freecash acquiring 3 to 4 million users per month and reaching a total user base of 60 million.
- Modern rewarded platforms now utilize automated bidding systems, such as Almedia's 'Max ROAS,' which allow advertisers to define return-on-ad-spend targets rather than manually managing individual CPIs.
Session: From Installs To Lifetime Value How Snapchat Powers Gaming Growth - Sara Antonelli, Snap.
Snapchat’s strategy for driving growth in the gaming sector centers on a four-pillar framework: scalable audience reach, performance-driven solutions, accurate measurement, and automated onboarding.
- Snapchat's 'App Power Pack' suite of performance solutions has demonstrated a 25% lift in app installs for advertisers focusing on mid-funnel volume.
- Snapchat's audience is highly relevant to gaming, with 78% of daily Snapchat users engaging with gaming apps and a significant portion playing multiple times per day.
- Target Cost bidding solutions have enabled gaming advertisers to achieve up to 84% lower CPIs and 90% lower cost per purchase, while simultaneously driving six times more first-time depositors.
Curated Panel: The Privacy-First Advantage: Smarter Data, Smarter Monetization In 2026.
By 2026, privacy compliance has transitioned from a mere legal obligation into a fundamental operational strategy that dictates the success of monetization and user experience within the gaming industry.
- Privacy compliance has evolved from a legal checkbox into a core component of the monetization stack, with non-compliance leading to significant financial penalties, such as the $1.4 million fine issued to Jam City for CCPA violations.
- Publishers must shift from passive data collection to active activation of first-party data to improve ad targeting, eCPMs, and overall monetization strategies.
- Major ad networks, including Google, have moved toward making the sharing of publisher first-party data a default requirement to improve ad relevance and player journey insights.
Gaming and Esports in Vietnam: A New Arena for Brands
Vietnam’s gaming and esports landscape has evolved into a high-growth, culturally resonant channel for brands targeting the country’s youthful, tech-savvy population.
- Vietnam has the world's highest adult gamer rate at 85%, with a demographic where 70% of the population is under 25 and one-third of citizens are engaged in esports.
- Mobile gaming dominates the market, supported by high smartphone penetration and 4G coverage, with gamers typically spending 1–3 hours per session.
- Influencer marketing is highly effective, as 51% of gamers trust key opinion leader (KOL) recommendations and 42% report purchasing products endorsed by them.