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Is User Acquisition Really Broken in 2025?
User acquisition in 2025 remains a robust and essential growth engine for the mobile gaming industry, despite widespread perceptions that the sector is in decline.
- AppLovin currently dominates the user acquisition ecosystem by leveraging its MAX mediation platform integrated with the Axon 2 machine learning engine to create a superior data flywheel.
- Modern user acquisition has shifted from aggressive growth hacking to a model defined by incremental profitability, product quality, and sophisticated value optimization.
- Unity is attempting to challenge AppLovin’s market position with its Vector engine, which seeks to utilize in-app purchase data, though it currently faces significant technical and operational scaling hurdles.
If You're Making Your First Game, LISTEN To This 20 Year Veteran...
The primary objective for independent game developers should be building a sustainable, long-term career rather than chasing viral hits.
- Building a sustainable career as an indie developer does not require a viral hit; instead, focus on releasing a consistent catalog of solid, profitable games that build a loyal fanbase over time.
- Diversify revenue streams beyond a single platform like Steam to mitigate risk; successful developers often combine income from multiple sources such as Patreon, console storefronts, consultancy, and writing.
- Manage financial risk by calculating your 'runway'—the specific date your current funds will run out—based on predictable income and bank balances to avoid the 'feast or famine' cycle.
The Real Story Behind Tasty Travels’ Meteoric Rise: Merge, Monetize, Repeat!
The merge game category is currently defined by intense competition and rapid evolution, with established titles like Travel Town and Seaside Escape facing pressure from aggressive newcomers such as Tasty Travels and Merge Cooking.
- Century Games' new title, Tasty Travels, is rapidly scaling toward $200,000 in daily revenue and currently boasts double the ARPDAU of competitor Travel Town.
- The merge game category is experiencing significant growth, with Gossip Harbor generating approximately $1.6 million per day and Travel Town and Seaside Escape each earning roughly $600,000 daily.
- Century Games utilizes an aggressive UA strategy characterized by high-velocity creative iteration, including AI-generated content, fake gameplay hooks, and concepts directly adapted from competitors like Gossip Harbor.
Capsule Art Review
The primary objective of game capsule design on Steam is to communicate a title’s genre and core gameplay loop to potential players within a fraction of a second.
- Steam capsules must communicate a game's genre and core gameplay loop within a fraction of a second to avoid being filtered out by users.
- Professional-grade illustration and typography are mandatory to signal product quality and avoid the perception of amateurism.
- Effective designs prioritize visual shorthand, such as high-contrast silhouettes and genre-specific iconography, over complex narrative scenes or cluttered screenshots.
How to Work With An Artist to Get a Good Capsule Artist
Steam capsule art serves as a foundational marketing asset that directly influences player conversion and streamer engagement.
- Steam capsule art is a critical marketing asset because it serves as the primary visual hook for potential players and is often repurposed by streamers for their own video thumbnails.
- Professional capsule art commissions typically cost between $500 and $1,500, though high-end fantasy illustrators with experience on major titles like Blizzard games can command $3,000 or more.
- To find a suitable artist, developers should browse Steam for games within their genre that feature appealing art, then identify and contact the studios or artists responsible for those specific assets.
State of the Brutally Honest UA by Matej Lancaric
The 2025 user acquisition landscape is defined by a fundamental shift toward creative-led strategies, where the ability to produce high-volume, iterative content determines market success.
- Creative production is now the primary driver of UA performance, requiring teams to generate at least five new videos per week to combat rapid audience fatigue.
- 68% of industry professionals now utilize AI for tasks including scriptwriting, thumbnail optimization, and the generation of synthetic user-generated content.
- The UA manager role has fundamentally shifted from manual campaign administration to a hybrid function focused on creative prompt engineering and data analysis.
TikTok Advanced Dedicated Campaigns (ADC) for Mobile Apps
Advanced Dedicated Campaigns (ADC) represent a specialized, automated solution for mobile app advertisers on TikTok, specifically designed to navigate the complexities of iOS attribution and tracking.
- Advanced Dedicated Campaigns (ADC) utilize machine learning to optimize ad delivery via SKAdNetwork signals, effectively automating targeting to improve CPI and ROAS for iOS mobile app campaigns.
- The primary trade-off of ADC is a loss of granular audience and demographic data, as the platform prioritizes conversion scale over manual targeting control.
- Campaign performance is heavily dependent on high-volume, native-style creative assets, specifically requiring a consistent rotation of user-generated content (UGC).
Inside $500M/Year Bending Spoons: TikTok Trends, Viral videos, UA & Paywall Science
Bending Spoons functions as a hybrid between a technology firm and a private equity entity, managing a $2.5 billion portfolio of utility-focused applications including Remini, Splice, Evernote, and WeTransfer.
- Bending Spoons generates $500 million in annual revenue by acquiring apps, optimizing their design and subscription flows, and scaling them through aggressive user acquisition.
- The company’s portfolio includes high-performing apps like Remini, which achieves 300,000 daily installs, and Splice, which generates $120,000 in daily in-app purchase revenue.
- Bending Spoons utilizes 'Superwall-style' paywalls that limit functionality for free users, a strategy that has become a industry-standard template for maximizing conversion rates from install to subscription.
Make Your Indie Game Go Viral
Achieving viral success in the independent game market requires a strategic synthesis of high-concept design, psychological targeting, and data-driven marketing.
- Prioritize game concepts that mirror proven, high-performing media tropes—such as the narrative structure of popular TV shows—to ensure immediate market appeal and high potential for virality.
- Design games with a clear, linear narrative arc that introduces conflict at the start and resolves it at the end, as this structure significantly improves retention and content creator engagement.
- Optimize for YouTube marketing by incorporating distinct, recognizable character designs and vibrant color palettes, which increase both thumbnail click-through rates and overall game memorability.
Stirling Rank: How He Sold 9 Million Copies Of His Game, 8 Years Of Dev, Unity v Unreal | Ep. #050
The development of a successful tactical shooter requires a delicate balance between maintaining artistic integrity and navigating the pragmatic demands of the global gaming market.
- Stirling Rank’s tactical FPS game, Ready or Not, has achieved 9 million copies sold after approximately eight years of development.
- The game’s success is attributed to its 'offensively honest' approach, incorporating controversial themes like drug trafficking and violence as core narrative hooks.
- Rank advocates for using Unreal Engine over Unity, citing concerns over Unity's historical royalty structures and tracking algorithms.
TWIG #340 Scopely Goes to War, Roblox Gambles on IP and Turkey Rises
The mobile gaming industry is currently defined by an aggressive arms race in user acquisition, particularly within the coin-battler genre.
- The mobile coin-battler genre has become a 'red ocean' where market dominance is driven by industrial-scale user acquisition spending by giants like Scopely and Moon Active, creating high barriers to entry for smaller developers.
- Corporate friction is intensifying over performance-based earn-outs, exemplified by a dispute between Krafton and Unknown Worlds involving a $250 million earn-out and allegations of strategic project delays.
- Major publishers are increasingly integrating AI-driven development tools to streamline production, leading to staff reductions in design roles at companies like King.
Secrets Behind Monopoly Go’s Record-Breaking Launch with Ben Webley, CMO of Scopely
Monopoly GO! has achieved significant commercial success since its April 2023 launch, reaching $1 billion in revenue within seven months and surpassing $5 billion within two years.
- Monopoly GO! achieved $1 billion in revenue within seven months of its April 2023 launch and surpassed $5 billion in total revenue within two years.
- The game reached the number one spot in over 100 countries by treating the global Monopoly brand as a local entity, requiring thousands of culturalized creative asset variations for regional resonance.
- Scopely employs a 'break-the-concept' testing methodology that actively seeks to invalidate ideas, such as app icons, to ensure only the most resilient concepts reach production.