Mobile reports and market data
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Panel: The Monetisation Menu: Picking the Best Business Model for Your Audience.
Modern game monetization requires a strategic, data-driven transition away from binary revenue models toward diversified, additive ecosystems.
- Developers must move away from binary revenue models toward hybrid ecosystems that combine tiered subscriptions, in-app purchases, and rewarded advertising to maximize player lifetime value.
- Monetization strategies should be localized based on regional economic realities, prioritizing ad-heavy models in emerging markets and direct purchase options in regions with higher spending power.
- Publishers are mitigating the impact of privacy regulations and subscription fatigue by using granular user-level data to dynamically adjust ad exposure and implement bid floors.
Keynote: The Sound of Incremental Revenue: Why Audio ads are What’s Next in Ad Mon,
The integration of in-game audio advertising represents a significant shift in mobile game monetization, offering developers a method to generate incremental revenue without disrupting the user experience.
- In-game audio advertising provides a non-intrusive revenue stream that complements existing ad stacks, directly increasing lifetime value and average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU).
- Mobile gaming captures high-engagement audiences during the 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM window, a period when traditional audio channels like radio and streaming experience a decline in activity.
- Over 600 global brands across sectors including retail, telecommunications, and consumer goods have already deployed campaigns using in-game audio formats.
Panel: The Future of Mobile Game Subscriptions.
Mobile game subscription services currently account for approximately 5–6% of global gaming revenue, functioning as a critical, albeit secondary, monetization model alongside traditional in-app purchases.
- Mobile game subscriptions currently represent 5–6% of global gaming revenue, serving as a secondary monetization layer alongside traditional in-app purchases.
- The industry is shifting toward a hybrid model that combines subscription access with optional in-app purchases to balance recurring revenue stability with diverse player spending habits.
- Developers are increasingly adopting games-as-a-service strategies, such as regular content updates and replayable systems, to combat high churn rates and extend the lifecycle of premium titles.
Keynote Beyond Revenue - Teis Anker Mikkelsen, Founder OF Multiscription.
The primary focus of this analysis is the strategic implementation of in-game subscriptions within the mobile gaming industry.
- In-game subscriptions serve as a critical retention tool to counter rising user acquisition costs and the difficulty of discoverability in crowded app stores.
- Subscription models create a 'sunk cost' effect where players feel compelled to maximize the value of their recurring payment, leading to higher engagement and retention rates.
- A robust monetization strategy should rest on three pillars: ads for non-paying users, in-app purchases for the majority, and subscriptions to establish a reliable revenue baseline.
Funding Early Stage Gaming - Zvika Pakula, Product Madness
Securing funding for early-stage gaming ventures requires a strategic, realistic approach that balances creative vision with market data.
- Early-stage founders must prioritize building prototypes that generate actionable KPIs rather than attempting to develop a full-scale product prematurely.
- Achieving meaningful market share in the current gaming landscape requires planning for user acquisition costs that can reach 15 to 20 million dollars.
- Development cycles for genres such as social casino, RPG, or casual gaming typically span one to two years, requiring a long-term strategic approach to funding.
Keynote: ASO Trends to Watch out for in 2023 - Emily Sugrue, AppTweak.
App Store Optimization (ASO) in 2023 is defined by a shift toward highly personalized user acquisition and the potential disruption of the traditional app store duopoly.
- Custom store pages are becoming a standard component of user acquisition, with Google Play allowing up to 35 custom listings and Apple supporting custom product pages for Apple Search Ads (ASA).
- Google Play is evolving its 'Live Ops' feature into 'Promotional Content,' which will allow all developers to highlight discounts, giveaways, and new gameplay features to drive monetization by the end of 2023.
- The European Commission's Digital Markets and Digital Services Acts are expected to force Apple to open its ecosystem to third-party app stores in 2023, though developers must weigh the potential for lower commission fees against reduced traffic, trust, and visibility.
Solana and Web3 Gaming - Naavik Gaming Podcast
Solana positions itself as a foundational layer for mass-market gaming by leveraging a high-performance architecture characterized by parallelization and sub-400 millisecond block times.
- Solana is positioning itself as a mass-market gaming layer by utilizing high-performance architecture that features parallelization and sub-400 millisecond block times.
- The ecosystem is shifting its primary utility from decentralized finance to gaming, supported by specialized infrastructure like the Solana Games Kit.
- Solana is attempting to bypass traditional mobile distribution gatekeepers through the development of the Saga mobile phone and the Solana Mobile Stack.
Keynote: The Multiplayer Compass - Mark Val, Head of Growth at Photon
Multiplayer functionality has become a critical driver of success in the mobile gaming industry, with the vast majority of top-grossing titles now incorporating real-time multiplayer elements.
- Real-time multiplayer functionality is now a primary driver of success, with the majority of top-grossing mobile titles incorporating these elements to maximize retention and long-term monetization.
- Casual and Match-3 game sectors represent significant, underserved opportunities for developers to implement multiplayer mechanics like team-based objectives and tournament systems.
- Deterministic engines are essential for maintaining smooth gameplay and mitigating the negative impact of latency on user experience, particularly under poor network conditions.
Power Up Performance – How To Maximise Performance in a Privacy-First Advertising Landscape.
In a landscape defined by privacy-first regulations and the decline of user-level data, mobile game developers must shift their strategies to maintain growth and performance.
- Creative diversification is a critical performance driver, with data showing a 32 percent performance lift when assets are effectively differentiated and iterated to prevent fatigue.
- Developers must shift from granular, user-level attribution to a holistic framework that integrates automation, measurement accuracy, conversion schema optimization, and creative diversification.
- Automation tools like Meta’s Advantage Plus app campaigns are essential for optimizing ad placement across platforms while reducing manual operational effort.
Panel: The Ultimate Growth Hack: The Smart Approach to Paid & Organic User Acquisition Campaigns
Sustainable user acquisition in the modern mobile landscape requires a strategic shift away from reliance on traditional, high-cost platform advertising toward diversified, ecosystem-based growth models.
- Diversifying beyond traditional platform advertising is necessary to combat rising acquisition costs and privacy-driven data limitations.
- Carrier-led acquisition during device activation can achieve conversion rates of 6–8% by capturing users at the point of hardware setup.
- Peer-to-peer sharing and organic user-to-user recommendations account for up to one-third of daily application installs in emerging markets.
The Growth & Potential of the Gaming Industry in the MENA - David Fernandes, CEO, Sandsoft
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region represents a rapidly expanding gaming market, characterized by significant government-led investment and a young, growing player base.
- Saudi Arabia is investing $38 billion into a national gaming and esports strategy under Vision 2030, aiming to establish a global hub by creating 250 local companies and developing comprehensive infrastructure.
- The MENA gaming market grew by 6.6% in 2022 despite a global industry recession, with the total player base projected to increase from 65 million to 90 million by 2025.
- While Egypt holds the highest volume of players, Saudi Arabia and the UAE generate the most revenue, supported by a population where 89% of Saudis identify as gamers.
State of Mobile Gaming 2023 - Chris Uglietta, Senior Marketing Manager Gaming, data.ai
The 2023 mobile gaming market is characterized by a notable divergence between user engagement and consumer spending.
- Global mobile game downloads reached 90 billion in 2023, yet consumer spending contracted due to macroeconomic pressures and the impact of IDFA deprecation on high-value user targeting.
- Mid-core genres, including racing, shooters, and action games, experienced significant revenue declines despite maintaining or increasing their download volumes.
- Mobile advertising spend grew by 14% as total daily time spent on mobile devices surpassed five hours, highlighting a shift toward hybrid monetization models that combine ads with in-app purchases.
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