Mobile reports and market data
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From Zero to Hero - Give Gamers What They Want with Rapid User Testing
Rapid user testing serves as a critical bridge between raw quantitative analytics and subjective community feedback, enabling game developers to refine their products through direct consumer insights.
- Rapid user testing bridges the gap between quantitative analytics and subjective community feedback, allowing studios to validate creative assets and gameplay mechanics with precision.
- Implementing testing protocols early in the development lifecycle reduces financial risk and production time by ensuring concepts resonate with target audiences before significant resource investment.
- The methodology transforms development from speculative decision-making into a data-driven workflow, enabling teams to iterate and optimize conversion metrics both pre- and post-launch.
Fireside Chat: Unique Insights into Mobile Games Piracy (A Developer’s Guide)
Mobile gaming security faces a significant shift as the industry moves away from traditional piracy concerns toward the more pressing threat of in-game cheating.
- Mobile gaming security has shifted from traditional piracy to in-game cheating, with 86% of mobile titles currently harboring vulnerabilities such as memory manipulation and license bypassing.
- Cheating is highly prevalent in the top tier of the market, as 43 of the top 50 mobile games contain at least one accessible exploit.
- Developers can implement robust anti-tamper technology without compromising performance, as demonstrated by Battle Legion, which maintains frame rates and battery life through advanced compression and binary optimization.
Curated Panel: How to Maximise ARPDAU With a Hybrid Approach
The mobile gaming industry is undergoing a fundamental shift toward hybrid monetization models, which integrate in-app purchases with in-app advertising to stabilize and maximize average revenue per daily active user.
- Hybrid monetization models that integrate in-app purchases with rewarded video are stabilizing revenue, with many studios achieving an even 50/50 split between ad-driven and purchase-driven income.
- Publishers are transitioning from manual waterfall management to automated in-app bidding to eliminate labor-intensive line-item adjustments and improve operational efficiency.
- Automated bidding platforms allow development teams to reallocate resources from ad operations toward user acquisition and core product innovation.
Superstar Session: How to Maximise the Game Economy With Ad Monetisation
The presentation explores strategies for maximizing game economies through ad monetization, emphasizing the necessity of data-driven decision-making in an evolving mobile landscape.
- Publishers must integrate first-party performance data with third-party market intelligence, such as App Annie’s Game IQ, to normalize metrics across user acquisition, mediation, and in-app purchase platforms.
- Monetization models should be dynamic rather than static, transitioning between ad-heavy, hybrid, or subscription systems based on specific user maturity levels and geographic performance trends.
- Strategic ad integration—when managed for frequency and timing—does not degrade retention and can function as a tool for delayed gratification by offering rewards for future gameplay sessions.
Speed Panel: Monetisation With In-app Bidding
This panel discussion from the September 2020 Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital event explores the transition from traditional waterfall-based ad mediation to hybrid in-app bidding models.
- Adopting a hybrid in-app bidding model typically yields a 5% to 25% increase in revenue by improving fill rates and reducing latency.
- Transitioning from traditional waterfall-based mediation to hybrid bidding significantly reduces the operational burden of managing thousands of manual line items.
- Modern mediation platforms now facilitate easier A/B testing, enabling developers to make data-driven decisions regarding network performance and waterfall optimization.
Unlock More than 1 Billion Potential New Users
The Unity Distribution Portal (UDP) serves as a centralized hub designed to simplify the distribution of Android games across multiple third-party app stores.
- The Unity Distribution Portal (UDP) enables developers to reach over one billion potential new users by streamlining distribution across multiple third-party Android app stores.
- The platform eliminates the need for multiple SDKs and individual builds by automatically repacking a single game build with store-specific requirements, such as in-app purchase (IAP) integrations.
- Developers can manage their entire distribution workflow through a centralized hub that supports metadata importation from the Google Play Store and provides unified performance reporting.
Panel: New Ad Formats - The Next Generation
The modern gaming industry is undergoing a fundamental shift toward non-intrusive, context-aware monetization strategies that prioritize player retention alongside revenue generation.
- The gaming industry is shifting from disruptive interstitial ads to non-intrusive, context-aware formats like rewarded videos, audio ads, and dynamic in-game product placements to prioritize player retention.
- The deprecation of traditional tracking identifiers like IDFA has forced a transition toward privacy-compliant, contextual advertising models that do not rely on deep individual behavioral tracking.
- Developers are utilizing cross-platform SDKs for Unity and Unreal to maintain consistent monetization strategies across mobile, PC, and web environments.
Fireside Chat: What do Game Developers Really Think About Monetisation?
The modern game development landscape is undergoing a significant shift toward monetization strategies that prioritize player retention and immersion over traditional, disruptive advertising.
- Approximately 75% of game developers now prioritize non-intrusive monetization strategies, such as ambient in-game placements, over disruptive advertising models.
- Gamers are three times more likely to prefer native, integrated advertising formats compared to conventional, disruptive ad breaks.
- Developers are increasingly demanding greater control and transparency over displayed ad content to protect brand integrity and prevent the promotion of direct competitors.
Monetise, not Bastardise
The primary objective of this presentation is to introduce audio advertising as a non-intrusive, high-value monetization alternative for mobile game developers.
- Audio advertising provides a high-value monetization alternative with CPMs ranging from $2 to $30, significantly outperforming traditional banner ads.
- The audio advertising sector is experiencing 23% annual growth, supported by an $18 billion total addressable market and $3 billion in traded demand.
- Consumer sentiment data from YouGov shows that 86% of UK mobile gamers dislike video ads, while 28% express a specific preference for audio-based formats.
Superstar Session: How to Maximise the Game Economy With Ad Monetisation
The mobile gaming industry experienced significant growth during the first half of 2020, largely accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Mobile gaming is the industry's dominant sector, projected to exceed $100 billion in consumer spend in 2020 and generating 1.5 times the revenue of PC, Mac, and console platforms combined.
- The mobile advertising market is projected to reach $240 billion in 2020, with 93% of the top 500 games on Google Play now utilizing in-app advertising.
- Rewarded video ads are highly effective, with nearly 23% of all mobile gamers and 40% of hardcore gamers expressing a preference for this monetization format.
Fireside Chat: #PlayApartTogether, not just a Campaign. It's a Lifestyle
The gaming industry experienced a significant shift in 2020 as the #PlayApartTogether campaign evolved from a temporary public health initiative into a long-term lifestyle.
- The #PlayApartTogether initiative catalyzed a permanent shift in gaming, moving it from competitive entertainment to a primary social platform for broader demographics, including millennials and female players.
- Integrated real-time engagement (RTE) tools, such as voice and video chat, are now considered standard features rather than optional additions, as users prefer them over standalone video conferencing.
- During the 2020 pandemic peak, some gaming platforms experienced a 50-fold increase in monthly active users, establishing a new baseline for engagement that has persisted post-stabilization.
Uncover Market Opportunities & Expand Your Product Portfolio by Understanding Gamer Preferences
The presentation introduces Game IQ, a specialized analytics platform designed to help mobile game publishers identify market opportunities and refine product portfolios through granular data.
- Mobile gaming is the dominant sector, projected to reach $100 billion in consumer spend in 2020, significantly outpacing both PC and console platforms.
- Core games, specifically strategy and RPG titles, account for approximately 50% of global mobile consumer spend.
- While hyper-casual games lead in total download volume, core games command the majority of user time and revenue.
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