Mobile reports and market data
Documents
Direct-to-Consumer: A $17 Billion Market for Mobile Gaming
GDC Festival of Gaming received 1,206 completed survey responses between January 19 and February 25, 2026, for Appcharge, a mobile game payments company.
- The document estimates DTC accounts for roughly $17 billion of the $113.3 billion in 2025 game in-app purchases, based on a 15% median DTC revenue share across the sample.
- Most respondents report DTC performing at least as well as app store monetization, and outperformance tends to increase with strategy maturity.
- Building player awareness was the most-cited challenge in scaling DTC channels, selected by 50% of respondents.
Public Mobile Gaming Publishers: Resilience & Adaptation in a Shifting Landscape
The mobile gaming industry has experienced significant shifts following years of rapid expansion and a pandemic-driven surge, encountering tougher conditions in the post-IDFA era.
- Aggregate market capitalization for major mobile gaming publishers has plummeted by more than 50% since January 2022, with most stocks remaining below pre-IDFA valuation peaks.
- User acquisition costs have surged to as high as $40 million per firm, while diminishing returns on these campaigns have compressed EBITDA margins and forced a shift toward cost control.
- MTG outperformed the broader market with a 50%+ share price increase and 9% organic growth in Q4 2024, driven by disciplined M&A and operational efficiency.
Enabling Growth: Cohort User Acquisition Financing
The mobile gaming market is experiencing a rebound, with a projected 4% growth in 2025, driven by innovations in in-app advertising (IAA), AI-powered AdTech, rewarded ad platforms, multiplatform adaptability, and IP licensing.
- Mobile gaming is projected to grow at a 5.0% CAGR from 2020 to 2025, supported by a 16.2% increase in in-app advertising and AI-driven ad tech.
- Cohort-based UA financing allows studios to fund up to 80% of monthly acquisition costs by leveraging future revenues, providing an alternative to scarce venture capital.
- Studios utilizing cohort-based financing have demonstrated the ability to increase monthly marketing spend by 16–38% while maintaining founder control over equity and IP.
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.
Swipe Before Type: India's Interactive Media Consumer Survey 2024–2025
The "Swipe Before Type: India's Interactive Media Consumer Survey 2024–2025" report by Lumikai analyzes the consumption patterns, preferences, and monetization behaviors of interactive media users in India.
- Gaming dominates high-value consumer spending, capturing 70% of wallet share for transactions exceeding INR 1,000, while video and social media command 30% each at the INR 200–500 price point.
- Mobile-first gaming remains the primary format, but 30% of users now engage via PC and 22% via consoles, with casual and midcore titles driving 8 hours of weekly engagement.
- UPI is the near-universal payment method for digital content, accounting for 90% of all in-app purchases.
Asia Pacific Market Report 2025: Creating Opportunities for Video Games in Asia
GamesBeat's Asia Pacific Market Report 2025, sponsored by Xsolla, covers video game markets in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia (SEA).
- Japan's gaming market hit $26.3 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $60.5 billion by 2033, growing at 9.7% per year.
- The report states that in Japan, gacha, battle passes and trusted payments form the monetization playbook, with gacha systems dominating.
- South Korea's game market revenue is projected to reach $14.56 billion in 2025 and $20.03 billion by 2030.
Investing and Financial Management App Market and Advertising Trends 2025
Sensor Tower's 2025 report examines the global investing and financial management app market and its digital advertising, drawing on app download and revenue estimates from the App Store and Google Play (excluding pre-installs, re-downloads and third-party Android stores), audience data, and Pathmatics ad estimates across 14…
- Quarterly downloads for investment-related apps are approaching 300 million, with crypto apps contributing a major share.
- Global quarterly digital ad spend by investing and financial management brands surpassed $500 million by Q3 2025.
- International markets drove most impressions, rising from around 80B to over 120B per quarter between 2024 and 2025.
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.
Gaming in Africa 2024
GeoPoll's "Gaming in Africa 2024" report presents results from its Gaming in Africa Survey, conducted across Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa with 2,588 respondents.
- Mobile phones are the most common gaming device across the four surveyed countries, and 92% of respondents said they regularly play games on one.
- Spending on games is common, with 63% of respondents reporting they have bought or paid for a game or in-game purchase.
- Puzzle games, sports/football games, and racing games are the most-selected favourite genres, at 40%, 36%, and 34% respectively.
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.
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.
Writers
Games and companies
Games