Mobile reports and market data
4,064 documents·245 writers·21,905 charts and tables
Documents
Report4 pages
Still Failing to Disclose Loot Box Presence: Identifying Illegal UK Video Game Ads Using Meta's Advertising Repository
This study investigates the compliance of video game advertisements in the UK with regulations requiring the disclosure of loot box presence.
- Only 10.5% of 618 UK video game adverts (65 ads across 9 of 69 games, 13.0%) disclosed loot box presence, despite ASA rules since 2021 and industry self-regulation effective July 2024.
- Compliance improved from roughly 7% in a 2023 study to 10.5%, a statistically significant gain, though the authors question whether a 3.5 percentage point increase is practically meaningful.
- Nearly all observed compliance appears driven by enforcement rather than voluntary commitment: 64 of the 65 compliant adverts came from companies censured by the ASA or publicly reported in the media after a single researcher's complaints.
DiGRAJun 2025
Whitepaper12 pages
The Politics of Care: The Possibilities and Limits of Video Games for Political Campaign
This article examines two 2022 mobile games, Lugawan ni Leni and Let Leni Lead, released during the Philippine presidential campaign to support Leni Robredo's candidacy.
- The article introduces the category of "propagandistic advergames," arguing that political games sell a candidate the way commercial advergames sell products, drawing on Ian Bogost's concept of procedural rhetoric.
- Two 2022 mobile games supporting Leni Robredo's presidential campaign, Lugawan ni Leni and Let Leni Lead, express the "Robredo style" of politics, which combines public service performance with personal approachability.
- Lugawan ni Leni uses the lugaw (rice porridge), a humble campaign symbol, to frame serving others as inherently rewarding, while Let Leni Lead adapts the campaign's house-to-house volunteer strategy into an infinite-runner format.
DiGRAJun 2025
Whitepaper20 pages
Identifying Differential Perceptions of Video Game Players Based on Gaming Platform
This study examines how the choice of gaming platform—PC, console, or mobile—shapes stereotypic perceptions and emotional reactions towards video game players.
- Perceptions of gamers vary meaningfully by platform: mobile players were rated significantly warmer than PC and console players, while PC players were rated most competent and received the most admiration.
- Mobile players received the lowest competence and admiration ratings, consistent with an informal platform hierarchy that ranks PC highest, consoles second, and mobile lowest.
- Gamer identification predicted higher competence and admiration judgments, suggesting self-identification with the gamer label shapes how players are perceived.
DiGRAJun 2025
Report21 pages
The Impact of Game Live Streaming on In-Game Purchases of Chinese Young Game Users
The document examines the significant influence of game live streaming on in-game purchase behavior among young Chinese game users, primarily focusing on mobile games.
- Viewing game live streams showed moderate positive correlations with in-game spending among Chinese young gamers aged 20 to 40: r = 0.407 with spending amount and r = 0.362 with spending frequency, based on 856 valid web-survey respondents.
- In logistic regression, weekday live-stream viewing time was the strongest predictor of whether a young gamer spent money in-game (β = 0.704, p < .001), ahead of age (β = 0.362), while gender had no significant effect.
- The study concludes that live-stream viewing is more closely tied to in-game spending than direct gameplay time is, though playtime also showed a weaker positive association.
DiGRAJun 2025
PocketGamer.biz46 min
Week in Mobile Games E56 - The Apple Games verdict
Barcelona has solidified its position as a premier global hub for the mobile gaming industry, bolstered by the presence of major developers like Scopely and a thriving local talent pool.
- Epic Games has successfully bypassed traditional platform revenue-sharing models by securing 40 million downloads on its proprietary mobile store, demonstrating the viability of self-publishing ecosystems.
- The Nintendo Switch 2 has achieved record-breaking market entry, selling 3.5 million units in its first four days and significantly outpacing the original console's launch performance.
- Apple’s recent App Store updates have faced criticism for failing to modernize the developer experience or address core functional needs, fueling the shift toward alternative distribution strategies.
PocketGamer.bizJun 2025
Report37 pages
Southeast Asia: Mobile Game Market Insights 2025
Southeast Asia is one of the world's most important mobile gaming regions, ranking second globally for downloads in Q1 2025 (1.93 billion installs, up 3% quarter over quarter) but only seventh for in-app purchase revenue ($625 million, up 1%).
- Southeast Asia is the world’s second-largest mobile gaming market by volume, recording 1.93 billion installs in early 2025, while ranking seventh globally in revenue at $625 million.
- Indonesia is the region's primary volume driver with 870 million installs, whereas Thailand leads in monetization, generating $162 million in consumer spending.
- Publishers based in Singapore and Vietnam have become a dominant global force, contributing over 5.8 billion installs to the international market through hypercasual and competitive titles.
Sensor TowerJun 2025
GameMakers71 min
Evolution of the Gaming Product Manager in 2025 + AI
The gaming industry is currently undergoing a structural transformation driven by an increasingly competitive attention economy and the necessity for high-frequency content updates.
- Product velocity is the new North Star metric for gaming product managers, as the industry shifts toward rapid, data-driven iteration to compete in a crowded attention economy.
- AI investment should be evaluated using Gartner’s '3 Returns' framework: Return on Employee (efficiency gains), Return on Investment (KPI and bottom-line impact), and Return on Future (creating new business models and capabilities).
- The role of the Product Manager is evolving into an 'agentic' function, where the primary responsibility is orchestrating and deploying AI agents to automate tasks and optimize live service operations.
GameMakersJun 2025
Deconstructor of Fun60 min
TWiG #335: Embrace CEO Exits, Pokémon meets Genshin, and Nintendo’s Mysterious On Switch
The current state of the gaming industry is defined by a tension between aggressive expansion and structural stagnation.
- Major conglomerates like Embracer Group are undergoing a prolonged recovery phase following the failure of aggressive, acquisition-heavy growth strategies to deliver sustainable results.
- Mobile publishers are attempting to combat market stagnation by blending mechanics, such as FunPlus combining creature collection with open-world exploration, while others like Habby refine midcore monetization.
- The gaming industry continues to rely on legacy intellectual property, specifically the Marvel franchise, as a primary risk mitigation strategy despite clear signs of consumer fatigue.
Deconstructor of FunJun 2025
Tenjin55 min
Python for Marketing 101
Marketers can significantly enhance their operational efficiency and strategic capabilities by integrating Python into their daily workflows.
- Python enables marketers to bypass expensive third-party software by using browser developer tools to extract proprietary data directly from platforms like Apple Search Ads.
- Automating data collection with Python allows for the creation of custom, cost-effective databases that track specific metrics such as keyword volume, competition, and relevancy.
- Programmatic access to the Facebook Ad Library API allows marketers to retrieve and analyze competitor ad performance metrics at a scale that is impossible through manual interfaces.
TenjinJun 2025
GameMakers82 min
Unity's $81 BILLION Opportunity: The Mobile Gaming War Nobody's Talking About 🎮
Unity is currently undergoing a strategic pivot to stabilize its financial position by prioritizing operational efficiency and scaling its advertising monetization segment.
- Unity is pivoting its business model to prioritize the 'Grow' division, aiming to transform its core engine business into a strategic loss leader that fuels a high-margin advertising platform.
- Unity is directly challenging AppLovin’s near-monopolistic dominance in mobile ad-tech by leveraging its massive market share and proprietary engine-level data to improve user acquisition and in-app purchase targeting.
- The company is integrating first-party engine data with advanced tools like its Vector technology to provide developers with more effective, data-driven monetization solutions.
GameMakersJun 2025
Two & a Half Gamers80 min
Screw Master 3D Live Review: 15% D30 retention & 80k+ daily revenue? The real hybrid casual KPIs
Screw Master 3D exemplifies the evolution of the hybrid-casual genre, successfully scaling a physics-based puzzle concept from regional APAC trends to a global audience.
- Screw Master 3D achieves approximately 80k to 100k in daily revenue, with a significant portion driven by a high-engagement 'unlock box' rewarded ad placement that maintains a 60%+ engagement rate.
- The game maintains strong long-term retention, allowing for aggressive user acquisition spending based on LTV projections that extend to Day 90, Day 120, or even Day 180.
- To mitigate eCPM degradation caused by high ad frequency, the developers utilize 'skip-it' mechanics, which allow users to bypass ads while maintaining monetization through alternative premium options.
Two & a Half GamersJun 2025
Deconstructor of Fun54 min
TWIG #334 The $200,000,000 Greenlight Failures and Activision’s Tone-Deaf In-Game Ads
The gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural tension, characterized by a disconnect between high-budget production cycles and shifting consumer expectations.
- AAA development is suffering from systemic failures in the greenlight process, where internal politics and the sunk cost fallacy lead to bloated 6-to-8-year development cycles.
- Studios are encouraged to adopt rapid prototyping techniques from the hyper-casual sector to validate core gameplay appeal earlier and avoid costly investments in non-viable projects.
- Player backlash is intensifying against aggressive monetization strategies, specifically the integration of in-game advertisements within premium-priced titles.
Deconstructor of FunJun 2025