Monetization reports and market data
Documents
Panel: Keeping Up With the Times: What Do Developers Need To Know....
Modern game development requires a strategic shift away from traditional in-app purchases and standard advertising toward diversified distribution and integrated revenue models.
- Developers should diversify distribution beyond standard app stores by utilizing web-based shops and alternative platforms to bypass restrictive payment constraints and reach global markets.
- Revenue models are shifting from one-time transactions toward subscription-based ecosystems like Microsoft Game Pass and Apple Arcade, which prioritize long-term user engagement metrics.
- Monetization strategies are expanding to include in-game advertising and the repurposing of proprietary code for external client-based projects.
The value of a user is not only monetary | Alex Pham from Adjust
Mobile marketing analytics requires a strategic shift toward privacy-first infrastructure and holistic performance measurement.
- Mobile marketing must shift from deterministic tracking to privacy-first infrastructure, utilizing predictive modeling and aggregated intelligence to navigate regulations like GDPR and Apple’s SKAdNetwork.
- Success requires moving beyond cost-per-install metrics to evaluate long-term user value, specifically focusing on retention, virality, and delayed monetization patterns.
- Developers are increasingly adopting all-in-one platforms that integrate analytics, visualization, and campaign automation to improve efficiency and manage leaner teams amid industry consolidation.
How to provide gasless transactions on the blockchain | Leo D from Redlight Finance
Redlight Finance provides a comprehensive Web3 ecosystem centered on a proprietary gasless blockchain, designed to lower the barrier to entry for both traditional industries and the gaming sector.
- Redlight Finance operates a proprietary gasless blockchain designed to eliminate transaction fees, aiming to lower entry barriers for the gaming and traditional enterprise sectors.
- The Redlight Name Service replaces complex alphanumeric wallet addresses with intuitive usernames to simplify asset management and NFT interactions for end users.
- The platform supports cross-game interoperability, allowing players to retain and utilize digital assets across different gaming environments to increase long-term utility.
Serving ads that users want | Hajar Noreddine from Adjoe
Adjoe specializes in innovative ad tech solutions, focusing on user acquisition and monetization through time-based rewarded advertising.
- Integrating rewarded ad units can generate over 50% in incremental revenue for mobile developers, reducing reliance on in-app purchases alone.
- Demand-side partners utilizing machine learning-driven targeting through the Playtime platform have achieved a 30% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS).
- User sentiment toward rewarded advertising is highly positive, with 76% of UK users and 56% of US users expressing satisfaction with relevant ads in mobile games.
How Game Developers Have Solved Current Market Challenges -Brendan Fraher of GameRefinery.
The mobile gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant market turbulence, prompting top-tier developers to adopt new strategies to maintain growth and engagement.
- Game hybridization is now a standard industry requirement, with 100% of new strategy games incorporating RPG-style mechanics and over 80% of casino games utilizing collection-based meta-elements.
- Mobile developers are increasingly adopting a multi-platform strategy, expanding titles to PC and console to reach broader audiences and circumvent mobile store restrictions.
- Developers are successfully lowering innovation costs by integrating proven features from other genres—such as seasonal passes, decoration systems, and mini-games—into their core gameplay loops.
Mobile Ads Monetization: The Tips & Tricks That Make a Difference - Oleg Shlyamovych.
Mobile ad monetization serves as a critical revenue stream for mobile game developers, particularly given that approximately 97 percent of users do not make in-app purchases.
- Utilize professional mediation platforms to foster competition among ad networks, which can increase total ad revenue by up to three times.
- Implement App-ads.txt to ensure inventory transparency, a technical requirement that significantly boosts overall earnings.
- Maintain high user consent rates for personalized ads—reaching up to 92 percent—by carefully designing the opt-out process to be more complex.
Why Trust & Transparency are Crucial to Your Ad Monetisation Strategy - Maggie Mesa, Chartboost.
The current mobile advertising landscape is characterized by a lack of transparency within mediation platforms, which often function as opaque "black boxes."
- Developers must prioritize neutral mediation platforms that eliminate 'black box' auction mechanics to ensure fair competition among all demand sources.
- Adopting a unified auction model with in-app bidding and open real-time bidding (RTB) signals is essential for maximizing eCPM and ARPU.
- Transparency in the supply path is a critical performance driver, as evidenced by successful migrations of major titles like Empires and Puzzles and Words with Friends to neutral platforms.
Re-Inventing LiveOps Strategy: Adapting to the new Norm - Yeshas Nakshathri & Jonathan Garrity.
The mobile gaming industry is currently navigating a significant shift in monetization strategy, driven by a decline in ad revenue of up to 30% following recent platform policy changes.
- Mobile game developers can mitigate the 30% impact of recent iOS and Android ad revenue changes by adopting a centralized LiveOps system that enables event management without constant engineering support.
- Mobilityware increased revenue and engagement by 5% in their initial campaign by using a modular, template-based dashboard to build and iterate on in-game events rather than relying on custom developer builds.
- Moving from basic demographic segmentation to behavioral-triggered in-app messaging can double the average revenue per user (ARPU) in mobile games.
Future of Payments in Gaming - Faisal Al Bitar, Product Principal, Tamatem
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region represents a significant, high-growth opportunity for mobile gaming, currently valued at approximately $5 billion.
- The MENA mobile gaming market is valued at approximately $5 billion, yet traditional app store payment models fail to reach the region's population where over 70% remain unbanked or underbanked.
- Credit card penetration in some MENA nations is below 3%, creating a significant barrier for developers relying solely on standard Apple and Google payment infrastructure.
- Digital payment adoption in the region surged from 9% to 70% post-COVID, fueled by rapid fintech innovation and smartphone penetration that outpaces traditional bank account ownership.
Why/How Does Web3/Blockchain add Value to the Players & to the Game Studios - Adoni Ioannou
Web3 and blockchain technology offer a transformative shift for the gaming industry by providing a framework for true digital asset ownership, enhanced user-generated content, and decentralized identity.
- Blockchain technology enables true digital asset ownership, granting players legal status over in-game items and creating a portable record of play that exists independently of specific gaming platforms.
- Web3 infrastructure facilitates 'modding for markets,' allowing players to build third-party tools and economies that add value to the core game experience beyond the developer's original scope.
- The integration of decentralized infrastructure allows studios to move away from 'walled garden' models, reducing reliance on major technology firms and fostering deeper player retention through aligned incentives.
Brands Are Now In-Play: Creating a new Revenue Stream in a Seamless Way by Chloe Cave from Adverty.
The integration of in-game advertising, specifically through non-intrusive "in-play" formats, represents a significant evolution in mobile game monetization.
- In-play advertising allows developers to monetize the entire duration of a gaming session without interrupting gameplay, unlike traditional rewarded videos or interstitials.
- Gaming has surpassed the combined reach of film, television, and music, with a global audience of 3.2 billion players.
- In-play advertising is projected to capture 10% of the total in-game advertising market share by the end of 2023.
Ad monetisation gossip corner, Unity expensive bug, APS, Google 3 waterfall placements (#52)
The mobile advertising landscape is currently defined by a shift toward more granular control over mediation stacks and the mitigation of technical volatility.
- Google has removed the three-placement limit for third-party mediation, allowing publishers to expose more inventory to AdMob demand and potentially reducing the necessity of Google Ad Manager resellers.
- A March 13th bug in Unity’s reporting infrastructure inflated revenue data by over tenfold, forcing publishers to disable placements to prevent UA optimization errors and revenue leakage.
- Amazon Publisher Services (APS) is a high-potential demand source for titles with high-purchasing-power audiences, particularly when publishers secure direct Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM) deals with partners like Xandr, InMobi, and PubMatic.