Monetization reports and market data
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Intelligence Top Mobile Games Challenges: A User Acquisition, Ad & Product Monetization Report
The mobile gaming landscape heading into 2025 is defined by the critical difficulty of performing within an increasingly crowded market space.
- Market saturation and rising costs per installment are the primary obstacles for 41% of user acquisition managers, driven by intense competition from non-gaming entities.
- Product managers are prioritizing LiveOps as their most significant challenge, with nearly 30% ranking it above traditional concerns like game economy balancing or prototyping.
- The industry is shifting away from high-volume acquisition toward sustainable growth models that prioritize long-term user retention and lifetime value maximization.
Top 10 Hybridcasual Games in Q1 2025: The Great Puzzle Takeover
The analysis highlights a rapid maturation of the hybrid-casual segment in the mobile gaming market, showing that the top ten titles generated $87 million in net in-app-purchase (IAP) revenue in the first quarter of 2025—a 67 percent year-over-year increase from the same period in 2024.
- The top ten hybrid-casual games generated $87 million in net IAP revenue in Q1 2025, marking a 67 percent year-over-year increase.
- Puzzle and arcade titles dominate the hybrid-casual market, collectively accounting for over 90 percent of total earnings with a 48 percent and 45 percent revenue share, respectively.
- Block-puzzle games lead the puzzle category with 71 percent of revenue, while sort-puzzle titles experienced the fastest growth, increasing 5.6 times year-over-year.
MiDiA Research Global Games Forecasts 2025–2031
The global games market has transitioned into a phase of structural maturity, with 2025 revenues projected at $236.9 billion.
- The global games market is entering a phase of structural maturity with 2025 revenues projected at $236.9 billion, representing a 4.6% year-on-year increase that is effectively flat when adjusted for inflation.
- In-game spending remains the dominant revenue driver at 69% of the market, though the industry is shifting toward premium full-game purchases and the expansion of intellectual property into film and television.
- The global player base is forecast to reach 4.02 billion by 2031, with long-term growth increasingly reliant on strategic price adjustments and regional expansion rather than rapid user acquisition.
Trends Report 2025
Intrinsic in-game advertising functions as a resilient, year-round engagement channel that maintains steady session volumes even during seasonal lulls in traditional media.
- In-game advertising delivers high efficiency, with conversion costs averaging 21% below established goals and brand recall increasing by 20 points.
- North American advertising costs drop by over 25% in the first quarter, providing a cost-effective window for brands to reach highly active players.
- Mobile gaming offers twenty-five times the impression scale of PC and console platforms, while PC and console environments provide deeper immersion with average session lengths of 107 minutes.
Access for All: Expanding Opportunities for Players and Publishers Worldwide
This analysis explores the strategic shift toward out-of-app monetization in the global gaming industry, with a specific focus on Southeast Asia and China.
- Out-of-app monetization is a dominant force in Asia, accounting for 53% of the mobile gaming market in China and 21% in Southeast Asia.
- In the SEA-6 region, 40-50% of the adult population is unbanked, rendering traditional credit card-centric app store models ineffective for a large segment of potential players.
- Publishers are increasingly bypassing primary app stores to avoid high take rates and to implement localized payment methods like e-wallets, carrier billing, and physical vouchers.
Growth of the Korean Emoticon Market: A New Distribution and Expansion Method for the K-Character Industry
The Korean emoticon market has evolved from a peripheral messaging feature into a multi-billion-won character-IP industry, now valued at roughly KRW 1.5 trillion (≈US$1.2 trillion).
- The Korean emoticon market has grown into a KRW 1.5 trillion (≈US$1.2 trillion) industry, anchored by the KakaoTalk platform.
- Over the last 14 years, the market has seen the release of more than 850,000 distinct emoticons, resulting in over 300 billion individual sends.
- Emoticons have evolved from simple messaging features into high-value intellectual property (IP) assets, such as KakaoFriends and LINE Friends, that drive revenue across merchandise, mobile games, and animation.
Interview with Frank Kang, Associate Partner at Antler: Malaysia
Korean content and entertainment startups are being urged to treat Southeast Asia as a primary growth engine rather than a peripheral market.
- Korean entertainment and content startups must treat Southeast Asia as a primary growth engine rather than a peripheral market to achieve sustainable expansion.
- Success requires deep localisation through local 'co-pilots' to navigate fragmented linguistic, regulatory, and payment landscapes in key hubs like Jakarta, Manila, and Bangkok.
- Revenue models should shift toward mobile-wallet-driven micro-transactions, live-commerce, and hybrid free-plus-premium structures to align with local consumption habits.
State of AI Apps Report 2025
The analysis quantifies the rapid expansion of generative-AI applications in the first half of 2025, documenting 1.6 billion downloads and $1.2 billion in in-app-purchase revenue.
- Generative AI applications experienced explosive growth in H1 2025, reaching 1.6 billion downloads and $1.2 billion in in-app purchase revenue.
- Revenue growth significantly outpaced adoption, with a 200 percent increase in in-app purchase revenue and a 67 percent rise in downloads compared to H2 2024.
- The user base is heavily skewed toward younger males, with approximately 60 percent of users being male and nearly 70 percent under the age of 35.
Mobile Game Market Insights: India 2025
India is the world’s largest mobile gaming market by volume, reaching 8.45 billion downloads in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
- India is the world's largest mobile gaming market by volume, recording 8.45 billion downloads in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
- Despite high download volume, in-app purchase revenue is limited to $400 million, though it is growing at 8.5% year-over-year due to increased digital payment adoption and high-value iOS spenders.
- Revenue is heavily concentrated in core competitive genres, with Battle Royale titles like Garena Free Fire and Battlegrounds Mobile India accounting for 50% of total market earnings.
Mobile App Trends Spotlight Edition: Türkiye 2025
The mobile application economy in Türkiye is entering a high-growth, maturing phase, with total revenue projected to reach $1.65 billion by 2029.
- The Turkish mobile app market is projected to reach $1.65 billion in revenue by 2029, supported by an 87% internet penetration rate and a global top-ten ranking for downloads and time spent in-app.
- Generative AI applications experienced a 142.5% surge in downloads between 2023 and 2024, driven by local hyper-casual studios pivoting to AI-first development and proprietary Turkish-language models.
- Finance app installs grew by 30% in the first half of 2025, bolstered by an 85% mobile banking adoption rate and retention rates that consistently outperform global medians.
What Does the Monetization Landscape Look Like for Video Games in MENA?
The video game industry in the MENA-3 region—comprising Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt—is experiencing rapid expansion driven by a young, tech-savvy population and significant government investment.
- The MENA-3 gaming market (KSA, UAE, Egypt) generated $2 billion in player spending in 2024 and is projected to grow to over $2.7 billion by 2028.
- Payment infrastructure is a major barrier, as 67% of the regional population lacks access to traditional credit or debit cards, necessitating the integration of local payment networks like Mada in Saudi Arabia and Fawry in Egypt.
- Direct-to-consumer (D2C) web shops are essential for bypassing 30% app store fees, with 53% of paying gamers in the region already utilizing official game websites for purchases.
Mobile Monetization Report 2025
The global mobile gaming market reached $57.1 billion between 2023 and 2025, representing a 3.4% increase driven primarily by the App Store and emerging regions such as LATAM and MENA.
- Top US mobile titles are increasingly bypassing platform fees, with direct-to-consumer revenue via webshops and alternative payment systems growing by 46%.
- The App Store is significantly outperforming Google Play, evidenced by a 71% increase in 90-day ARPPU and a rise in high-value US players spending over $100 from 22% to 32%.
- The Strategy genre surged over 25% globally, driven by a 213% explosion in Card Battlers, while the Puzzle genre grew 15% behind a 911% revenue spike in Block Puzzles.