User Acquisition reports and market data
Documents
From Drumming to Downloads: Why ASO Is All About Discipline
Sustainable organic growth in the mobile gaming industry depends on treating app store presence as a dynamic, live channel rather than a static asset.
- Sustainable organic growth requires an 'always-on' discipline rather than sporadic efforts, treating the app store as a live, evolving channel that demands consistent maintenance.
- Teams should move away from manual, repetitive tasks by leveraging AI and automation tools, which can reduce manual workflow time by up to 40%.
- To prove the value of organic growth to stakeholders, teams must measure incrementality by establishing clean baselines and cross-referencing console data with Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) metrics.
🤬 Meta is NOT back on iOS. We have been FOOLED!
Meta’s recent, transient surge in iOS advertising revenue does not represent a technological breakthrough or a successful circumvention of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework.
- Meta’s recent spike in iOS advertising revenue was a temporary anomaly driven by aggressive ad formats rather than a circumvention of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework.
- The performance surge lasted only 48 hours, as the use of intrusive end-cards and double-ad templates led to a sharp decline in user retention that neutralized initial gains.
- Meta has failed to regain its pre-2021 market dominance on iOS, as the underlying signal loss issues caused by privacy-centric restrictions remain unresolved.
🚨📢 BREAKING NEWS: Mobile Stagnates, Monopoly GO Hits $6B, Liftoff Files for IPO
The mobile gaming industry experienced a period of divergence in 2025, characterized by a slight rise in global revenue to $81.8 billion while traditional app store metrics suggested stagnation.
- Scopely’s Monopoly Go became the fastest mobile game in history to reach $6 billion in lifetime revenue, achieving the milestone in 1,275 days and currently generating approximately $200 million per month.
- Global mobile gaming revenue reached $81.8 billion in 2025, though traditional app store metrics show stagnation due to a massive shift toward web stores that bypass platform fees.
- Industry observers estimate that 40% to 50% of revenue from large-scale developers is now excluded from standard iOS and Google Play tracking, meaning official reports likely underrepresent actual market performance.
TWiG #368: Ubisoft Cuts, TikTok Slips, and Gaming’s Next Distribution Crisis
The global gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural volatility, characterized by widespread workforce reductions and evolving regulatory pressures.
- Ubisoft has reduced its workforce by over 3,000 employees within the last two years, reflecting broader structural volatility in the gaming industry.
- Valve is facing an $897.7 million legal challenge regarding its Steam commission structure while implementing new AI disclosure rules that only require transparency for content used in gameplay, store pages, or marketing.
- TikTok’s mobile advertising share has dropped from 21% to 12% amid stagnant daily active user growth and ongoing efforts to decouple from its parent company, ByteDance.
Live Q&A With Chris Zukowski about Steam Next Fest
Steam Next Fest serves as a critical promotional milestone for indie developers, but its efficacy is fundamentally tethered to the volume of wishlists a game accumulates prior to the event.
- Launch your demo well before Steam Next Fest to build wishlists, as the event itself is highly competitive and favors games that already have significant traction.
- Use median playtime on your demo as the primary metric to evaluate game quality, as it is a more reliable indicator of player engagement than average playtime or subjective feedback from friends.
- If your game consistently ranks in the bronze or silver tiers on Steam benchmarks, it is likely that the core concept is not resonating with the market, and you should consider shipping the project to move on to a new game.
🎯 Hunting Sniper Review: Old game, new UA = SERIOUS Money!
The mobile game Hunting Sniper has emerged as a significant financial success within the realistic sports genre, generating approximately $200,000 in daily revenue.
- Hunting Sniper generates approximately $200,000 in daily revenue, outperforming established genre competitors like Hunting Clash by nearly tenfold.
- The game’s rapid scaling since its August 2024 launch is driven primarily by an aggressive user acquisition strategy rather than innovative game design.
- Developers maintain a high-volume creative output, releasing hundreds of new marketing assets monthly across Facebook, Google, and TikTok.
🎯 Mobile Ad Monetization Checklist: From Soft Launch to Scale by Felix Braberg
This guide provides a strategic framework for mobile game developers to implement and scale ad monetization, covering the transition from soft launch to full-scale operations.
- Prioritize user retention by enforcing strict ad creative standards, as networks often default to intrusive, long-form end cards that degrade the user experience.
- During soft launch, target a 45% viewer rate for rewarded video ads and a 70% viewer rate for interstitials to balance monetization with retention.
- Maintain an updated app-ads.txt file to ensure full access to reseller demand and maximize potential ad revenue.
Influencer Marketing for Mobile Apps 101: 2026 Edition
Mobile app developers are increasingly pivoting away from traditional paid user acquisition toward micro-creator marketing to combat the unsustainable surge in advertising costs.
- Paid user acquisition costs have surged significantly, with CPMs increasing 10x over the last two years, making micro-creator marketing a necessary alternative for scaling apps.
- High-performing influencer campaigns can achieve CPMs as low as $0.60 to $0.70 in the U.S. market, compared to the standard industry range of $3 to $5.
- Effective creator compensation should prioritize performance-based bonuses over fixed fees, using the creator's median view count from the previous three months as the benchmark for success.
The AI Disruption Index: How AI Is Reshaping Consumer Discovery
The AI Disruption Index demonstrates that artificial intelligence is fundamentally altering how U.S. consumers discover and purchase brands, with one-third of adults now using personal AI agents to find products and nearly half employing AI for purchase research.
- One-third of U.S. adults now use personal AI agents for product discovery, while nearly 50% utilize AI for purchase research.
- AI-driven 'zero-click' discovery is actively eroding traditional paid search and organic search channels, threatening sectors like retail, education, and health & fitness.
- Sectors with strong regulatory or content moats, specifically financial services, media rights holders, and auto OEMs, currently maintain a defensive advantage against AI disintermediation.
Key Insights and Data: 2023–2025
Mobile gaming drives the global industry’s growth through 2025, accounting for more than half of worldwide revenue and over eighty percent of players.
- Global gaming revenue is projected to reach $197 billion in 2025, representing a 7.5% year-over-year increase driven primarily by mobile and PC segments.
- Mobile gaming remains the dominant force in the industry, accounting for over 50% of global revenue and more than 80% of the total player base.
- The mobile market is increasingly a winner-take-all environment, with the top 10 to 50 titles on Google Play and the Apple App Store capturing a growing share of total revenue.
☠️ The end of original creatives: Creative Trends just got darker
The mobile gaming industry is currently undergoing a fundamental shift toward a copy-first development strategy, prioritizing high-volume, replicable creative assets over original intellectual property.
- The mobile gaming industry is shifting toward a copy-first strategy that prioritizes high-volume, replicable creative assets over original intellectual property to maximize conversion metrics.
- Artificial intelligence is being leveraged to mass-produce deceptive creative content, significantly lowering production costs while enabling the rapid deployment of fabricated, high-drama scenarios.
- Publishers are increasingly utilizing 'fake ads' that feature unauthorized use of major global brands and misleading gameplay representations to drive user acquisition.
🚨📢 BREAKING NEWS: Ubisoft Restructures, IAP Hits $167B, Turkey Keeps Raising, Pokémon Goes IRL
The gaming industry is currently undergoing a structural shift characterized by a transition toward a monetization-first era.
- Global mobile in-app purchase revenue reached $167 billion in 2025, confirming a strategic industry shift toward maximizing lifetime value over user acquisition scale despite declining download volumes.
- Ubisoft is reorganizing into five specialized creative houses to achieve $200 million in cost savings, a process that includes canceling projects like the Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake and mandating a full-time return to the office.
- Major publishers are prioritizing stability by leveraging legacy intellectual property and diversifying platforms, such as Outfit7 expanding into PC development and Rovio relaunching the Angry Birds franchise in China.