User Acquisition reports and market data
Documents
Target. Connect. Engage: Driving Profitable App Growth with Revenue-Boosting Strategies
The primary purpose of the analysis is to demonstrate how a strategic partnership between a mobile measurement partner (MMP) and TikTok’s advertising ecosystem can unlock profitable growth for app marketers.
- Integrating AppsFlyer’s measurement suite with TikTok’s advertising ecosystem enables brands to maximize ROAS through real-time attribution and privacy-compliant user acquisition.
- Case studies demonstrate significant performance gains, including a 7x ROI for Burger King, a 44% conversion lift for Casas Bahia, and a 29% increase in in-app revenue for Carrefour.
- App marketers should prioritize App Event Optimization (AEO) and Value-Based Optimization (VBO) to focus advertising spend on high-value user actions.
The Mobile App Growth Report: 2025 Edition
Global mobile app growth remains resilient in 2025, characterized by an 11% year-over-year increase in installs and a 10% rise in user sessions.
- Global mobile app installs grew 11% year-over-year in 2025, with user sessions increasing by 10% as the industry shifts from volume-based acquisition to value-driven retention.
- The Asia-Pacific region is the primary driver of global growth with a score of 45, led by India, which holds a national growth score of 49 and a gaming-specific growth score of 52.2.
- Gaming remains the dominant global vertical, with Latin American and Middle Eastern markets projected to reach revenue milestones of $35.9 billion and $3.73 billion respectively by 2030.
State of Mobile 2025: TikTok Edition
The mobile industry reached a significant milestone in 2024, generating a record $150 billion in in-app purchase revenue, representing a 12.5% year-over-year increase.
- The mobile industry generated a record $150 billion in in-app purchase revenue in 2024, marking a 12.5% year-over-year increase despite a 1% decline in global downloads.
- Artificial Intelligence is the primary industry catalyst, evidenced by a 200% revenue surge for AI chatbots and $1.3 billion in annual spend on generative AI applications.
- The Productivity and Utility sector grew 35% to reach $15 billion in revenue, driven largely by the integration of AI tools.
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.
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.
2025 State of Mobile Gaming: In-App Purchase Trends of Leading Apps
The 2025 State of Mobile Gaming report analyzes the transition of the mobile gaming industry into a new growth phase characterized by refined monetization and sophisticated user acquisition.
- Global IAP revenue grew by 4% in 2024 despite flat install volume, driven by a 6% increase in both install-to-payer conversion rates and Day 90 ARPPU.
- The top 5% of players generate 48% of total revenue, with a hyper-niche segment of U.S. iOS users (0.02% of global installs) accounting for 20% of all global gaming revenue.
- Competition for high-value spenders has intensified, causing bid prices for the top 1% of iOS users to surge by 140% year-over-year.
Softlaunch Sonar #7: The Evolution of CPI Testing in Gaming
The gaming industry is currently undergoing a fundamental shift in user acquisition strategy, characterized by the widespread adoption of mini-game mechanics as the primary tool for testing marketability.
- The Solitaire genre is currently experiencing significant market saturation, with major developers like Metacore, Superplay, and Voodoo attempting to disrupt the category through new iterations and meta-game integrations.
- 4X strategy games are increasingly focusing their development efforts on 'fun-plus' onboarding mechanics, prioritizing creative mini-game variations over core meta-game innovation to drive user acquisition.
- Metacore has soft-launched a new level-based merge game as of December 11, leveraging their existing expertise and audience data from previous titles like Merge Mansion.
Blossom Sort Game Review: Exploring the Future of casual games
Blossom Sort represents a significant evolution in the casual puzzle genre, demonstrating that high monetization efficiency can be achieved even with modest download volumes.
- Blossom Sort generates approximately $60,000 in daily in-app purchase revenue, achieving a revenue-per-download metric of $6 in the United States.
- The game demonstrates that high monetization efficiency is possible with modest download volumes by combining relaxing core sorting mechanics with sophisticated meta-game structures like battle passes and collection albums.
- The developer prioritizes initial in-app purchase revenue over immediate ad integration, though the title currently struggles with inefficient ad mediation and technical usability issues.
How to conquer the farming games market? Minigames FTW. Implement or die by Matej Lancaric!
The farming games market remains a highly lucrative and stable sector within the global gaming industry, characterized by long-term growth and dominance by established titles.
- Implementing mini-games that mirror successful UA creative assets is now mandatory for survival and engagement in the farming game genre.
- The farming game market is dominated by established titles like Township and Hay Day, with Township recently hitting a record $40 million in monthly revenue compared to Hay Day's $12 million.
- Revenue in the farming sub-genre is heavily concentrated in the US, which accounts for $150 million of the $300 million total revenue generated by top performers in recent quarters.
2.5 gamers x Live AM(F)A #7 - Ask Me Anything @ December 19 5:30pm CET
The mobile gaming industry is currently undergoing a structural shift, moving away from traditional store-dependent growth toward web-based platforms and Telegram mini-apps.
- The casual merge game market is currently dominated by Microfun and Moon Active, who have successfully scaled by maintaining high production quality and utilizing intrusive ad strategies that prioritize long-term retention over short-term revenue.
- For soft launches, the United States remains the primary testing ground; if a game fails to perform in the U.S. market, it is unlikely to succeed elsewhere.
- Consent Management Platform (CMP) implementation is critical for compliance, with paid solutions typically achieving 93–95% opt-in rates compared to 80–87% for free Google-based alternatives.
How to increase your profitability with Cross-promotion? A step-by-step guide with Gonçalo @ Boombit
Cross-promotion functions as a critical pillar for mobile game publishers, serving as a primary driver of profitability by mitigating the escalating costs of user acquisition and navigating complex privacy-related market constraints.
- Cross-promotion can account for up to 20 percent of a mobile game publisher's total profitability by recycling existing user bases to mitigate rising user acquisition costs.
- Publishers can capture 13 to 15 percent of total ad revenue by treating internal inventory as a proprietary ad network to fill impressions that third-party networks fail to serve.
- Utilizing internal ad slots allows for high-volume user acquisition at costs as low as one cent per install.
Royal Kingdom Game Review: The Art of Level Design in Puzzle Games Genre
Dream Games has solidified its dominance in the mobile puzzle market through the strategic launch of Royal Kingdom, a sequel designed to complement the revenue-generating success of Royal Match.
- Royal Match has become the world's largest puzzle game, generating approximately $4.5 million in daily revenue.
- Dream Games maintains a long-term monetization strategy for its titles, often requiring a two-year payback period to justify high user acquisition spending.
- Royal Kingdom integrates its marketing creative directly into the gameplay experience through special, high-reward levels that feature the 'Save the King' mechanics popularized by its predecessor.