User Acquisition reports and market data
Documents
Session: AI Creative Factory: How We Scaled Performance Creative Without Scaling Costs - A. Kempe.
The rapid escalation in demand for performance creative in mobile app marketing has necessitated a shift from individual, manual ad production to an industrialized, assembly-line approach.
- Modern performance marketing success is driven by the volume of distinct creative concepts rather than minor iterations, as platforms like Meta and TikTok prioritize fresh content.
- Industrializing creative production through AI allows teams to scale output from dozens of ads per week to hundreds, directly improving cost-per-install (CPI) and hook rates.
- Organizations should transition from fragmented prompting to a centralized system that trains LLMs on brand guidelines, competitor research, and historical performance metrics.
Session: From Workflows to Agents: The AI Shift Redefining UA Creative Production - I. Kuznetsov.
The shift from static AI workflows to autonomous agentic systems is fundamentally redefining user acquisition (UA) creative production in the mobile gaming industry.
- Top-performing mobile developers are now shipping up to 15,000 creative assets per quarter, with many studios tripling their ad iteration volume over the last three to four months.
- Fully automated AI creative workflows using UGC components have demonstrated significant performance gains, including 4% lower CPI, 7% higher CTR, and 8% higher ROAS compared to control groups.
- The shift from manual node-based AI workflows to agentic systems allows teams to generate multi-format ad campaigns from a single brief, eliminating the need to write individual prompts for every concept.
Should devs center their plans on Next Fest?
The gaming industry is currently navigating a transition characterized by rising hardware costs and a shift away from subsidized pricing models.
- Steam Next Fest has shifted from a leaderboard-driven event to a personalized algorithm, making it unlikely that a game can achieve success solely by announcing or launching during the festival without prior momentum.
- Valve has restricted the use of banner cross-promotion on game details pages to prevent 'guerrilla' sale tactics, forcing developers to move away from ad-hoc publisher sales toward more structured, Valve-approved promotional events.
- Physical retail sales for video games are in significant decline, exacerbated by big-box retailers locking products in cabinets, which creates a poor shopping experience and further pushes consumers toward digital-only purchases.
Session: Demystifying China UA: Reverse-Engineering AI Advice (Fact vs. Fiction) - Yolanda Huang.
The presentation evaluates the reliability of large language models (LLMs) in providing strategic guidance for user acquisition (UA) in the Chinese gaming market.
- Mainstream AI tools currently provide inconsistent, contradictory, and often inaccurate advice regarding China market entry, failing to serve as a reliable source of truth for UA strategies.
- Contrary to common industry misconceptions, a full ISBN license is not required for initial market testing; a software copyright license allows foreign entities to conduct paid media and influencer marketing tests.
- Ocean Engine, the ad platform powered by ByteDance, is the primary and most scalable channel for testing mobile game performance in the Chinese market.
Session: Hit Music In UA-Unpacking the Impact of Commercial Hit Music In Mobile Games - T. Jenneborg
The integration of commercial hit music into mobile game user acquisition (UA) represents a significant, largely untapped opportunity to drive engagement and install rates.
- Reactional Music provides a platform that handles music licensing and technical integration to enable the use of popular, high-stream-count music in mobile game user acquisition (UA) campaigns.
- Early testing indicates that incorporating hit music into playable ads increases install rates and engagement compared to baseline assets.
- The platform utilizes a patented engine to synchronize game events with music, allowing publishers to batch-export multiple ad variations that react to specific beats or vocal melodies.
Puzzle Monthly #4: $60M Marketing, $65M Revenue, What Happened to Good Job Games?
Good Job Games represents a cautionary case study in the mobile puzzle market, illustrating the limitations of prioritizing rapid asset exits and visual polish over sustainable, player-centric design.
- Good Job Games' title Match Villains generated $65 million in lifetime revenue but likely operated at a loss, as marketing expenditures for the project reached $83 million.
- The studio's failure to compete with industry leaders like Royal Match stems from a reliance on aggressive, punishing level design that prevents the retention of high-value users.
- Match Villains suffered from flat revenue-per-download metrics and an over-reliance on lower-tier geographic markets, preventing the game from achieving necessary scale.
🧠 Copy vs Execute: the creative trend everyone's chasing
The mobile gaming industry is currently defined by a strategic shift toward a copy-and-execute model, where developers prioritize the rapid adaptation of proven hyper-casual hooks to lower cost-per-install metrics.
- The mobile gaming industry has shifted toward a 'copy-and-execute' model that prioritizes rapid adaptation of proven hyper-casual hooks to lower cost-per-install metrics.
- Publishers are utilizing AI to generate thousands of unique ad variations monthly, focusing on high-intensity or humorous 30-to-60-second video formats to drive global downloads.
- The reliance on misleading gameplay elements in onboarding flows creates a fundamental tension between short-term user acquisition and long-term player retention.
Vietnam Game Industry Monthly Report: May 2026
The Vietnam Game Industry Monthly Report for May 2026 provides a comprehensive analysis of the mobile gaming landscape, highlighting a shift in market dynamics from pure volume-based acquisition to a focus on operational depth and regulatory compliance.
- Vietnam's mobile IAP revenue grew by 3.13% MoM in May 2026, driven by strong monetization in long-lifecycle genres like Battle Royale, MOBA, and Sim Sports rather than new user acquisition.
- Midcore total revenue reached its highest level between January and May 2026, rising 4.44% MoM as established titles like Free Fire MAX, Liên Quân Mobile, and Roblox VN leveraged recurring Live-Ops and event-based spending.
- New game success in Vietnam is increasingly dependent on cultural fit, with titles featuring wuxia/xianxia settings, football fandom, or nostalgic IP—such as Giang Hồ Kỳ Ngộ and Total Football VNG—outperforming generic Western fantasy products.
💰 The $45M/Month Football Game Nobody Talks About: eFootball, EA FC & Dream League Breakdown
The mobile football gaming sector is defined by a high-revenue landscape dominated by three primary titles: eFootball, EA Sports FC Mobile, and Dream League Soccer.
- eFootball currently leads the mobile football sector with $45 million in monthly revenue, outperforming major competitors in the category.
- EA Sports FC Mobile generates approximately $900,000 in daily revenue, primarily driven by complex card collection systems and in-app purchases.
- Dream League Soccer utilizes a distinct monetization model where 68% of total revenue is derived from advertising rather than in-app purchases.
S07, E21: AppsFlyer and the new dynamics of mobile attribution (with Olivia Kory)
The mobile advertising landscape is undergoing a significant structural shift, underscored by a recent one-billion-dollar investment in AppsFlyer by a consortium of major platforms including Meta, Google, Unity, and Moloco.
- A consortium including Meta, Google, Unity, and Moloco has invested $1 billion into AppsFlyer to maintain the neutrality of mobile measurement infrastructure and prevent data monopolization.
- Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) remain essential for daily campaign management because they provide the granular, ad-level data that platform-provided frameworks cannot replicate.
- AppLovin has emerged as a dominant force in the mobile ecosystem over the past 15 months, consistently outperforming competitors in efficiency and capturing a larger share of advertiser budgets.
What Game Studios Can Learn from the AI Microdrama Boom
AI-native microdramas are rapidly emerging as a disruptive entertainment category that mirrors the mechanics of mobile gaming rather than traditional film.
- AI-native microdramas are shifting from passive consumption to active, gamified experiences, with StoReel reporting a customer acquisition cost (CAC) of approximately 4 for AI-produced titles compared to 8 for traditional live-action content.
- StoReel’s creation suite, Canvas, enables non-technical creators to produce serialized content three times faster and at 15% of the cost of traditional live-action production methods.
- The microdrama industry is increasingly adopting a 'Professional User-Generated Content' (PUGC) model, where creators act as showrunners who manage virtual talent and design interactive, gamified character experiences.
🎮 The 3-Minute playable that pre-qualifies your WHALES!
Mobile game advertising is currently defined by the widespread adoption of templated playable ads, particularly those featuring fashion, dress-up, or narrative-driven mechanics.
- Extended engagement within multi-level playable ads serves as a primary indicator for identifying high-value 'whale' players, making these demos a critical funnel for long-term monetization.
- Relying on templated playable ads that differ from core gameplay lowers cost-per-install metrics but significantly increases user churn due to the disconnect between the advertised experience and the actual product.
- Studios are maximizing ROI by iteratively refining high-performing playable builds through asset swaps, camera angle adjustments, and seasonal thematic updates rather than creating new assets from scratch.