User Acquisition reports and market data
Documents
Top 10 Ad Networks For Hyper-Casual Mobile Games 2022
The hyper-casual mobile gaming market experienced notable shifts in advertising expenditure and network performance between the third quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.
- iOS market share for hyper-casual games rebounded by 5% between Q3 2021 and Q1 2022, indicating successful advertiser adaptation to privacy-first ecosystem constraints.
- AppLovin, Unity, ironSource, and Google remain the top-performing ad networks for the hyper-casual genre.
- TikTok has emerged as a significant competitor in the hyper-casual advertising space, showing notable growth in network rankings.
How to Get Bang for Your Buck with Influencers featuring Chief Pat
The mobile gaming industry has undergone a significant professionalization, shifting from individual content creation to complex, multifaceted organizations that bridge the gap between developers and players.
- Mobile game developers should integrate creators into the entire development lifecycle, from early playtesting to post-launch marketing, to ensure authentic engagement.
- Influencer-generated content has become a critical asset for high-performing ad campaigns as traditional performance marketing faces challenges from data privacy regulations.
- Long-term partnerships with creators who have a genuine affinity for a game yield a higher return on investment than one-off, transactional ad spots with high-profile influencers.
Square Enix’s Western Studios ‘Only’ Cost $300M? - The Metacast by Naavik
The gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural realignment, characterized by both the volatile emergence of Web3 projects and the strategic consolidation of established intellectual property.
- Embracer Group acquired Square Enix’s Western studios for $300 million, taking control of major franchises like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex to bet on the long-term value of single-player narrative IP.
- Square Enix divested its Western studios to reduce operational costs and refocus resources on its core Japanese development strengths.
- Yuga Labs’ Otherside metaverse project generated $300 million in revenue but suffered from significant technical failure due to an Ethereum gas war, highlighting the risks of poor infrastructure planning.
two & a half gamers session #14 - How to read Ad mon data for beginners? ATT & player segmentation
The mobile gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural shifts, characterized by aggressive consolidation, shifting investment priorities, and the maturation of post-privacy monetization strategies.
- Post-privacy revenue success is increasingly driven by internal player segmentation and in-game progression depth rather than reliance on external tracking data.
- Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) opt-in rates have stabilized at approximately 40–42% in key Western markets, indicating a predictable environment for post-privacy monetization.
- To maintain bidding efficiency and prevent latency, developers should limit ad placements to fewer than 43 per geography.
The Rise of the Indian Gaming Market
The Indian gaming market has undergone a profound transformation, evolving from a fragmented, arcade-centric landscape into a mobile-first powerhouse.
- The Indian gaming market is projected to grow from a $1.8 billion valuation to $5 billion by 2025, with the player base expanding from 500 million to 700 million.
- The industry is shifting from a high-volume, low-effort development model toward a focus on technical mastery and the production of complex, high-quality content.
- Investment is diversifying as capital flows from global gaming funds, generalist venture capital, and strategic players like Krafton into the local ecosystem.
Shaping the Metaverse Brick by LEGO Brick - The Metacast by Naavik
The gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural transition, characterized by strategic experimentation with emerging technologies and a shift toward massive, consolidated ecosystems.
- Epic Games is partnering with the LEGO Group to build a child-safe metaverse environment, directly challenging the market dominance of Roblox and Minecraft by leveraging high brand trust.
- Large publishers are utilizing underperforming titles as low-stakes R&D to test blockchain and digital ownership frameworks, waiting for established best practices before committing to web3 at scale.
- The industry is shifting away from high-fee platform models toward developer-friendly policies and lower distribution costs, positioning this approach as a competitive alternative to Meta’s ecosystem strategy.
True data insight on mobile trends with Taha Karsli from MobileAction
Mobile growth and user acquisition strategies have evolved significantly in response to increased consumer reliance on mobile applications and the growing complexity of digital advertising.
- Prioritize intent-based advertising platforms like Apple Search Ads and Google Universal App Campaigns, as they capture users actively searching for solutions and consistently deliver higher conversion rates than traditional ad networks.
- Maintain compliance with evolving privacy regulations by utilizing proprietary intelligence tools that aggregate public-facing ad data rather than relying on third-party data providers.
- Shift mobile growth strategy from tracking raw metrics to extracting actionable insights that facilitate rapid iteration and experimentation.
Store Intelligence Data Digest: Q1 2022
Global app downloads reached 36.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022, representing a 1.4% year-over-year increase.
- Global app downloads reached 36.9 billion in Q1 2022, a 1.4% year-over-year increase, with mobile gaming accounting for 14.34 billion of those installs.
- The U.S. video streaming market has significantly fragmented, with the top three apps' market share dropping from 80% in 2019 to 37% in Q1 2022 due to the rise of competitors like Disney+ and HBO Max.
- TikTok surpassed 3.5 billion all-time downloads to become the top global app, while Meta reclaimed its position as the leading global publisher for the first time in two years.
two & a half gamers session #10 - How to save $ with marketability test? Fake Ads going nowhere rant
The mobile gaming industry currently faces a critical tension between creative integrity and the harsh economic realities of user acquisition.
- Marketability testing should be used to validate concepts before full-scale production to prevent feature creep and ensure alignment with consumer demand.
- Developers must treat marketability test results as directional indicators rather than guarantees, as real-world acquisition costs often exceed initial test data by two to three times.
- Misleading advertising remains prevalent because it is a highly effective, algorithm-favored mechanism for lowering cost-per-install and driving conversion.
Panel: What is Giving Hypercasual its Longevity? The Recipe for a Successful Game
The hypercasual gaming sector has demonstrated remarkable resilience, maintaining its market position despite significant headwinds such as the deprecation of IDFA and rising acquisition costs.
- The hypercasual market has shifted from a primary focus on CPI (Cost Per Install) to a more holistic analysis of retention, playtime, and LTV (Lifetime Value) to justify higher acquisition costs.
- The deprecation of IDFA on iOS forced publishers to move beyond simple CPI-based decision-making and adopt more rigorous data-driven development cycles.
- Successful hypercasual games now require deeper engagement mechanics, such as clear progression paths and session planning, rather than the simplistic, short-level designs of the past.
Keynote: Why Influencer Marketing is a Bad Idea as a User Acquisition Channel
Influencer marketing, when treated as a traditional celebrity-driven channel, is an inefficient and unpredictable user acquisition strategy.
- Shift from mega-influencer partnerships to a high-volume strategy involving mid-size and micro-creators to transform influencer marketing into a predictable, scalable performance channel.
- Mid-size creators outperform mega-influencers by more than two-to-one in total monthly views, offering superior reach and more stable performance.
- Smaller creator channels consistently deliver higher audience engagement, which directly correlates to improved conversion rates for user acquisition.
Marketing Analysis: Garena Free Fire Max and PUBG New State! Ft. Matej Lancaric & Nebo Radovic
The mobile shooter landscape is defined by a strategic divide between high-fidelity, brand-driven titles and performance-optimized games targeting emerging markets.
- Garena Free Fire Max significantly outperformed PUBG: New State in late 2021, generating $37.2 million in revenue over two months compared to $6 million for its competitor.
- Prioritizing device accessibility and performance on lower-end hardware serves as a viable blue ocean strategy for capturing market share in emerging regions.
- PUBG: New State struggled with internal cannibalization from its predecessor and a monetization model that failed to align with its Android-heavy user base, despite achieving higher total download volume than Free Fire Max.