Two & a Half Gamers
Two & a Half Gamers is a YouTube channel covering the mobile games business. It publishes videos on ad monetization, user acquisition, game launches, studio strategies and industry news.
Documents
two & a half gamers honest interviews #2 - Elena Egorova (Can you even M&A bro?)
Mergers and acquisitions in the mobile gaming sector are primarily driven by the strategic necessity to consolidate services into comprehensive, one-stop-shop platforms capable of supporting top-grossing publishers.
- M&A activity in mobile gaming is currently driven by a strategic shift toward building comprehensive, one-stop-shop platforms that support top-grossing publishers.
- The standard acquisition timeline spans four to six months, beginning with market gap identification and concluding with rigorous financial and legal audits.
- Valuation methodologies are bifurcated: established, profitable firms are valued using EBITDA multiples, while high-growth companies are valued based on revenue multiples.
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 complex landscape defined by significant financial volatility and shifting privacy paradigms.
- Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework has resulted in a $10 billion revenue impact, though opt-in rates have stabilized at a resilient 40–42% rather than the feared 10–20%.
- Developers are shifting focus from privacy-centric segmentation to strategies based on in-game progression and spending depth to navigate the current market landscape.
- To maintain competitive ad monetization, developers must ensure ad auctions conclude within a 300-millisecond window to avoid latency and revenue loss.
two & a half gamers session #13 - Rovio making $2.6M/year more from ads & more efficient UA? Full...
Rovio faces a critical inflection point as its financial performance remains stagnant, with 2021 revenue reaching €286.2 million, a figure that fails to surpass historical highs from its initial public offering.
- Rovio’s 2021 revenue was EUR 286.2 million, representing flat growth with a 5% increase over 2020 but a 1% decline from 2019 levels.
- Revenue is heavily concentrated in IAP (80%), followed by Ads (15%), Licensing (3%), and other sources (2%), with 66% of total revenue originating from the USA.
- Rovio increased its ad revenue by 32% year-over-year in 2021, totaling EUR 41.6 million, despite a strategy of not requesting user consent for tracking on iOS.
two & a half gamers session #12 - Metacore 65M loss, Niantic 1 hit wonder, Industry conference guide
The mobile gaming industry currently faces significant challenges regarding user acquisition strategies, the sustainability of metaverse platforms, and the evolving utility of professional conferences.
- High-budget celebrity-led television advertising, such as Metacore’s $20 million campaign, is failing to deliver measurable returns compared to traditional digital user acquisition channels, leading to significant financial losses.
- The mobile gaming industry is struggling to replicate the success of foundational hits like Pokémon GO without the leverage of established intellectual property, highlighting the risks of relying on single-hit titles.
- Professional industry conferences like GDC and Gamescom have shifted in value from formal, lecture-based education to informal, face-to-face networking, which senior practitioners now view as the primary benefit of attendance.
two & a half gamers session #11 - How to increase game revenue by 35% with Narrative design
Narrative design serves as a critical lever for enhancing mobile game performance, functioning as a bridge between core mechanics and player retention.
- Integrating narrative design from the inception of a project can increase game revenue by up to 35%.
- Narrative design functions as a bridge between core mechanics and player retention, transforming gameplay loops into immersive experiences that drive higher lifetime value.
- Applying universal storytelling frameworks like the Hero’s Journey provides structural progression that prevents player boredom and reduces churn.
two & a half gamers honest interviews #1 - Joakim Achren
Venture capital in the gaming industry functions primarily as a mechanism for operational mentorship rather than a simple source of liquidity.
- Investment criteria evolve by stage: at the pre-seed stage, the team is the primary KPI, while seed-stage investments prioritize the MVP and playable prototypes, and Series A focuses on long-term scaling and growth strategies.
- The shift toward Web3 in gaming was largely driven by speculative hype and easy capital, but the current market now demands games with sustainable economies rather than projects that 'duct tape' crypto elements onto existing titles.
- Founders should prioritize having a single lead investor on their cap table rather than 20 individual names to streamline governance and decision-making.
two & a half gamers session #10 - How to save millions with marketability tests? Fake ads going n...
The mobile gaming industry is increasingly defined by a tension between creative vision and the rigorous demands of user acquisition.
- Marketability testing via fake ads and landing pages allows developers to validate game concepts and audience interest before investing in full production, effectively treating game development as a high-risk lottery where data-driven guidance reduces failure rates.
- Marketability tests should be used for directional guidance rather than definitive performance predictions, as metrics like CTR on landing pages do not accurately reflect actual mobile app install conversion or long-term player value.
- To mitigate bias in player surveys during testing, avoid suggestive questions and implement screening criteria, such as verifying if participants are active mobile gamers or have a history of in-app purchases.
two & a half gamers session #9 - How to increase AdARPDAU? How Adnetworks make money? Admonetisat...
The gaming industry is currently navigating a complex transition period characterized by aggressive investment in blockchain technology and the strategic repurposing of established mobile intellectual property.
- Hiring a dedicated ad monetization manager is only financially viable once a game reaches $20,000 to $30,000 in daily ad revenue, as the role typically yields a 20% revenue improvement that must justify the salary.
- Games with high ad reliance, particularly in the idle genre, should aim for more than five impressions per daily active user (DAU) to effectively scale campaigns and ensure ad revenue accounts for at least 40% of total income.
- The blockchain gaming sector saw significant investment growth in 2022, reaching $2 billion by mid-March, following a trend of increasing quarterly funding from $430 million in Q1 2021 to $1.6 billion in Q4 2021.
two & a half gamers session #8 - Game design fundamentals & AMA. When to kill a game?
The mobile gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant volatility, marked by high user acquisition costs, the lingering impact of privacy changes like IDFA, and a shift in corporate strategies.
- Teams should prioritize day-one retention as the primary metric for evaluating core gameplay and be prepared to kill projects if radical iteration fails to yield meaningful KPI improvements within a three-to-six-month window.
- Successful mobile development requires moving beyond cloning to master complex backend mechanics, economic balancing, and long-term retention models.
- True innovation in a saturated market is driven by rigorous market analysis and the identification of upward-trending genre combinations rather than content creation alone.
Creative trends Q3, Merge mansion Japan, Admon tips, Habby: Souls review (#87)
Mobile gaming strategy currently centers on aggressive user acquisition through high-frequency creative refreshes and the strategic adoption of successful, genre-agnostic hooks.
- Mobile user acquisition strategy is shifting toward genre-agnostic creative hooks, such as physics-based puzzles and animal themes, to lower cost-per-install regardless of core gameplay alignment.
- Habby’s idle RPG 'Souls' generated $13 million in revenue between its August 2023 launch and the report date, maintaining a balanced 50/50 revenue split between Android and iOS.
- Technical stability is now a primary operational requirement, as publishers must meet strict Google Application Not Responding (ANR) thresholds to protect organic traffic from SDK-related crashes.
From Hypercasual to Hybridcasual - The Estoty Portfolio story (#86)
Estoty has established itself as a major force in the mobile gaming sector, amassing over one billion downloads and 200 million active players through a strategic evolution from hypercasual titles like Johnny Trigger to more complex hybridcasual experiences.
- Estoty has transitioned from a hypercasual model to a hybridcasual strategy, focusing on refining a core 'arcade-survivor' gameplay loop across multiple titles with varying themes.
- The studio's shift to a direct-to-consumer model highlights the industry trend where developers are moving away from publishers like SayGames to retain control over their own UA and product roadmaps.
- The success of 'Alien Invasion' (scaled in October 2022) compared to a previous, failed fishing-themed iteration demonstrates that theme selection is a critical driver for lowering CPI and reaching a broader target audience.
two & a half gamers session #7 - Is Axie infinity dead? LTV in crypto gaming & web3 UA/marketing
The gaming industry is undergoing a fundamental transition from speculative play-to-earn models toward sustainable play-and-own frameworks.
- The 'Play-to-Earn' model is proving unsustainable due to economic inflation, leading the industry to pivot toward 'Play-and-Earn' or 'Play-to-Own' frameworks that prioritize fun and engagement over financial returns.
- Axie Infinity's economy has faced significant depreciation, forcing a shift in narrative from a platform for earning a living to a traditional gaming experience where earning is a secondary feature.
- Blockchain gaming introduces a native economic value transfer layer that allows for the enforcement of scarcity and value exchange, which was previously difficult to manage in digital environments.