Felix Braberg

What Does Take-Two’s Potential Sale of Chartboost Mean for Mobile Mediation? 🎮💰 The global mobile ad market is driving massive revenue—around $40 million daily, or roughly $14.6 billion annually, from network-to-publisher payments in mobile games and apps. Take-Two Interactive alone reported $613.3 million in ad revenue in 2023, capturing an estimated 4.21% of in-game ad revenue, making Take-Two a major player in mobile advertising. But with rumors of Take-Two selling Chartboost, what impact could this have on the industry? 🤔Why This Matters:Mediation platforms often act as loss leader products, offered at no cost to publishers in exchange for valuable user data that powers networks' UA campaign profits. Take-Two’s games are currently mostly mediated through Chartboost, giving them direct control over ad placements and margins. If Chartboost is sold, Take-Two might shift its portfolio to a third-party platform like AppLovin or […]

💡 Understanding eCPM Averages Could Save You Big in Ad Monetization! In our latest review on two & a half gamers, we looked at My Supermarket Simulator 3D by Game District and highlighted a key ad monetization insight: Game District chose Google’s App Open Ad format over a simple interstitial with a small reward. Based on eCPM benchmarks across main geos, this choice could potentially mean an extra $20-30K per day in ad revenue. 📈💸eCPM rates are influenced by around 90 factors, including competitiveness, CTR, install rate, user location, and active UA spending. Here’s a quick benchmark to estimate your ad revenue potential, assuming a 70/30 IAP to IAA split:🇺🇸 USA:- Rewarded Ads: $30- Interstitials: $15- Google App Open: $1-3- Banners: $0.60-0.90🌍 Tier 1 Geos:- Rewarded Ads: $15-20- Interstitials: $7-12- Google App Open: $0.50-1.5- Banners: $0.28-0.35🌏 Tier 2 Geos:- Rewarded […]

💫 Hexasort by Lion Studios: A $200M/year Hybrid-Casual Giant 🧩💥 Since its soft launch in September 2023, Hexasort has scaled to a massive $500K/day ($150K from IAP & $300K from ads). Through three game-changing ad monetization innovations, Lion Studios has transformed this title into a hybrid-casual puzzle powerhouse. Here’s how:Rewarded Ads in Gameplay: 🎁 Strategic placement of rewarded ads on the main game board to help users progress faster.A New Ad Unit – Rewarded App Open Interstitial: 🆕 A clever ad unit that rewards users with extra perks simply for opening the app.User-Ad Experience Segmentation: 🎯 Tailored ad experiences based on specific user acquisition campaigns, personalizing gameplay, and ad exposure.According to Sensor Tower, Hexasort’s players are deeply engaged, averaging 40 minutes daily over nearly 6 sessions. This translates to around 90 banner impressions, 9 interstitials, and 6 rewarded ad opt-ins […]

🚀 Part 2 of Getting Started with Mobile Ad Revenue: Google Admob Mediation 📈Ready to start monetizing with ads? In this second part of my series in collaboration with Matej 🦩, I break down everything you need to know about Google Admob Mediation. 💡 From setting up your app to optimizing ad revenue and managing mediation groups, here is your guide.Here are some highlights:- Admob Pros: Top-tier banner performance, strong ad quality, and accessible account management.- Setting Up: A simple, step-by-step guide to creating your first mediation group and integrating networks. - Optimizing Ad Revenue: Learn how to calculate SoR per instance and fine-tune fill rates for max revenue on Admob. Don’t leave precious money on the table!📊 If you're getting started with ad monetization, you don’t want to miss this. Check out the full article for a detailed breakdown.👉 […]

🚀 Reelshort: Real Life Interactive Stories – IAP & Ad Monetization Design 🤑Reelshort has scaled to $30 million per month, with $23M from IAPs and another $5.8M in ad revenue. This crazy growth showcases the next step iteration in the interactive story genre. 🎮Reelshort extends the choices game category by producing full TV shows where viewers make choices that influence the storyline. The content is theatrical, filled with cliffhangers, and presented as 90-minute soap operas broken down into 1-minute chapters. Each story only costs about $300k for Crazy Maple Studios to make  📺💰 Ad Monetization Strategy at Reelshort’s Core:- 13 Rewarded Ad Opportunities Per Day- 7 rewarded ads to earn coins for content choices where value increases the more ads you watch.- 5 rewarded ads to unlock new chapters.- 1 rewarded ad to unlock coins for welcome back rewards.Another prominent […]

🚀 Mobile Ad Placements: Current Trends in Ultracasual and Hypercasual 📈 Mobile Game design trends evolve similarly to UA creatives but on a larger 2-3 month cycle, with UA driving game design. Here are the three ad monetization trends currently in use:1. New Remove Ads Buttons 🛑✨ - New ways to integrate “remove ads” options which include; Slider, to match iPhone settings 📱, and remove ads multiple pricing options for 1 week to forever.2. Hiding Content behind Rewarded Ads 💲🔒 - Games like Nut Sort, Magic Tiles Piano 3, and Car Jam hide a considerable amount of content behind rewarded ads. Anything from 6-34 rewarded ad views are needed to unlock content 🎁.3. UA Design Driving Game Design 🎨 - The famous “only 97% can beat this level” messages from UA creatives have been added in CryptoGram to encourage users […]

🚀 Getting Started with Mobile Advertising Revenue: Part 1 of 5 📈 🔑 Essential Terms to Know:- eCPM (Effective Cost Per Mile) 💵: What networks pay for 1,000 impressions.- Fill Rate 📊: Percentage of ad requests filled by networks.- Ad Revenue 💰: eCPM + Fill Rate = Your earnings.- AdARPDAU (Average Revenue Per DAU) 📈: Key metric to track daily ad performance.- Ad Viewer Rate 😎: Aim for Rewarded (45%+), Interstitial (60-70%+), Banner (70-80%+).📌 Rules of Thumb in Ad Monetization:- How many networks do I need? Start with 4 for $100-1K/day, and scale up as you grow. If not you will miss out on revenue. 📈- Why can’t I add 20 networks? Too many SDKs can crash your app. Keep it manageable! 🛑- How do I know if a network is adding value? Look for a Share of Revenue ≥ […]

🚀 WeChat Minigames are absolutely crushing it in China 🚀 The numbers are crazy — 60-80% D1 retention for payers and a 3-5 month payback period! With the Chinese minigame market set to hit 500M MAUs this year and users playing for an average of 60 minutes a day ⏰, these fast-produced games are becoming a major revenue driver in China and a trendsetter for the West. What’s even more impressive? These minigames are developed by small teams of just 5-30 people in just 2-3 months, with a production cost of $140K per game 🎮💰.The RPG genre dominates the market, especially Loot Box RPGs like Nobody’s Adventure Chop-Chop 🐷, which takes up 30% of the revenue share of the whole market 💵. The market is fast-phased due to quicker payout schedules from ad networks and platforms. Net 1 Payout on […]