AppLovin’s Gaming Portfolio

Yesterday AppLovin announced that it is selling it's whole gaming portfolio for $900 mil. 🤑 in order to focus only on Ad tech. The buyer was not announced. 🤔 Who could it be? Let's look closer at the performance of the games portfolio to get some hints 😎 ▪️ The ten studios that are being sold are Magic Tavern, Zero Gravity, PeopleFun, Lion Studios, Belka, Zenlife, Clipwire, Leyi, Machine Zone and Athena. On a surface look, the whole games portfolio did around $50 Mil. in IAP revenue only for last month. This is exactly half 📉 of what it did at its peak in January 2021. Downloads wise last month there was around 19 Mil. downloads, which is 10 times less compared to its peak in January 2021, which was 190 Mil. 😱 Of course let's be real, the peak […]

Jakub Remiar February 13

Highlights

AppLovin divests all its Game Studios for $900 million.

Another day, another AppLovin update! As reported by mobilegamer.biz, AppLovin is offloading its ten-game studio portfolio for $900 million as it pivots to focus entirely on Ad Tech. Check out: AppLovin Empire: Monopoly in Mobile Gaming? AppLovin’s decision to sell its gaming studios signals a major shift in the mobile gaming industry. While the company has not revealed the buyer, the move highlights the growing dominance of ad monetization over traditional game publishing. We’ve seen similar transitions before, such as [another company’s example]. Given these trends, it raises the question: will more gaming giants follow suit? This means Machine Zone, PeopleFun, Magic Tavern, Lion Studios, Belka, Athena, Clipwire, Leyi, Zenlife, and Zero Gravity will soon be under new ownership. However, AppLovin has not disclosed the buyer. More: AppLovin’s Gaming Portfolio CEO and co-founder Adam Foroughi announced the decision during the company’s […]

Gamigion February 13

Highlights

Brutally Honest #151

Hey, FAM! What’s up? 🥃 Drink talk Jumped on a podcast last week with our dear friends from Gamigion! Check it out because this wasn’t about the UA! 🦩Tip of the week When should we start Applovin as a channel? I often get this question: When should we start? Is it a good channel? Are we ready? First, we need to ensure that our in-app purchase volume is strong enough for the algorithm to optimize effectively. We aim for at least 10–15 unique purchases per day. To figure out if we’re ready, we can do a quick math exercise using our D7 cost per purchase (CPPD7). For example, if our CPPD7 is $800, then multiplying that by 10 tells us we need an $8,000 daily budget to kick things off. If our CPPD7 is lower, say $150, then around $1,500 […]

Matej Lancaric February 13

Highlights

Unity’s Sudden Lay-Offs: 5 AM Email

Another day that we're proud to help our industry: Gamigion.com/jobs 🍀 Apparently, the entire Unity Behavior team was cut, alongside many other employees. This just in: Software developer Unity Technologies has executed yet another round of massive layoffs – the sixth one in recent years – eliminating an undisclosed number of employees, including, apparently, entire departments. Unity The layoffs were first revealed in a LinkedIn post by Coline Turquin, a former Senior Software Developer at Unity and one of the affected employees, which states that Coline was terminated after five years as "part of the recent layoffs," implying she was not the only one impacted. This implication was later reaffirmed by Florence Rolland-Soulier, who left Unity in 2023 due to the company changing too much from what it once was, who described the job cuts as "mass" and noted that "some of the brightest, most […]

Ömer Yakabagi February 11

Highlights

Supercell’s Super Record Revenue, $3 billion in 2024

Supercell hit a record $3 billion in revenue in 2024 as all of its live games saw sales rise YoY for the first time since 2014. Let's hear from Ilkka, CEO & Co-Founder of Supercell: The past year was a rollercoaster – the good kind of. We had some unprecedented successes and unprecedented challenges. Of the many achievements, failures, risks, and lessons at Supercell that highlighted 2024, two games stand out. On one hand, Brawl Stars exploded by every conceivable metric, like I have never seen before in my entire career. Brawl Stars is a great example of what is possible to achieve even with a relatively ”old” live game when all stars align. It is also the latest example that it truly is possible to create forever games, and the best games never get “old” if you keep them […]

Ömer Yakabagi February 11

Highlights

Valve Bans In-Game Ads: A Bold Move

Valve Bans In-Game Ads: A Bold Move Valve corporation has updated its policy to strictly ban in-game ads as a monetization strategy for developers. While this may please gaming purists, I see some challenges this could create for developers and the industry overall.Key Impacts: • Economic Limitations for Developers: Removing ads as a potential revenue stream limits options for developers, particularly those working with F2P models or small-scale projects. • Reduced Accessibility for Tier 2/3 Regions: Ads often help monetize players in regions where spending on microtransactions is less common, making this a missed opportunity. • Missed Potential with Intrinsic Ads: Brand integrations (e.g., seeing Coca-Cola ads on a racetrack) can enhance immersion without breaking gameplay, yet Valve’s stance cuts off this possibility.While I understand Valve’s decision aligns with its audience and focus on premium experiences, this move underscores the […]

John Wright February 10

Highlights

Jobs in Mobile Gaming: 31

🎨 963 Jobs in Mobile Gaming » 1-8 February 👉🏻 Data from Gamigion.com/jobs 🕺🏻 Dev 💻 Art 🎨 Product 📱 Marketing 🎯 Business 💰 Data 📈 QA ⚒️ 💻 Dev Senior Analytics Engineer Scopely 🇲🇽 Senior Full Stack Engineer (Platform) - Scopely 🇮🇪 🇪🇸 Game programmer & New Game Founder, Spark Supercell 🇫🇮 Senior Game Programmer, Squad Busters Supercell 🇫🇮 Senior Software Engineer- Website Development Zynga 🇮🇳 Senior Software Engineer 1 Zynga 🇮🇳 Senior Software Developer - Small Giant Games Zynga 🇫🇮 Principal Software Engineer - Developer Services, ZMGT Zynga 🇨🇦 Principal Software Engineer - Game Services, ZMGT Zynga 🇨🇦 Senior Software Engineer (Client) - Wizard of Oz Slots Zynga 🇺🇸 C# Client developer Playtika 🇵🇱 Unity Developer Playtika 🇵🇱 Unity Technical Lead Playtika 🇵🇱 Software Developer Moon Active 🇵🇱 Unity Developer Moon Active 🇮🇱 Technical Support Engineer (Tier 3) […]

Gamigion February 7

Highlights

King’s New Game: Candy Crush Solitaire

Candy Crush meets Solitaire! 🎉 King just dropped Candy Crush Solitaire—their first new game in five years! It’s a fresh spin on the classic TriPeaks Solitaire, packed with Candy Crush magic—power-ups, boosters, and even a hold slot for extra strategy. 🌟 What’s new?✅ Familiar Candy Crush elements like Color Bombs, lollipop hammers & jelly bears 🍬✅ Strategic gameplay with a hold slot for extra moves 🎯✅ A rewarding Sweet Journey where players collect postcards from places like Paris & Japan ✈️ 🃏 Why solitaire?Casual card games are booming! Candy Crush Solitaire keeps it relaxing yet strategic, blending satisfying progression with endless replayability. 💡 Built for the long runKing is rolling out regular updates, seasonal events, and new levels—so there’s always something fresh to dive into! Here's what we hear from Oriol Canudas, General Manager, New Games at King: 🚀 Exciting […]

Ömer Yakabagi February 7

Highlights

Türkiye: Rising Gaming Empire’s 5-Year

When you think of recent massive mobile gaming fundraisings, Turkiye is the first country that comes to mind.What secret sauce links Peak Games, Gram Games, and Rollic? It’s much more than their Turkiye origin—they’re architects of the casual and hyper-casual gaming boom. Their exits didn’t just validate Turkiye’s market potential; they catalyzed a 4B+ investment surge with over 150 deals in the past five years, positioning Istanbul as a strategic hub for global gaming innovation.But here’s the kicker: Those figures don’t include the seismic $2.5B fundraising (50/50 split between equity and debt) rumored to be in play for Dream Games. If confirmed, this deal wouldn’t just break a record of being the most prominent gaming fundraising; it would shatter them, surpassing even Europe’s flashiest tech rounds. To put it bluntly, Turkiye isn’t just part of the mobile gaming conversation—it’s writing […]

Gamigion February 6

Highlights

Playable Factory secured a strategic investment from Ludus Ventures

The partnership, combining Playable Factory’s proven expertise with Ludus Ventures’ strategic insights, is set to redefine Interactive Advertising. Playable Factory, a leader in gamified advertising and interactive ad technologies, has secured a strategic investment from Ludus Ventures. This partnership will further enhance Playable Factory’s leadership in both its core playable ads business and its growing focus on non-gaming applications, enabling the company to deliver even greater value to brands across diverse industries. The investment will help the company expand its innovative web tools, refine its industry-leading playable ad solutions, and unlock new opportunities in emerging markets. Ludus Ventures’ extensive experience in scaling successful technology companies makes this partnership uniquely strategic with a portfolio that includes brands like Monetizr, specializing in gamified rewards, and Goama, a brand in gamification services, Ludus Ventures brings unmatched expertise in interactive solutions. Backed by General Partners with […]

Ömer Yakabagi February 6

Analysis

Why Some Puzzle Games are More Addicting?

The puzzle genre is a powerhouse in mobile gaming, generating over $7 billion annually in in-app purchases (IAP). Despite this immense market, more than half of the revenue comes from a single subgenre: Match-3. Established giants dominate not only Match-3 but also other popular subgenres like Merge and Blast, making it incredibly difficult for new entrants to gain traction. In such a highly competitive space, innovation is the key to creating new opportunities, and we've seen that with the rise of Physical Match and Tile Match games. Titles like Match Factory, Triple Match 3D, and Tile Busters have successfully carved out space by introducing fresh mechanics to the puzzle category. “Pair” games mainly consisting of Physical Match and Tile Match titles didn’t take long to become the third largest puzzle subgenre. As the puzzle market evolves, a new wave of […]

Ahmetcan Demirel February 5

Highlights

AppsFlyer lays off 100 employees, 7% of its workforce.

After "AppLovin's Adjust Layoffs", now AppsFlyer's turn. CEO Oren Kaniel says the company will focus on AI and scalability as part of long-term growth plans. Unicorn AppsFlyer is laying off 100 of its employees, about 7% of its workforce. The company currently employs 1,200 people, two-thirds of whom are based in Israel. The layoffs will affect employees both in Israel and in the company’s other global offices. AppsFlyer was founded in 2011 by Oren Kaniel and Reshef Mann. According to estimates, the company's revenue is currently around $400 million, and the layoffs may be part of preparations for a planned IPO in the coming year. AppsFlyer was founded in 2011 by Oren Kaniel and Reshef Mann. The company has developed technology that allows app owners to identify where their most profitable users originated from, such as a Google search, an […]

Ömer Yakabagi February 5

Highlights

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