2025 Mobile Gaming Report: Key Insights for Marketers

Sensor Tower recently released a 50-page report about the state of mobile gaming in 2025. I spent several hours reading and preparing a TL: DR version for you. I added some custom graphs and creatives for visual experience! Enjoy .. Key KPIs: Growth & Engagement In-App Purchase (IAP) Revenue: Mobile game spending returned to growth in 2024, with global IAP revenue up about 4% YoY (reaching roughly $82 billion). Notably, 84% of this revenue came from games with live operations features, underscoring the importance of ongoing content and events. User Engagement: Players spent more time and came back more often—total hours in-game rose ~7.9%, and sessions jumped 12% compared to 2023. This indicates that existing users are playing more frequently and for longer durations, even as new user growth slows. Daily engagement per user increased, helping offset a 6.6% drop in new game […]

Matej Lancaric April 2

Journal

Dreamy Room: Home Design With Puzzle Touch

Dreamy Room: Home Design With Puzzle Touch ✨ ABI Games Studio’s new hypercasual hit Dreamy Room has taken off—surpassing 7.2M downloads within its first month and attracting 309K daily active users (and counting!) 🚀In the game, players are challenged to strategically arrange all the furniture, considering space layout and functionality, to complete levels that progressively increase in difficulty 💪To maintain engagement, developers are continuously adding new levels, daily challenges, progress tracking, and rewards 🏅Try it out yourself

Andrei Zubov April 2

Journal

Top 1% Game Producers?

Want to become a top 1% game producer? 𝟭. 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 ❤️ • You have to love games to make great ones.𝟮. 𝗢𝘄𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 ⚠️ • Hiding errors breaks trust.𝟯. 𝗡𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝟭𝟬𝟬% 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 🤔 • Every choice comes with trade-offs.𝟰. 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘂𝗰𝗲 🧪 • There's no magic formula for success.𝟱. 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲, 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲, 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 🔁 • No game is perfect from the start.𝟲. 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 💡 • Cool concepts are common — delivery is rare.𝟳. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 🙏 • Treat them like guests, or they’ll leave.𝟴. 𝗙𝘂𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 😄 • No feature can save a boring game.𝟵. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗶𝗴 📦 • If you can’t ship a small game, more resources won’t help.𝟭𝟬. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 💰 • Downloads mean nothing if the game isn’t sustainable.𝟭𝟭. 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 […]

Anton Slashcev April 2

Journal

New Take in Coin Master: Team Up for Daily Challenges

Teaming Up for Daily Challenges – A New Take in Coin Master Daily challenges have been a staple in mobile games, but Coin Master is testing an interesting twist. Instead of completing them solo, players can invite a friend or a team member to tackle the tasks together. This adds a social layer to progression, making the experience more engaging while increasing retention. Haven’t seen this approach tested before in daily missions – curious to see how players respond to it!

Michael Kopelovich April 2

Journal

Revenue Drop? Here’s Your Detective Kit

🕵️‍♂️💸 Revenue Dropped? Here's Your Detective Kit! Tired of staring at analytics with no clue what's going on? I built a simple spreadsheet that cuts through the noise.🔎 What This IsA no-BS template to track why your app’s revenue is up or down. It helps you quickly figure out if:✅ Fewer people are buying✅ Prices changed✅ Ad impressions dropped✅ Refunds went crazy⚙️ How It Works1️⃣ Grab the template 👇2️⃣ Input your numbers from two time periods3️⃣ See exactly what moved the needle🚀 Why This MattersWhen someone asks, “What happened to our revenue?”, you’ll have a clear answer—instead of mumbling something about "changing market conditions..."Worked great when I was managing thousands of campaigns at AppLike. Saves hours of digging through data.Kudos to the BI team who came up with this (original article)My Excel Template💡 Bonus: For teams wanting to level up, […]

Sven Jürgens April 1

Analysis

Take-aways from playing Block Blast

Want to know what’s wrong with Block Blast from Hungry Studio ? The game is #1 in the casual category at the moment (March 20), but from a monetization perspective it is pure AdMon and much more simple that many other casual games on the market. Static banners at the bottom. Interstitials after every level, short ones, easily skippable. The only case of rewarded videos – revival after losing. In this case, the video ad is long because the player is motivated to wait, providing better CPM. Revival happens only one time. If you lose again, it will be final. There are no IAPs, so there is no game shop, no offers, no resources, no energy, no lives, you name it. Players can play as long as they want. Game sessions are not limited. But absence of IAPs also means […]

Michael Khripin April 1

Highlights

Helping Your Players In a Smart Way

The point of making a game is to provide players with entertainment they value enough to spend money on. At its core, a game’s success hinges on this simple principle. But how you deliver that entertainment varies dramatically between genres, and each genre comes with different monetization strategies. Some games rely on energy or life systems, where players hit a play limit unless they spend to continue. Others focus on boosters and power-ups that enhance the player’s chances of clearing a level. Some offer skip or ease options that allow players to pay to bypass difficulty spikes. The most successful games do not rely on just one method. Instead, they carefully combine and calibrate these levers to appeal to the broadest possible audience. This balancing act between challenge, friction, and monetization is constantly discussed and optimized. Yet, what often gets […]

Ahmetcan Demirel April 1

Journal

Data Analysis Automation

It is no secret that UA teams are likely to shrink in the coming year. While advertising budgets are increasing again, repetitive tasks are being replaced by Automation with the help of AI, saving hours of work. ⏱️ It allows UA specialists to become generalists again and those who adapt will thrive. Check the slides below 👇 I’ve added an incredibly simple setup to get automated UA performance reports directly in Slack: using just Zapier (...or Make/n8n) + Google Sheets + ChatGPT.

Richard Kos April 1

Journal

Mobile Gaming is still growing

Mobile gaming is still growing, but a big chunk of the revenue comes from older games. The data shows this clearly (based on Sensor Tower): more than 50% of in-app and subscription revenue is from six or older games. That's why there was so much talk about new growth strategies at the recent GDC, like more creative user acquisition, using IPs in games, web gaming, new platforms, different business models, deeper hybrid monetisation, etc. The problem is, this makes it harder to get a clear picture of mobile gaming's real growth, especially in categories where revenue is coming in through less traditional ways. Current data systems might struggle to track this, at least for now. It'll be interesting to see how this evolves...

Mariusz Gąsiewski March 31

Journal

Netflix Needs to Acquire the Jack-of-All-Trades

𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗳𝗹𝗶𝘅 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗮𝗰𝗸-𝗼𝗳-𝗔𝗹𝗹-𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝘀 Netflix Games finally has a coherent strategy—hallelujah! Yet, despite this clarity, it's missing the most obvious acquisition opportunity since Sony scooped up Insomniac Games: Jackbox Games. Netflix pushes games to subscribers via a row within its mobile app, directing users to separate App Store pages for download. The strategy was flawed from the start, as 70%+ of Netflix consumption happens on TVs. The Games group desperately sought awareness, resorting to 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 reading: "Wait, Netflix has Games?" A modest improvement, but still failing to meet subscribers where they are—TV.While Netflix had an AAA FPS studio, it was dubious that it could ever solve distribution or input challenges. Netflix's sprawling device ecosystem and lack of a dedicated controller raised doubts from day 1—unless another ill-fated game streaming service was planned (RIP OnLive, Stadia, GameFly, and xCloud).Enter […]

Phillip Black March 31

Journal

9 Key Pillars of Game Design

9 Key Pillars of Game Design (every game designer should know)Here’s the full breakdown: 🎮 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 • Game rules • Fun mechanics • Level and encounter design 📈 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 • Rewards and upgrades • New mechanics • Milestones 🔥 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 • Short-term and long-term goals • Challenges and quests • Player agency 📖 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 • Storytelling and world-building • Player choice • Dialogue and character relationships 🎨 𝗔𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 • Art style and environment design • Audio and visual consistency • VFX, animations, and UI 🕹 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗹 • Camera and responsiveness • Sound and color • VFX and animations 👥 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 • PvP and co-op modes • Guilds, clans, and matchmaking • Leaderboards and communication 💰 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 • In-game currency and microtransactions • Shops and ad integrations • Offers and pricing models ⚙️ 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝘀 & 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗟𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 • […]

Anton Slashcev March 31

Journal

Scaling Influencer Marketing Profitably

The 3-step framework I’ve used to scale 100+ Influencer Campaigns profitably 🧩 Phase 1: Gather Knowledge 🛠️ Phase 2: Optimise 🚀 Phase 3: ScaleIt’s a simple yet highly effective approach to making calculated decisions on targeting, creatives, incentives, etc. Start by working with nano and micro influencers, then when you have enough confidence, scale to mid-sized, and eventually, mega-influencers.Each Phase spans a few months (and campaigns), so naturally, each can be broken down into more detailed steps (which I’ve covered in previous posts)But this is a broad overview of the framework I use - and a tried and tested approach to scaling Influencer Campaigns profitably!

Marion Balinoff March 31

Journal

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