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

Journal

Be Careful with TikTok’s Attribution Settings!

🚨 Be Careful with TikTok’s Attribution Settings! 🚨 Today I am sharing a case study that I recently saw with one of my clients on TikTok.We started this channel to see if we could outperform Meta with the new creatives that we produced so we simply copied the setup that was working well on Meta:👉One campaign based on signup (upper funnel event) --> Campaign 1 - Event 1 if you look at the screenshot👉One campaign based on an activation event (lower funnel event) --> Campaign 2 - Event 2 if you look at the screenshotAfter running both campaigns for a couple of weeks, we analyzed attribution types to compare them with Meta and Google. We do this because we have a strong organic presence in the country that we are targeting so we wanted to avoid as much as we […]

David Vargas February 13

Journal

AppLovin stock has jumped 30% after hours after another insane quarter.

Yes you are reading that correctly, AppLovin stock has jumped 30% after hours after another insane quarter. Check out: AppLovin Empire: Monopoly in Mobile Gaming? Highlights from the earnings call earlier today were:• Revenue Growth: The company reported a 44% year-over-year increase in revenue for Q4 2024. • Earnings Per Share (EPS): Adjusted EPS for the quarter was $1.73, surpassing market expectations. • Future Revenue Projections: AppLovin forecasts Q1 2025 revenue between $1.355 billion and $1.385 billion, exceeding analysts’ expectations. • Strategic Shift: The company is expanding its advertising platform beyond gaming into e-commerce, marking a transformative period (please refer to my 2025 marketing predictions after with Deconstructor of Fun to read more about this).• Divesting From Games: AppLovin plans to sell its gaming studios for approximately $900m to focus on its core advertising technology and software platform, AXON is […]

John Wright February 13

Journal

5 takeaways from Supercell CEO’s Blog Post

I don’t think there’s many people in gaming who doesn’t look forward to reading Supercell’s CEO Illka Paananen yearly blog post that addresses the industry. If you haven’t already read it I suggest you check out the article and look over it, but if you want my key 5 takeaways and highlights it would be:• Brawl Stars’ Remarkable Surge: Over five years post-launch, Brawl Stars achieved unprecedented growth, with metrics such as player count, engagement, and revenue increasing multiple times over. To go from $10-20m a month to $70m+ is one of the biggest success stories I’ve ever seen in mobile, another key indication of the importance of live ops in todays games. • Squad Busters’ Introduction: Supercell released Squad Busters, its first new game in over five years, which generated over $100 million in gross revenue during its first […]

John Wright February 13

Journal

Phynd’s $10M Bet: Mobile Gaming to Smart TVs with Ad-Supported Cloud Play

Phynd’s $10M Bet: Bringing Mobile Gaming to Smart TVs with Ad-Supported Cloud Play Phynd, a cloud gaming platform designed for smart TVs, has secured $10 million in funding to disrupt the gaming industry. Led by Wellington Management, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, the investment will fuel Phynd’s 2025 beta launch, offering a subscription-free gaming experience powered by ads. A New Frontier for Mobile GamingPhynd’s focus on smart TVs presents an opportunity for mobile gaming studios to expand their reach beyond smartphones. With 500 million smart TVs globally capable of supporting cloud gaming, developers can port mobile games to a larger screen without additional hardware. This model aligns with the free-to-play (F2P) and ad-driven economy of mobile gaming, allowing studios to monetize their games via non-intrusive sponsorships and in-game advertising. Disrupting the Traditional Gaming ModelUnlike Google Stadia or Xbox Cloud […]

Gamigion February 12

Journal

The dollar value of 1 impression on Mobile?

💸What’s the dollar value of an impression💸? How much is an impression worth to a mobile publisher? Honestly, it depends… It's such a boring answer, I know. I don’t like boring answers, so let's break down the factors that decide what an impression is worth and make some models you can use to factor in impressions in your game design. Ok, everyone! Off into the ad revenue Rabbit hole🐇! First, here’s a helpful formula: Ad Revenue = Fill x eCPM. Let’s start with eCPM. eCPM (effective Cost Per Mile) is the price an ad network will pay for 1k impressions. Let’s go down one more layer. How do ad networks calculate eCPM? All ad networks consider various factors to decide what an impression of a publisher’s user is worth. Google is roomered to use 94 different factors in their algorithm […]

Felix Braberg February 12

Journal

The future of interactive storytelling is here!

🎮 The future of interactive storytelling is here! Imagine narrative games evolving into something entirely new: a perfect blend of Episodes and Choices style storytelling and AI-generated one-minute episodic video content. This isn't just speculation – it's happening right now across major platforms:📱 TikTok is already testing TV-like series with 90-second episodes, some titles generating hundreds of thousands of views behind modest paywalls ($5.13 for 10 episodes). Instagram creators are building millions of followers through episodic Reels, while YouTube embraces serialized content on YouTube TV.💰 The market is ready: Companies are investing millions in creator-hosted series, with shows like Third Cultures pulling 450,000+ views in their first episodes. When you combine this audience appetite with AI-powered interactive storytelling... the potential is staggering.🚀 Next frontier: Think TikTok meets narrative games, but powered by AI. Interactive video stories that adapt to YOUR […]

Joakim Achren February 12

Journal

Would love to see more games implementing this!

Would love to see more games implementing something like this! --> What do you think?

Michael Kopelovich February 12

Journal

AI Innovation: EU AI Act and Microsoft’s Take

Source: Microsoft Last week, the first provisions of the European Union AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive AI regulation, went into effect. The AI Act extends beyond the EU—it applies to companies that operate in countries that place AI products on the EU market or produce AI systems whose outputs are used in the EU. Microsoft has been involved in dialogue with EU regulators from the AI Act’s earliest stages, and we continue to engage with regulators to share our insights, seek clarity on open questions, and advocate for practical outcomes. Below, we go into more detail on how we and our customers can innovate in line with the EU AI Act. Building Microsoft products and services that comply with the EU AI Act Organizations around the world use Microsoft products and services for innovative AI solutions that empower them […]

Ömer Yakabagi February 12

Journal

Wondering how Cat Games are in the top charts?

Wondering how Cat Games are in the top charts? 😺✨ Check out some insights into the trend and dive into the fastest-growing Cat Games in the world! 🚀In my opinion, these games are great for those who like anything that's cat related🔥Data from SocialPeta LtdMirai Studio, ABI Game Studio, Agave Games

Zack Weiss February 12

Journal

Advertising’s first trillion-dollar year

Global ad spend surpassed the trillion-dollar mark for the first time ever in 2024, thanks to a 10.5% growth rate, according to WARC. That’s both the strongest growth in 6 years and the largest increase in absolute dollar value ever — $104B in incremental advertising spend worldwide — if we disregard the 2021 post-Covid recovery. So yeah: marketers are competing in a super-heated ecosystem. And just to turn up that thermostat even more, Q4 was the hottest part of the hottest year on record, with 30% of the year’s ad spend: a staggering $324 billion. But we know that a good chunk of that holiday quarter spending is not traditional user acquisition. It’s retail and shopping: gifts and personal indulgences. User acquisition is a little different: it tends to be smarter spend. And that means many mobile growth experts spend in Q2 and […]

Gamigion February 12

Journal

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