Journal

Why Rovio Entertainment Could be Poison to SEGA—and How They Can Fix It. Rovio’s golden days with Angry Birds are gone. A look at AppMagic reveals the story: churning downloads, revenue, and MAUs. Latest bets on high-risk, high-cost titles—e.g., Angry Birds Journey and Bloom City Match—are poorly positioned to catch emerging trends or gain traction in competitive genres like puzzles.The Problem: Stuck in the Past.Rovio is slow to adapt to fast-paced mobile games market. They aren’t leaning on commercial or scientific processes to evaluate opportunities in new, high-potential genres. Instead, they continue to 2x on categories where e.g., King, Playrix, and Dream Games dominate.Take Bloom City Match. It’s dropped into the most competitive puzzle games segment, crowded with competition. It’s a high-risk bet in a category with high CPIs, churned-out cohorts, and a shrinking ROAS profile. And while Angry Birds […]

🎰 5 Casino Game trends can boost your game! Web Store Popularization to clan passes,Competitions to rare card collections.Easy to read and digest,to the point insights.

The $1B Playbook behind Royal Match success. Here’s the breakdown of their Live Ops strategy: 𝟭. 🏆 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: • Weekly Contest Challenge (full-week tournament) https://lnkd.in/e7rC3yWR • King’s Cup (2-day midweek tournament) https://lnkd.in/eu-YfraP • Sky Race (3-day end-of-week race) https://lnkd.in/eMwbwwuy • Lightning Rush (fast-paced 1-hour tournament) https://lnkd.in/eajrD8iR • Archery Arena (daily weekend tournament) https://lnkd.in/eRajA8Y7 𝟮. 🤝 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: • Team Treasure (weekly rotating team event) https://lnkd.in/eWV7BXdc • Team Tournament (weekly rotating team event) https://lnkd.in/eEiFwW7p • Dragon Nest (co-op team event inspired by Monopoly) https://lnkd.in/eE4_PNai 𝟯. 🎲 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶-𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘁𝘆: • Hidden Temple (4-day midweek treasure-digging mini-game) https://lnkd.in/eQkHtKvS • Duke’s Fortune (slot machine mini-game, 3 days) https://lnkd.in/eJ2mmFZe • Magic Cauldron (potion-making mini-game, 3 days) https://lnkd.in/eh6ACvX4 𝟰. 🏅 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: • Mission Control (4-day milestone event) https://lnkd.in/eDsdQYpm• Mission Pursuit (3-day milestone event) https://lnkd.in/egWaAGNC • Book of Treasures […]

🚀 Just Discovered Something Cool in Sticker Book! 🚀 So, while playing around with the Treasure Ladders event in Sticker Book by Lion Studios, I came across a feature that really made me go, “Whoa, that’s clever!” 😮Here's the deal: Instead of your typical rolling offer, they’ve added a "24-hour ad-free reward" that you can unlock [only] if you buy the previous offer. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen this kind of incentive added to a rolling deal before, and it feels like a fresh take on keeping players engaged.✨ Why I think it’s genius:1. You get that feeling of instant gratification knowing a big perk is waiting for you.2. The placement makes it feel so tempting—you’re almost compelled to progress.3. And let’s be honest, a whole day without ads is a pretty solid motivation to spend!I’m […]

Homa is ‘’scaling’’ many games, yet hypercasual’sstar, puzzle, is NOT one of them. Insights: I am going to cut to the chase.They make money on Action games, gamesThat are ‘’almost’’ copy cat of each other.It looks like sometimes they dont even botherTo change the assets. Why? Because obviously, it works! They raised $100M in 2020 on Series B round,And by looking at the games they are scaling:They are either running out of fund for marketing,Or saving cost to scale other subgenres in 2025. Either way, their low IAP revenue is not a good sign.My prediction on them is that they are going to:—> Try to scale 2 ‘’non’’ action games (Puzzle?),—> Continue to iterate (copy) Action games,—> Working on a midcore action game (secretly)

What to do if your game has low retention? I teamed up with Mykola Veremiev to make a decision tree for your game.If your game is struggling, ask these questions: 1. Is the FTUE completion rate high? 2. Are players engaged with the core loop? 3. Are paywalls causing drop-offs? 4. Are there difficulty spikes? 5. Is the player funnel strong? 6. Is the game technically stable? 7. Do players have clear long-term goals? 8. Are players pursuing those goals? 9. Is feedback on gameplay positive? 10. Does your team still believe in the vision? Depending on the answers, you have 3 paths: • 🔁 Iterate: Minor fixes can boost retention. • ↩ Pivot: Core gameplay has potential but lacks depth. • ☠ Kill: Systemic issues with no clear solution. Use data to guide your decisions. Iterate, pivot, or cut […]

Thinking about making a Nuts & Bolts game? Think again! 🧩🎮 The market may look appealing, but you should really rethink! Quick analysis from AppMagic paints a clear picture; the genre has seen its peak, and is now on a downward trajectory:From Q4/23 to Jul-Aug/24, the market saw fast growth, peaking in downloads and revenue. Now the story is different:➕ Downloads: A steep decline, driven by a churning retention profile, rising CPIs due to saturation, and a weakening ROAS profile.📉 Retention: Significant drops as competitive pressure and squeezed monetization strategies leave players disengaged.📊 DAUs: Daily Active Users have seen a dip, as retention and monetization strategies falter.💰 Revenue: Revenue has slowed across the segment as all compounds.Issues with Current Strategies:Games like Wood Screw Puzzle have ridden the wave but are now paying the price for short-term strategies. Aggressive Ad Monetization […]