Mobile Ad Monetization #6

After a long hiatus the best Mobile Ad Monetization Newsletter in the world is back… and this time it will keep coming back.. Once a week! Promise.

🥇Block Blast! The Next Largest Mobile Game Publisher?🥇

Block Blast! is on the road to becoming the largest mobile publisher app in the world. On December 20th it looks like Block Blast! for the first time whizzed passed the second-largest mobile game publisher “8 Ball Pool” by Miniclip. Block Blast! is firing on all cylinders and has been downloaded 28.2 Million downloads in the last 30 days and has a DAU of 13 Million users compared to 8 Ball Pool’s 12 Million DAU. I estimate that Block Blast! is earning anywhere between $800k-1.1m a day in ad revenue. 🤯

The largest mobile game publisher remains “Subway Surfers” by Sybo (also owned by Miniclip) which has an incredible 23 million DAU.

*Mobile game publisher that shows the most amount of ads. I know there are games with a larger DAU 😉.

📈Ad Monetized Games on the Rise📈

December is not usually known for being a busy season for launching mobile games. But this December gave a fresh bounty of games that have started scaling due mainly to Ad Revenue. I’ve played them written a bit about each game and gone through the trouble of estimating their IAA revenue based on Sensor Tower Date (Thanks ST! Heroes!).

1. Tricky Twist Puzzle

Mighty ABI Games from Vietnam 🇻🇳 is out on ultra-casual maneuvers again. This game launched on December 14th and has already been downloaded 930k times. DAU looks stable at 200k with the USA being the largest geo. It’s an ultra-casual game so that means; App Open Ads, and MRECs during all loading screens, Banners, and Interstitials after each level.

• $8-10k/day IAA Revenue but rising

*Take away – Looks like an ultra-casual game in the spirit of Perfect Tidy which makes $100k/day in Ad Revenue, but designed for a male audience. Ultra-casual games still have a strong place in the mobile industry. The game is larger on iOS so maybe this is the secret to scaling on that platform?

2. Indian Car: Highway Drive

It’s no secret that Car Games do well in India. This game was released by FIFAD games studio on 13th December and in 3 weeks amassed over 2.5m downloads mainly in India and still has 322k DAU. The game monetizes with Interstitial ads as they’re easier to fill in India. Also, they cleverly include MREC ads during loading screens.

• $3-5k/day IAA Revenue

*Take away – Clever use of localization to increase organic downloads. Wonder if this would work as well in other higher eCPM geos? Have a feeling Germans would love a highway trucking game based on the autobahn.

3. Gold Rush: Frozen Adventures

SayGames is back with 3 new games but the game that so far looks to be scaling the most is Gold Rush. Launched on December 16th it looks to have amassed 2.3m downloads and currently has a DAU of 200k. It looks to be a game that’s been inspired by Whiteout Survival’s winter theme. Who knew 4X games would inspire hybrid casual game production… Must be a UA thing?

• 275k/month IAP
• $250/month IAA *but rising

*Take-away look at the top creative trends and whatever themes are working incorporate that into your game to lower CPI.. Don’t worry we’ve already summarized that for you on 2.5 Gamers. Check out our episode.

⭐️Ad Monetization Words of Wisdom ⭐️

How do I know if a network is adding value or not?

Great question! You have to look at something called Share of Revenue. You simply take all networks and divide it by the overall revenue earned in a time period. You want each network to earn at least 5% in order for it to be adding value to the competitiveness of your stack. If a network can’t hit 5% remove it and try another one.

What networks should I start with?

Here are some good starting networks for the various ad units. I usually recommend to check the Appsflyer Performance Index for the best ones. As a rule of thumb the higher the ranking on UA leaderboards the more money they will pay for your inventory.

Banner

• Google Admob
• Meta (only good on Android)
• Applovin (only has banner inventory on MAX mediation)
• Unity
• Digital Tubrine (known as DTx or Fyber)
• Inmobi

Interstitials

• Google Admob
• Meta (only good on Android)
• Applovin
• Unity
• Digital Turbine (known as DTx or Fyber)
• Liftoff (Usually stronger on iOS)
• Ironsource (Best on iOS)
• Mintegral

Rewarded

• Google Admob
• Meta (only good on Android)
• Applovin
• Unity
• Digital Turbine (known as DTx or Fyber)
• Liftoff (usually stronger on iOS)
• Ironsource
• Mintegral

💰Great Content 💰

If you’re reading this far you care about ad revenue as much as I do. So why not watch my 27-minute solo podcast on how in-game ads came to be and some general tips and tricks? I’m sure you’ll learn something.

🎯The Cinderella of the Week🎯

Miracles still happen! Despite the uber-competitive landscape in mobile solo developers are still able to scale their IAA monetized games to crazy levels. This section is to salute you. Why? Because everyone loves a Cinderella story… that’s why.

This week the spotlight is on the Android Publisher Account “Derrick Teddy” who’s scaled “Five Poker” with nearly 800k downloads in the last 30 days.

For More Incredible Insights

Try 2.5 Gamers on Youtube!

Till next week!

Felix