Mobile Ad Monetization Newsletter #8
Are Relgious-themed games the best advertising revenue niche in the mobile industry?
One of the most profitable ad revenue generators are word games. Games like Words of Wonder (IAA $3m/month), Word Scapes(IAA $4.3/month), and Word Connect (IAA $400k/month) combined have about 20 million DAU and consistently top the charts for the most downloads. The genera is hyper-competitive, but one game has been able to navigate it since 2018 by appealing to a clever niche and thus avoiding going head-to-head against the other word game incumbents.
Bible Word Puzzle is a word puzzle game that has been downloaded 27 million times and generated $2 million in IAP revenue since its launch. It has a massive 200k DAU, half of which is in the USA, and based on eCPMs, I estimate that it generates between 600-800k/month in ads. That means this title has earned between $40-50m since launch. Creating a brand-new game with an all-new mechanic is very hard. Re-skinning a game and appealing to a new niche audience is much easier. The niche blows me away. So, I decided to focus on Relgiuous Ad Monetized Games for this newsletter. I have to say this niche was waaay bigger than I first thought.
*Takeaway – testing proven game design methods on smaller niches is still a very clever way to break through in game development.
🙏Relgious Ad Monetized Games on the Rise⛪
Mobile games are far from dead. They’ve just evolved. There is a lot of talk about hybrid-casual games being dead, but they’re not dead, just evolved. Here are some games that are racking up huge amounts of downloads and no IAP revenue. I’ve added my IAA estimates to Sensor Tower (heroes!) Data to show you just how dead ad-driven games are.
Launched on the 7th of January 2025, Bible Verse Puzzle has been downloaded 53k times, and yes, of course, all the downloads are from the USA. The gameplay is similar to Crytogram by Joyinteractive, which shot to number one in the word category last year. By my estimates, that means that Bible Verse Puzzle is already generating between $8-11k/day in ad revenue, but the downloads seem to be increasing.
*Takeaway – Cryptogram is a really fun game, so why wouldn’t it work for a religious-only audience? Sure, the Total Addressable Market is smaller, but the competition will be less fierce.
Bible Word Search is exactly what you think it is; it’s a word search game based purely on bible and religious terms. The same studio makes it Bible Verse Puzzle; the studio is called Hustle Run. It’s been downloaded 73k times since January 5th, only in the USA. This means that this title generates $9-10k/day in ad revenue.
3. Daily Bible Trivia: Quiz Games
Generating 8.7m downloads since its launch in 2022 (USA only), Daily Bible Trivia by Stillfront has a DAU between 60-130k. According to eCPMs and my estimates, the title generates between $13-24k/day in ad revenue.
*Takeaway – religious-themed games get tons of organic traffic that’s 70-80% from the USA. It kind of makes me think of building a religious-themed sorting game…
⭐️Ad Monetization Words of Wisdom ⭐️
We’re leaving the religious theme of the newsletter here and will focus on other ad-monetized content.
Applovin MAX currently enjoys the largest market share in the mediation space. Here are some good things to know about MAX mediation.
MAX Mediation
Pros:
- Highest eCPM on video inventory
- Access to AdROAS & Blended ROAS UA campaigns on Applovin
- Emphasis on Bidders vs. Waterfall, reducing manual work
- Broad availability of networks
Cons:
- Cross Promo tool will be deprecated; users must transition to Google Ad Manager
- Applovin’s aggressive video end cards and extended creative lengths may impact retention
Setting Up Networks
Below are the recommended networks for starting on MAX, which should be sufficient until your ad revenue scales to about $600-$1K/day:
Rewarded Video & Interstitials:
- Applovin (standard)
- Applovin Exchange (standard)
- Unity
- Meta (stronger on Android)
- Mintegral
Banners:
- Applovin (standard)
- Applovin Exchange (standard)
- Mintegral
- DTx
Bidder Networks Should:
- Contribute at least 5% of your total revenue
- Meaningfully increase AdARPDAU (check with A/B tests)
- Run without causing crashes! (obviously)
💰Great Content 💰
Rollic, the Turkish-based master of puzzle games, has just released a brand new title that’s scaling like crazy. The new Lego-like puzzle game is called Color Block Jam. It’s been downloaded 1.5m times in the last 30 days, generating $1,5m in in-app purchases, and I estimate another $1.6m in ad revenue. The innovative gameplay looks different and must be working wonders for CPIs. Check out our 2.5 gamers’ full breakdown of the game.
🎯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.
Developer Ezikiel Flores is on my radar this week for scaling Brain Puzzle: Tricky Quest to 2.2 million downloads in 5 weeks. The game is a take on the ultra-casual genera that’s mainly dominated by Satisdom by ABI games from Vietnam. You can see on the downloads in the last 90 days how quickly Brain Puzzle has managed to capture downloads.
For More Incredible Insights
Try 2.5 Gamers on YouTube!
