Why Disturbing Mobile Ads Work & How to Succeed Without Them

Mobile game ads have a bit of a reputation problem lately. Just look at the 165,000-member Reddit community, r/shittymobilegameads, or the growing number of YouTube influencers gaining followers by roasting and critiquing “shitty” mobile game ads. But when does a mobile ad cross the line from grabbing attention to being offensive, low-quality, or outright inappropriate for younger viewers? I thought about this during a recent car ride with a friend and their 4-year-old daughter. Like most kids, she gets restless on long trips, so her parents give her their phone to play games. I couldn’t resist peeking at her screen. Her routine was simple: a few minutes of hyper-casual gameplay, followed by a 30-second ad, then back to the game. Whenever an ad popped up, she’d hand the phone to her mom to skip it—as she wasn’t old enough to read […]

Alexandra Pulinets April 14

Journal

The whole Merge subgenre did $83M IAP last month.

The whole Merge subgenre did $83 Million IAP revenue 🤑 last month. Back in 2020 Merge Dragons did $10 Mil. a month and there were no Merge 2 games to oppose it, so how did we got here? Currently, Gossip Harbor is leading the whole category, doing $35 Mil. a month being followed by Travel Town with $21. Mil. But this was not always the case and as you see the graph on the bottom, before, there were only Merge 3 or isometric merge games. Gram Games's Merge Dragons launching in 2017 still doing around $4 Mil. a month had already passed $435 Mil. lifetime 💰 revenue. It was later followed by Big Fish Games's Evermerge in 2019, which already got past $120 Mil. lifetime. This subgenre peaked in May 2020 and is declining ever since. What happened there?Metacore's Merge […]

Jakub Remiar April 14

Journal

Game by game, day by day, Türkiye is scaling.

🇹🇷 Game by game, day by day, Türkiye is scaling. 76 game studios have already surpassed One Million Downloads. In 2024,120 Turkish studios and publisherscrossed 1M downloads worldwide.Today, Just four months into 2025,76 have already reached the same milestone.Our commitment is unmatched.We’re pushing boundaries,We have the experience and the knowledge.We have faster and efficient live ops teams.We’re (literally) building pixels over pixels,Driven by data,Powered by player-focused design,Creating state of the art,Bigger and better mobile games.All eyes are on us.The mobile game world is watching.

Gökhan Üzmez April 14

Journal

Ad Creative Insights: Color Block Jam

Want better ad performance? Steal these proven creative patterns from Color Block Jam by Rollic 👇🏼 We used Segwise.ai to tag and analyze their top-performing creatives in the last 3 months and here's what we found: • 100% gameplay-focused videos • Creatives using ASMR or gameplay audio • Levels left unsolved to spark intrigue • 40% using challenge-based or instructional hooksIn the last 30 days we’ve also seen new creative experiments: → Animated videos with low-poly characters → Voiceover + gameplay audio → Stylized visuals that still feel native → “No Ads Game” messagingHere’s your cheat sheet for winning creatives:🧱 Show gameplay. Don’t solve it. Leave the viewer hanging. 🔊 Use ASMR or VO to drive emotion. 👀 Play with the “No Ads” narrative to drive conversions. ✨ Stylize gameplay just enough to stand out.

Brijesh Bharadwaj April 13

Journal

Old Vs. New Mobile Gaming

The mobile game industry has changed. What worked five years ago? Won’t cut it today.Here’s how the game has changed 👇 𝗞𝗣𝗜𝘀 🔴 Old way: DI1–D7 retention, downloads, conversion rate 🟢 New way: Playtime, ARPU, ROAS, D30–D360 retention 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 🔴 Old way: Copy top games, no originality 🟢 New way: Unique, deep, and engaging gameplay 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 & 𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 🔴 Old way: Slow grind, hard paywalls, rewards locked behind IAPs 🟢 New way: Fast progression, soft paywalls, generous free rewards 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 🔴 Old way: Choose either IAP or Ads 🟢 New way: Hybrid model: a mix of IAP, Ads, and subscriptions 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗢𝗽𝘀 🔴 Old way: Optional; launch and forget 🟢 New way: Mandatory: constant support drives success 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗨𝗔 🔴 Old way: Rely on paid UA and fake creatives 🟢 New way: Mix paid and organic, focus on real gameplay […]

Anton Slashcev April 13

Journal

Supercell’s Clash of Clans’ WWE Update

Supercell's Clash of Clans just had a massive update this week, not only because the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) collaboration event ClashMania, but also doing some radical changes, so what happened 🕵? All training timers ⏲️ for troops, heroes healing, spells, siege machines were removed from the game. This is a continuation of the removal of unit costs in 2022, which already created a much more strategic experience with out the worry of spending resources. Similarly during the economy revamp during the introduction of the battle pass in 2019, this again accelerated the content progression speed of the game, which now has townhall 🏛️ 17 as max level. It started with max level 8 during its initial release during August 2012. You can see how Supercell is continuously adjusting the game according to the current content length in order to […]

Jakub Remiar April 11

Highlights

Supercent’s Meteoric Rise on the Hybrid Casual Gaming Scene

Three takeaways from Supercent's international expansion We’ve covered Supercent’s meteoric rise on the Hybrid casual gaming scene on 2.5 gamers in an episode. Their flagship titles Outlets Rush and Pizza Ready are Hybrid-casual gold, generating 70% of their revenue from ads and 30% from IAPs. Both games boast about 8 million active users daily, depending on the day. Someone told me that it was founded as a 111% subsidiary to focus on hypercasual games, but they pivoted and now are one of the leading hybrid casual studios in the world. These two games generate about $7-12m monthly in revenue, and what’s even more impressive is that the games’ user bases have been holding steady since March 2024. So what’s behind these two titles: crazy growth and staying power? Game Itteration Supercent doesn't constantly try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, it […]

Felix Braberg April 11

Highlights

How to Create the MONOPOLY GO! Effect

Monopoly Go’s economy design makes social casino accessible. The roll-move-resolve loop is more approachable on a board than on a slots reel, so the game can create a real sense of tension (the board piece will sometimes enter bullet time before landing on a tile). Another achievement is the game’s events, which cut to the core of the design. Recurring events are a key source of how the game creates “runs” by stringing together level climbing in different, interconnected progression centres. While Monopoly Go certainly wasn’t the first to invent “move around board, trigger events”, it’s undoubtedly popularized it. It’s starting to appear as its own genre, and even morphing into Archero 2 mini-games. Excel Sheet here. The events “tickle” the mind by creating cascading effects where multiple reward centres trigger, in some time interconnected ways. The economy is of […]

Phillip Black April 11

Journal

IP collaborations aren’t just cool, they’re game changers.

IP collaborations aren’t just cool, they’re game changers. • Double user engagement through gamified experiences• Keep players around longer with familiar characters• Increase loyalty by 22%• Raise revenue by 10–30%, especially during events• Reach younger audiences in ways traditional media can’tStill not convinced?Let’s look at the numbers:𝗧𝗼𝗽𝘄𝗮𝗿 𝗫 𝗣𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗥𝗶𝗺• +5% DAU• +12% downloads• iOS revenue rank in China: #30 → #2𝗧𝗼𝗽𝘄𝗮𝗿 𝗫 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀• 13M players in 2 weeks• Broke all-time revenue record on Day 1𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗫 𝗗𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗼𝗻𝘀 & 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻𝘀• 208% revenue boost• 161% ARPPU increase• 52% pay rate jump𝗜𝗱𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗫 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗻• 87.5% revenue boost• 70% more downloads𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗫 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 & 𝗠𝘆 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝗻𝘆• 180K skins sold in 1 week• 10M views & 750K comments in 2 weeksThe results speak for themselves.Brands win.Studios win.Players win.If you’re not exploring IP collabs in 2025, you might be leaving serious […]

Anton Slashcev April 11

Journal

The numbers for Q1 2025 here.

The numbers for Q1 2025 are in 👇 Every quarter, we take some time to analyse where the market is shifting, and not always in the ways we’d expect.📉 Android saw a drop in both downloads (-8.5%) and revenue (-4.8%) YoY.📈 iOS? Downloads dipped slightly, but revenue grew by 2.4% YoY. Players are spending more, even as installs slow down.But that’s not all:🧩 Puzzle and Casual games still dominate in downloads.⚔️ RPGs and Strategy games continue to lead in revenue.🇺🇸 The US drives monetization in Casual and Casino.🇯🇵 Japan loves RPGs and Simulation.🇨🇳 China is ramping up in Action and Strategy on iOS.

Richard Kos April 11

Journal

The Ghibli Wave: How Remini app turned a viral moment into Growth

Unless you've lived under a rock (or completely disconnected but then you would not be here reading this), you must have seen the Ghibli trend taking over the internet in the past weeks. While i am totally against using and diluting art for entertainment, i cannot deny the impact it had and quickly it spreads across the world. Unlike the 90s yearbook trend, where no harm or intellectual properties were used, we have here a trend based on the craft of a respected animation studio. In this piece, and using the DICE framework, we’ll review how the Photo & Video apps took advantage of this trend, and focus on Remini - AI Photo Enhancer app by Bending Spoons. DICE - [D] for Data It all started the 25th of March during the OpenAI live event - when Sam, Gabriel and […]

Julie Tonna April 11

Journal

Quick check if your App Store listing is properly translated.

Quick check if your app store listing is properly translated. For 13 geos. In 9 seconds. That's it. 🤷‍♂️ Grab it here.Type in your Apple App Store URLClick on OKIt will return the Subtitle and the first sentence of the app description.Great for a quick translation check (and if you would like to suggest an improvement for your boss/client ;-)

Sven Jürgens April 10

#Marketing

Login to enjoy full advantages

Go Premium!

Enjoy the full advantage of the premium access.

Stop following

Cancel subscription