What is mobile gaming?

Mobile gaming refers to video games that can be played on a mobile device, like tablet or smartphone. The widespread adoption of smartphones in particular fueled incredible growth in this sector - over half of the global population now own a smartphone. This is expressed in revenue, too, with mobile gaming accounting for 49% of total video game industry revenue in 2023. 

There are a few other factors driving the growth in mobile gaming, like:

• Better tech: Innovations in mobile device technology, like processors and displays, are turning smartphones into powerful gaming platforms - enabling gamers to enjoy a PC-like experience on the go . Samsung’s Galaxy S23 smartphone series, for example, claims to be the “Ultimate Gamer’s Smartphone” because of its powerful chipset that results in smoother graphics, faster processing, and greater ability to handle cross-platform play with ease 
• Rise of 5G: 5G offers mobile gamers speeds up to 10x faster than 4G LTE and pretty much zero lag during gameplay. This makes it a huge tool for concurrent gaming, letting players from all over the world play together on their mobile devices without sacrificing quality
• More cross-platform play: A recent Newzoo survey revealed that almost half of gamers played a title on more than one platform. And of these platforms, mobile was the most popular. Cross-platform play is quickly evolving into another gaming trend: cross progression. Now instead of users just having the ability to play a game on multiple platforms, cross progression enables them to pick up where they left off, on any device. This will likely lead to even greater mobile game adoption as the capabilities of playing on the go improve.

Growing a mobile game

Mobile game growth has two key aspects: user acquisition (UA) and monetization. UA is how you’ll get users to your game, and monetization is how you’ll turn these players into profit. To make sure your UA and monetization strategies are working effectively, you need to track the right metrics. So let’s get into that first. 

The key metrics for success

The most important metric in mobile gaming is return on ad spend (ROAS). That’s because it’s holistic - it takes into account all variables to provide a high-level view of a game’s performance.

Other metrics, like LTV and CPI (cost per install), should be analyzed only for how they impact ROAS. It all comes back to this key point: for your game to scale, you need a positive ROAS.

That point when ROAS breaks even and  reaches 100%, is when LTV = CPI. The number of days it takes to reach this point is called the payback period. Keep an eye on this measurement because it’s useful for user acquisition: you can base your bidding amounts on the payback period. 

For example, if you have a hyper-casual title with a shorter LTV, you can set a target payback period of 7 days. You can then set high maximum bids to try and reach 100% ROAS within this short timeframe. Compare this to a strategy or midcore game with a target payback period of 365 days. They need to set lower bids on UA campaigns because they’ll be drawn out over the course of a year, rather than a week like a hyper-casual title.

While looking to ROAS as your guiding mobile gaming metric, make sure it holds relatively steady as you scale: if ROAS takes a dive as you get more players into your game, it means your game isn’t strong enough - or that you’re not optimizing it quickly enough. Use the data coming in from player behavior to make adjustments at each part of the product roadmap. For example, the first-time user experience can have a big impact on D1 retention. If you notice D1 retention tank (and as a result, ROAS will decrease, too) as you scale, try making a change - like tweaking your tutorial - to improve the first-time experience.

Mobile gaming UA post-IDFA

Before 2021, mobile gaming developers could easily track how players got to their game from UA campaigns. But that all changed once Apple deprecated the IDFA in April 2021. Getting rid of this key framework left developers pretty much in the dark when it came to identifying and reaching their target users. They could no longer:

• Personalize their ads because they didn’t have access to user-level data that made targeting possible
• Run retargeting campaigns because they don’t know which channel the players came from
• Accurately measure ROAS from campaigns and determine which to put more spend behind

The impact of eliminating the IDFA was felt in particular by mobile games on either end of the spectrum: hyper-casual and strategy/RPG/midcore. Strategy games relied on identifiers like the IDFA to identify and target their niche group of players. And in hyper-casual - though more broad in their UA approach - these games still relied on targeting a few, high-LTV users to make a profit. 

Developers across all genres were impacted, though - mobile gaming revenue decreased 7% in 2022, compared to 2021. 

Studios needed an entirely new approach to UA for mobile gaming to overcome the challenges that a post-IDFA environment presented. The solution? Go broad to get players to your game at scale, then target and segment them in-game. 

Test creatives that appeal to different players

Part of this comes down to marketability - what messaging, gameplay, themes, etc. attract users, then serve them a personalized in-game flow that speaks to their interests. For example, Royal Match from Dream Games designed a bunch of ads that targeted different types of users. Each of these ads led to a corresponding version of their Custom Product Pages (CPPs), which are additional variations of a game’s product page on the App Store. Apple lets developers publish up to 35 CPP iterations - Dream Games used theirs to target different users that came from their ads, like

• Those interested in ad-free, competitive gameplay, and/or narratives (decorating!)

• Players who enjoy match games and are likely interested in Royal Match’s core gameplay

• Users that like puzzle games and are likely to play competitor titles/genres

Creating a wide variety of ads and CPPs helped Dream Games tap into a larger audience and increase the scope of their UA. Since going broad is essential in a post-IDFA era, testing out more creatives and speaking to different types of players is a must to grow a mobile game.

Dice Dreams from SuperPlay does something similar. Their paid ads showcase different themes that appeal to specific types of players. Like this ad, which speaks to users that crave a decision-making experience:

Or this one that appeals to players who like puzzle games:

(By the way, this example follows a very similar format and hook - “can you do it better?” as this Royal Match ad. Clearly this is a popular UA approach in the casino genre).

Both Dice Dreams examples highlight a best practice for mobile gaming UA - at least in the casual and social casino genres: mini-games. Creating mini-games that you then use in ads can work like CPP variations, showing you what themes and gameplay experiences are resonating with your users. Just make sure they’re not too much of a deviation from core gameplay. In the end, you still need to monetize player effectively once they’re in your game - that becomes more difficult if they were brought into it from a mini-game that has nothing to do with your core mechanic.

Launch a web shop

D2C channels like a web shop are another solution to overcoming the hurdles of growing mobile games presented by the end of the IDFA. Why? Web shops offer the following advantages:

• Save 30% on commission fees: App stores take 30% commission on every purchase made in your game. But when you sell directly to players through a web shop, you can bypass those fees to pocket more direct revenue and increase your margins
• Get user-level identity data: Because this is a direct channel, web shops give you access to first-level user identifiers, like email addresses. This is super valuable for mobile gaming in a post-IDFA environment, especially for running retargeting and remarketing campaigns that became pretty much impossible under ATT 
• Boost LTV and bid higher: Web shops are designed to increase the LTV of your mobile game’s highest spenders. With these higher profit margins, you can put more spend behind your UA campaigns and increase bids to reach more players. Pro tip: focus this spend on the retargeting campaigns you can run and optimize thanks to the player data you now have
• Save money on the web: It’s cheaper to run UA on the web than on mobile gaming ad networks. Putting some of your budget towards these web-based campaigns that direct players to your shop, rather than trying to acquire entirely new users, can help increase LTV and result in high ROAS

The fact is, many studios have launched web shops and are shifting UA budgets towards promoting these storefronts to grow their mobile games. Doing so lets them both put profit towards higher bids for UA campaigns and drive higher LTV from existing users. A few studios putting their web shops in the spotlight include:

• Pokemon Go from Niantic

• Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker 

• Party In My Dorm from A Thinking Ape

• Angry Birds Friends by Rovio

• Scopely’s Stumble Guys

• Call of Duty: Mobile by Activision

Monetization in mobile gaming

Once you have users in your game, the other half of the mobile game growth puzzle is monetization. There are three main game monetization models:

1. In-app purchases, or microtransactions: Sell in-game items or subscriptions in your mobile game. Examples include coins (a type of consumable IAP), skins (non-consumable), and battle passes (subscription)
2. Ad monetization: Run ads in your game through mobile ad networks, like Unity or Applovin
3. Web shops: Create a storefront on the web that you can direct players to for purchasing items they can redeem in-game

Using a mix of mobile gaming monetization models can help you get the most revenue out of each player. That’s because each framework often works best for different types of users:

Take a D2C approach to mobile game growth

We believe web shops are one of the most effective mobile gaming UA and monetization solutions. If you want to launch a web shop that maximizes retention, engagement, and revenue, talk to us at Stash. Our team can help you design a storefront that results in more first-party player data and higher LTV as users keep returning and spending.