2024 was a monumental year for studios of all sizes in the gaming and app industry. Our customer stories highlight the achievements of these studios, while our industry reports and trend pieces provide data-driven insights to help studios of all sizes inform their growth strategies.
Let’s dive into the customer success stories, reports, and articles that helped shape the state of game growth throughout this past year.
Reports and trends:
We tapped into a wealth of data to compile 2024’s reports, trends, tips, and thought leadership from Unity experts, to help inform game or app growth strategies.
The 2024 Mobile Growth and Monetization Report
Adapting to market and industry changes is challenging, but understanding trends and benchmarks for user acquisition (UA), in-app purchases (IAPs), and in-app advertising (IAA) can help teams optimize and grow their games.
In 2024, we found that global ad engagement increased 3.2% year-over-year. Since economic challenges make it difficult for some users to pay for IAPs, ads offer a great alternative to access in-game content, making them valuable to both the player and the studio alike. The report also shows that users who engage with offerwalls have 2–7x higher retention than non-offerwall users.
In January, we published our top trends for mobile gaming in 2024 and had Unity experts weigh in on what they thought would be the biggest opportunities this year. We discussed everything from how AI can improve creativity, the rise of hybrid-casual games, puzzle genre’s year of continued success, and more. Even if they are 2024 predictions – many of these trends we’ll see well into 2025.
Advertisers playbook to win the 2024 holiday season
Unity surveyed 4,094 U.S. adults aged 18+ to uncover insights that can help your brand land on the nice list this year. With many having more downtime over the holiday season, 37% of Gen Z expect to increase their playtime during the holidays, while 29% of Millennials feel the same way – with 13% of respondents saying they’ll likely play for 5 or more hours a day, making the holidays a prime season to engage with players.
Helpful tips for sustained app growth:
Implementing ads without cannibalizing subscription conversions
As premium subscription service apps expand their business models to include ad-based tiers, they must implement ads strategically to avoid cannibalizing subscription conversions. We dove into how a subscription based app might go about this, by strategically using various ad formats, and segmenting users based on factors like region, mobile device model, and more.
Addressing addressability: How brand marketers can adapt their mobile programmatic strategy
ATT and cookie deprecation signifies more than just a technological shift – it challenges mobile advertising marketers to adapt their strategies to reach consumers in-app. By leveraging first-party data, exploring alternative ID solutions, and segmenting non-addressable users based on contextual information, marketers can be successful in this new environment.
How Nexters increase ad engagement by 73% with Unity’s ad consultancy team
Nexters partnered with Unity’s ad consultancy team to optimize their rewarded video placement strategy for their hit game, Hero Wars. By implementing their recommendations, Nexters saw a 73% increase in engagement rate, and 59% increase in daily engaged users. See how the teams collaborated on strategy to get these winning results.
Customer success stories:
Discover the studios that soared to new heights over the last year, and explore the reports and insights that shaped the industry in 2024:
User Acquisition success stories:
Kwalee improves D0 Ad Revenue ROAS by 22% with Unity Ads
Kwalee’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of what's possible in gaming and their team of skilled professionals, like Head of Growth Alexey Gusev, are key to bringing great players to fun games. Gusev shares how his team used D0 Ad Revenue ROAS campaigns from Unity Ads to boost profits and expand to new markets.
How Lihuhu increased average install CVR by 15% (and ARPDAU by 10%!)
In a competitive mobile genre like match-three, how can a studio rise to the top? By identifying the right type of user acquisition (UA) campaign optimization, providing rewarded ads to help player progression, and leaning into in-app bidding, Lihuhu created a continuous cycle of game growth in order to reach the top of the match-three genre.
How Audiomack uses Unity LevelPlay to scale up globally
We sat down with Dave Edwards, Chief Revenue Officer at Audiomack, to learn how working with the team at Unity LevelPlay helped them scale efficiently in global markets with tools like the Unity Ads bidder and A/B testing tool.
Monetization success stories:
How Pocket FM boosted revenue 20%
Pocket FM Corp., a studio known for its popular audiobook app Pocket FM, wanted to monetize their non-paying users and decided to implement a hybrid monetization strategy. We met with Sujit Jha, their Senior Product Manager to understand how incorporating ad formats and the offerwall (a rewarded marketplace) into their app successfully boosted both their revenue and retention by 20%.
How LBC Studios boosted ARPDAU 37%
LBC Studios sought to boost revenue for their hit game, Hempire, and partnered with the Unity LevelPlay team to optimize their rewarded video strategy and A/B test video capping rates. Gene Park, Director of Marketing at LBC Studios shares how they boosted ARPDAU by 37%.
Qcplay increased ad ARPDAU 29%
Qcplay’s idle-RPG game, Super Snail, needed further ad monetization optimization and user engagement in order to grow efficiently. We met with Yifei Wang, Operation Manager, at Qcplay to understand how the Unity Ads bidder helped increase ad ARPDAU by 29%.
How OK Cashbag boosted revenue with Unity LevelPlay and the Tapjoy offerwall
OK Cashbag had two goals for their app: build a more comprehensive monetization strategy while maintaining, and even improving, their users’ experience. Implementing rewarded video ads and the Tapjoy offerwall helped the studio boost quarterly revenue by a staggering 288%, and eCPM by 270%.
How CashWalk increased revenue by 225% and engagement rate by 5x
CashWalk, an app based out of Korea, lets you earn rewards for walking or running, which can be exchanged for gift cards from leading brands and products. Looking to increase revenue and engagement, the team turned to the experts to scale their business.
Learn how Jungsin Park, CEO of CashWalk, increased revenue by 225% and engagement rate by 5x for the app working with Unity LevelPlay and Unity’s app design consultancy.
Tapjoy from Unity’s offerwall success stories:
Crazy Maple Studio exceeded their D7 ROAS goal by 150% and drove 120% higher LTV
We met with Yana Kong, UA lead at Crazy Maple Studio to understand how implementing a Daily Reward CPE campaign on the Tapjoy from Unity’s offerwall drove incremental scale, with 50% growth in installs, and a 120% lift in user LTV compared to users acquired from video UA channels.
Appynation, a UK-based mobile game developer and publisher, aimed to increase revenue and boost conversions for their puzzle game Picture Cross. By implementing the Message to Earn feature on the offerwall, iOS revenue increased by 9x, and Android by 2x.
How King drove incremental scale with Daily Rewards, exceeding their D7 ROAS goal by 1.5x
Long time offerwall users, King was seeking to further optimize the channel to drive incremental scale and ROAS. The team turned to Tapjoy’s Daily Rewards CPE campaigns to help drive user engagement, and in turn, boosting their D7 ROAS goal.
How Lotte Members boosted ad revenue and increased eCPM 10x
Hyohun Jung, Team Leader, Digital Marketing Business Team at Lotte Members, explains how implementing the offerwall maximized their monetization strategy, boosting ad revenue 20x and increasing eCPM 10x.
Programmatic success stories:
In the competitive world of advertising, making your brand stand out and drive engagement can be challenging. Over the past year, we collaborated with brands to realize their campaign visions through programmatic solutions, resulting in being shortlisted for five prestigious award nominations from Digiday, MediaPost's OMMA, and AdExchanger, as we helped clients engage new users globally.
Maniko Nails programmatic: The easiest manicure in the world meets mobile gaming audiences
A finalist in both Adexchanger Awards and OMMA Awards, the Maniko Nails case study is a prime example of standing out in a crowded market by leveraging innovative programmatic mobile marketing strategies.
By collaborating with Kayzen and Unity, Maniko was able to tap into the highly engaged mobile gaming audience and implement a full-funnel attribution solution. This approach allowed them to effectively reach and retarget potential customers, showcasing their unique product benefits through memorable ad experiences. The results generated 13.6M impressions and sent 1.9M unique users to Maniko's e-commerce site.
It’s been a whirlwind of a year, and we’re honored to share these success stories and insights that can encourage your game growth for years to come.