How app development is evolving
Wednesday, March 15, 2023 by Richard Harris
Smartphone applications are a ubiquitous part of modern life, we talk to friends, consume media and program our daily life using software available in the palm of our hands. Mobile app functionality has steadily become more advanced and developers have to continuously push the envelope to secure a meaningful segment of the market share.
There’s an average of 3,...
Most profitable mobile games from 2022
Monday, February 27, 2023 by Richard Harris
According to the data gathered from Statista.com, Honor of Kings was the most profitable mobile video game in 2022. The MOBA game earned $2.2 billion from in-app purchase revenue. Honor of Kings is widely popular in China, and most of its revenue is generated in the country.
Battle royale game PUBG Mobile continues to be popular in the Asian market. PUBG Mobile earne...
Monetize mobile gaming with NFT marketplace Vessel
Friday, October 21, 2022 by Richard Harris
AppLovin announced its first NFT marketplace to launch in app stores through its subsidiary, OpenVessel Technologies, LLC. Vessel, which is currently live in Apple and Google Play app stores, enables mobile game developers to easily integrate non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into games to drive engagement and revenue.
"Vessel represents the next evolution in mobi...
Mobile tower defense game stats
Tuesday, October 11, 2022 by Richard Harris
One of the most popular genres in mobile gaming is tower defense games. The mobile tower defense games market is especially popular on smartphones and tablets, where gamers can easily take them with them wherever they go. In addition, tower defense games are great for keeping people occupied on long road trips or flights, as they require little to no interaction from th...
App store revenue increases for non game apps
Wednesday, August 31, 2022 by Freeman Lightner
Gaming apps account for the majority of revenue on the App Store currently. However, that is to change in the coming years. According to the numbers presented by Safebettingsites.com, the user-spending on non-game apps in the App Store is set to increase by 176%, by 2026. This increase in revenue would see non-game spending from users eclipse the spending on games in th...
App price and tax changes from Apple
Thursday, January 20, 2022 by Richard Harris
Apple has announced new price and tax changes for purchases and apps.
According to Apple, "When taxes or foreign exchange rates change, we sometimes need to update prices on the App Store in certain regions and/or adjust your proceeds."
In-App Purchase and App price and tax and changes
"In the next few days, prices of apps and in-app purchases (e...
Mobile game developers are capturing female audiences
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 by Brittany Hainzinger
Browsing social networks can be addictive and can cause feelings of inadequacy and isolation, even depression, say mental health professionals. However, when it comes to mobile gaming, the situation is not so dire. On the contrary, used in moderation, it could help people boost positive well-being, according to various sources.
Traditionally considered a domain for m...
Unity partners with Kindred to reinvent app monetization
Monday, November 22, 2021 by Russ Scritchfield
Kindred, the next-generation app monetization network, has announced it has been named a Unity Verified Solutions Partner, with a focus on reinventing in-app monetization and UX. Being a Verified Solutions Partner means that Unity’s Verified Solutions Partner team has tested and verified that the Kindred SDK for Unity is optimized for the latest version of the Uni...
Mobile gaming market turned upside down by Netflix
Tuesday, November 16, 2021 by Mike Gadd
Stranger Things have happened but at the beginning of November, the global streaming giant Netflix announced that it is moving into the mobile gaming market.
Though it's a low-key debut by Netflix standards, with just five mobile games initially available to download through its app on Android smartphones (with two focused on the entertainment juggernaut's 80...
Boost game developers revenue with Kindred for Business
Tuesday, October 26, 2021 by Brittany Hainzinger
Kindred for Business officially launched a 'third way' for mobile game developers to boost annual revenues from players by as much as 400% without sacrificing all-important UX.
To date, mobile gaming studios have had to rely on in-app purchases and advertising to monetize users, both of which can negatively impact the UX for players and ultimately drive ...
Huawei Developer Conference 2021
Wednesday, October 20, 2021 by Richard Harris
From 22nd to 24th October, Huawei Developer Conference 2021 (HDC 2021) will return to bring the latest industry trends, exciting announcements, and highly anticipated online keynotes to developers across the globe.
Featuring three days filled with numerous sessions, developers can expect to hear the latest on Huawei’s HarmonyOS and HMS Core 6.0 technology, with...
Lawsuit from US developers sways Apple
Friday, August 27, 2021 by Richard Harris
Apple has announced a number of changes coming to the App Store that, pending court approval, will resolve a class-action suit from US developers. The terms of the agreement will help make the App Store an even better business opportunity for developers while maintaining the safe and trusted marketplace users love. Apple appreciates the developer feedback and ideas that...
How to get app reviews the right way
Monday, August 23, 2021 by Justin Welter
You’re playing a game on your phone and just finished a tough level. Or maybe you’re not into mobile games, but you are repeatedly swiping left if you know what I mean. Then a pop-up appears. “Like using our App? Rate us!” It stops your experience in its track to wait for a decision. What is driving these rating prompts, and why?
As Apple has ...
Growing your gaming app by looking at the data
Tuesday, August 10, 2021 by Andrey Kazakov
The world changed a lot in 2020. And in the mobile app industry, we saw our data reflect shifts in consumer behaviors and accelerated transformations of entire industries. People flocked to their mobile devices to do everything from getting a little Facetime with distant family to buying groceries. In fact, mobile outperformed 2020 expectations, with consumers spending ...
GameBake launched for developers to reach new markets around the globe
Thursday, May 6, 2021 by Brittany Hainzinger
GameBake is thrilled to announce it has launched its distribution service for mobile games developers and publishers that wish to reach new markets across the globe.
GameBake provides the infrastructure and knowledge needed for developers and publishers to publish their games on a variety of high-quality platforms beyond Google Play and the Apple App Store. Accessibl...
Mobile app growth and revenue to remain strong in 2021
Tuesday, January 5, 2021 by Richard Harris
Making predictions for mobile advertising in 2021 is challenging, given how much the industry has changed in 2020 and the uncertainty ahead. Lockdowns and social distancing in 2020 accelerated the rise of digital, allowing many mobile apps to increase downloads and revenue.
Even if the COVID-19 crisis comes to an end in 2021, mobile app growth and rev...
App Store commission cuts to 15 percent for some
Thursday, November 19, 2020 by Richard Harris
In a move that is echoing througout the dev community, Apple has finally taken mercy on small developers, startups, and others making less than $1,000,000 a year by cutting the commision rate from 30% down to 15%. Accourding to the post made by Apple on their blog, if you are a developer or business earning less than $1M, you just got a raise!
About 28 mil...
How Apple policy changes may impact game applications
Monday, September 14, 2020 by Brittany Hainzinger
Data presented by SafeBettingSites indicates the games category holds the highest share of application on the Apple App Store at 21.86%. As of August 2020, the App Store had a total of 4,382,718 applications.
Apple policy changes might impact game applications
The total 958,269 game applications are almost double when compared to the second-placed business categor...
Google announced product updates
Tuesday, March 24, 2020 by Brittany Hainzinger
As an avid gamer, every year I look forward to spending time with developers at GDC to celebrate together and learn from their successes. We are all disappointed that this year's conference was postponed, but we applaud the organizers for taking steps to protect our global community.
Although we won’t be gathering in person this year, the Google team is hos...
In game advertising extends beyond casual games
Tuesday, December 31, 2019 by Freeman Lightner
The fifth annual In-Game Advertising Study by deep-data analytics and player management company, deltaDNA, finds that 94% of Free-to-Play (F2P) games now feature some form of in-game advertising (up from 87% in 2018). While the number of developers making between 40-100% of their revenue from ads has increased by 21% year on year.
The study, which is based...
Embracing operational analytics for better development
Friday, November 8, 2019 by Freeman Lightner
Operational analytics defines how we use business analytics to improve business operations. Amazon DynamoDB is a key-value and document database that delivers single-digit millisecond performance at any scale. Hundreds of thousands of AWS customers have chosen DynamoDB as their database for mobile, web, gaming, ad tech, IoT and other applications that need low-late...
How game developers can drive more revenue
Monday, September 23, 2019 by Offer Yehudai
Game developers tend to follow standard templates for monetizing their apps. Mid-core publishers focus on IAP and time-gated ads to be shown at a later date, usually based on their studios' recommendation. Meanwhile, hyper-casual ones go all-in on advertising, while casual games fall somewhere in between. These default strategies leave money on the table b...
Mobile gaming industry benchmarks offer fresh look on industry
Wednesday, September 18, 2019 by Christian Hargrave
Mobile game industry benchmarks report has been released by GameAnalytics, offering a fresh look at how gamers play and pay on their smartphones. The report highlights performance benchmarks for key metrics across the top 16 genres, including retention, session length, stickiness, conversion rate, ARPPU, and ARPDAU. In this report, GameAnalytics has also partnered with ...
Sprint 5G phones include Hatch Premium and cloud gaming
Thursday, August 29, 2019 by Richard Harris
Sprint customers can enjoy instant access to unlimited mobile cloud gaming with Hatch Premium and True Mobile 5G. Hatch, a game-streaming experience specifically designed for mobile 5G networks, will be preloaded on Sprint 5G smartphones. Plus, customers will receive a complimentary three-month subscription to Hatch Premium.
Sprint 5G customers will experie...
Mobile app profitability and user LTV
Tuesday, May 28, 2019 by Alon Golan
According to a recent survey, mobile advertising and app marketing practitioners believe that more and more advertisers will focus on actual profitability this year and move away from the exhausting what-ever-it-takes growth strategy.
Profitability is a rallying cry I hear almost daily from mobile app publishers, and it begins with user acquisition campaigns. If ther...
Ahead of GDC 2019, Google drops new app advertising solutions
Monday, March 18, 2019 by Richard Harris
Google has announced new mobile app advertising solutions ahead of the Game Developers Conference 2019.
The new tools aim to help developers carve out better revenue and build a better app business, especially those developers making games. There are new tools in most sections of the software lifecycle, including pre-launch, launch, and even post-launch.
...
Female gamers are an untapped market for developers
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 by Richard Harris
Here are some fun facts. Women gamers make up 65% of all active gamers and they also play mobile games at a higher rate than men. What's even better for app developers and publishers, is that 79% of those females are more likely to make in-app purchases.
Brands want to reach this highly engaged audience, and yet, a large part of the gaming app industry's outp...
Game developer tips and insight for 2019
Thursday, January 24, 2019 by Richard Harris
2019 offers promising new opportunities for game developers to reach new markets. But how can developers best capture diverse users’ attention and loyalty? Webpals Mobile, a performance-driven mobile-app user acquisition company, recently conducted a study comparing advertising driving gaming app downloads in the United States and Asia. Drawing on insights from th...
5 rules of monetizing like a mobile game developer
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 by Sean Webster
Mobile game developers are some of the most successful monetizers and marketers in recent history. Need proof? Mobile gaming revenue accounted for nearly 82% of all app revenue in 2017 and will surpass $100 billion by 2021.
The formula for success for mobile game developers is simple: easy payments, a finely-tuned monetization strategy, and great customer support. Bu...
New app marketing tool gets smart about user acquisition
Tuesday, December 18, 2018 by Richard Harris
Mobile monetization and marketing company ironSource has announced the launch of its ROAS (return on their advertising spend), Optimizer tool. The new tool enables user acquisition managers to automatically bid on dynamic CPI (cost-per-install) rates to reach the desired ROAS goal, solving one of the most painful challenges of user acquisition today of efficient and rea...
Facebook Instant Games turns two with 20 billion game sessions played
Thursday, December 13, 2018 by Richard Harris
Facebook is celebrating the second year for Instant Games, its gaming platform based onHTML5 technology that allows people to find and play games directly in the News Feed or Messenger conversations. Along with a recent blog post about the milestone, Facebook has also released some new stats, and updates about the platform.
Facebook Instant Games Statistics 2018...
The subscription based app model is working and here's proof
Monday, November 5, 2018 by Richard Harris
Liftoff released its annual Mobile App Engagement Index, describing trends in consumer app engagement and ways mobile marketers can adapt to thrive in the changing landscape. Specifically, the report reveals that mobile users are head over heels for the subscription model, with considerable momentum gained from last year. Additionally, the Index highlights a shift in ge...
Unity Ads SDK 3.0 come to game developers
Wednesday, October 24, 2018 by Richard Harris
Unity has just launched the latest version of their Ads SDK, and it’s a doozy. The new Unity Ads SDK 3.0 introduces personalized placements, as well as two new ad formats: Augmented reality and Banner ads.
Personalized placements are particularly noteworthy. Now in open beta, personalized placements tie ads and in-app purchases into the same auction, serving th...
Pretzel Land arrives for iOS and Android
Tuesday, September 18, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
The new mobile game Pretzel Land, published by Wild River, the gaming label of Bavarian company Eurovideo Medien GmbH, has been given an official release date. From Tuesday, 18th September, the funny simulation with Bavarian atmosphere is available to download for iOS and Android. Fans of Bavarian culture can get in the mood for the Munich Oktoberfest a few days before ...
Mobile game spending is dominated by women says Liftoff
Wednesday, August 22, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
Liftoff released a data report exploring the booming world of mobile gaming. Since last year, Liftoff has detected a golden age of mobile game marketing with acquisition costs at all stages of the funnel decreasing and post-install conversion rates increasing. And as multi-platform gaming sensations like Fortnite bring high-quality play experiences to smartphones, more ...
