two & a half gamers

It's day two of the World Cup, and the biggest download winner isn't any of the football games anyone predicted — it's a Coca-Cola-sponsored sticker-album app. That's just one of three stories this week that matter for mobile.Felix Braberg flies solo for the Friday news segment. The FIFA Panini Collection is pulling roughly half a million downloads a day across Brazil, Mexico, and the US — 12.2 million downloads in 30 days and ~$1.5M revenue — built around Panini's physical collectible-card heritage and Coca-Cola bottle QR codes. Felix also crunched the numbers on Block Blast's 24-hour Google Play takedown (rumored IP infringement) and found it cost the game roughly $120K/day in lost ad revenue, with a 17% daily-active-user drop and a 14-month download low. And Supercell's US game development is winding down — one project killed, another in limbo after staff departures — feeding the bigger question of when (or whether) Supercell lands its next hit.Three stories, one theme: distribution is fragile, and even the biggest names are exposed.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Block Blast's lost daily active users00:40 FIFA Panini wins the World Cup download race03:00 The Coca-Cola + Panini sticker-album playbook04:30 Block Blast's 24-hour outage — the real cost06:30 The $120K/day loss and the Turkey/Indonesia drop08:00 Supercell kills a US game, another in limbo━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

AI creatives just hit a new level and the most surprising convert is Playrix. After years of holding back, they've gone all-in on AI across Township, Gardenscapes, and Homescapes. Matej, Jakub, Felix (and Freddie the robot) review 100+ AI creatives to figure out what's actually working right now.The episode is a guided tour through the current AI creative landscape: AppQuantum's Golden Goblins running AI influencers from a creative team scaling toward 100 people, Playrix's full-AI pivot with the recurring "there are no ads in Township" concept (and Felix's repeated insistence that ads are coming anyway), the "getting slapped" husband concept that has spread across the entire 4X category in a single month, freezing-families intros rendered at near-Pixar quality, the pajama guy who quietly took over Last War / Dark War creatives, and the broader collapse of creative production timelines from a week to a single day. It's the clearest snapshot yet of how fast AI creative production is moving — and how quickly a single winning concept now propagates across an entire genre.The throughline: this isn't about whether AI creatives work anymore. It's about who's iterating fastest.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Freddie the robot judges the AI creatives02:30 AppQuantum's Golden Goblins and the 100-person creative team04:00 Century portfolio downscaling AI (and near-Pixar quality)07:30 Playrix goes full AI across all three games08:00 "There are no ads in Township" — the recurring concept16:30 Freezing Families gets the full AI intro treatment22:20 The "getting slapped" concept takes over all of Forex33:30 Top Heroes, anime quality, and where this is heading━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━-PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej Lancaric

Not all rewarded users are the same — and treating them as one audience is exactly why so many rewarded UA campaigns underperform. Recorded live on Day 2 of MAU Vegas, this conversation breaks down how Tyr Ads segments rewarded traffic into three distinct personas and engineers profitability around the mix.Matej Lančarič sits down with Zino, CEO of Tyr Ads (and the Try Rewards consumer product), to unpack the year's changes: a brand-new in-house platform built specifically for rewarded (because third-party tracking simply isn't built for it), AI-driven user labeling that sorts players into reward hunters, casual/social users, and gamblers, and an A/B testing and LiveOps system that targets each segment with different reward funnels. They get into why too many gamblers will actually lose you money, how the day-7-to-day-30 curve drives faster ROI and more aggressive bidding, the new Nordeus exclusive offerwall deal, why Tyr is betting on gaming supply over reward apps, and where rewarded UA is heading — segmentation, recommendation models, and a full shift to ROAS-based campaigns.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — the day-7-to-day-30 curve and faster ROI01:30 Tyr Ads intro and what changed this year02:54 The new in-house platform and audience segmentation03:30 The three personas — reward hunter, social, gambler05:40 Why too many gamblers loses you money09:25 How the recommendation models hit day-7 targets15:55 A 50/50 IAP/ads game — where to start21:08 The Nordeus exclusive deal and the gaming-supply bet26:46 Where rewarded UA is heading — ROAS and 2027

Block Out by Grand Games is scaling to $300K/day — and it doesn't even have an Android version yet. It's about to become Grand Games' biggest title, overtaking Magic Sword, and the whole thing is a masterclass in perfect execution over original innovation.Matej Lančarič, Jakub Remiar, and Felix Braberg break down Block Out, the deterministic sort puzzler that's quietly become one of the most aggressive scalers in mobile. The conversation covers how Block Out's iteration is now out-earning the game it borrowed from (Color Block Jam), the level-design difference that makes it more casual and more approachable, the UA upgrade that Jakub estimates at 500%+ over Grand's earlier games, the iOS-only / US-only / single-AppLovin-campaign soft launch playbook (the same one Pixel Flow used), the blended-ROAS interstitial strategy driving 32-36% ad revenue, and the 1,000+ creatives and 260 playables now powering the scale. Plus the bigger Grand Games story: a $70M raise, $105M+ total funding, and a template machine that takes proven concepts and executes them better than anyone.The thesis, straight from the episode: Grand Games doesn't do giant innovation. They do perfect execution.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 the 500% UA upgrade03:50 The numbers — $300K/day, 140K downloads/day, iOS only06:40 The Grand Games template — perfect execution, not innovation10:25 What a deterministic sort puzzler actually is13:25 Block Out vs Color Block Jam — the level design difference20:50 The soft launch playbook — one AppLovin campaign, US only21:45 The ad question — blended ROAS and 32-36% ad revenue26:30 The UA breakdown — Mintegral, 1,000 creatives, 260 playables--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

Liftoff finally went public this week — at a valuation that tells you exactly what the public market thinks mobile ad networks are worth. That's just one of four stories this week that genuinely matter if you run UA.Matej Lančarič flies solo for the breaking news segment, ranked from biggest to most practical. Liftoff listed on Nasdaq as LFT after a second attempt, raising $437M at a $3.83B valuation — a 25% haircut from the $5B it wanted in January, and below the private valuation General Atlantic paid in 2025. A Niko Partners report buried a number most Western publishers still aren't modeling: minigames are now almost 20% of mobile game spending in China. Akin launched AMF Capital with Makers Fund, opening with a $28M UA financing facility for Birhack. And the throughline of the week — mobile has officially shifted from core-first to event-first, with Monopoly Go's Simpsons crossover, Rovio's own admission, and Supercell's MoCo reboot all pointing the same direction.The bar keeps moving up. The industry is consolidating around scale, capital, and live-ops.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Supercell reboots MoCo's live-ops00:30 Liftoff goes public at $3.83B — the IPO breakdown03:00 China minigames are now 20% of mobile spend05:30 AMF Capital launches with a $28M UA financing deal07:00 Mobile shifts from core-first to event-first09:00 What event-first actually means for your UA

Two rewarded UA platforms just became one — and the integration is already live, not "coming in six months." Recorded live at MAU Vegas, this is the inside story of Mistplay's acquisition of MyChips and the launch of the Mistplay Audience Network.Matej Lančarič sits down with Massimo (founder of MAF / MyChips, now scaling the international business at Mistplay) and Mark Bearman (GM, Loyalty Play at Mistplay) for the third Mistplay MAU conversation. They unpack how the deal actually came together (it started with a Slack message asking "who is MAF?"), why MyChips wasn't even looking to sell, how a bootstrapped 70-person company with just 7 engineers moved fast enough to be operational on day one, the near-zero overlap between the two businesses (MyChips strong in APAC/EMEA supply, Mistplay strong in North America demand), and what consolidation in the rewarded space actually looks like now that the first major deal has closed.The North Star, stated plainly: be the undisputed number-one rewarded UA platform by MAU 2027.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 The Mistplay Audience Network — already live01:25 Meet Massimo (MAF) and Mark (Loyalty Play)02:25 "Who is MAF?" — the Slack message that started it03:17 Why Mistplay, why now — the billion-dollar question05:24 The geo fit — APAC supply meets North America demand08:03 How the demand and supply integration actually works11:50 Scaling without losing quality — fraud, engagement, price16:46 The consolidation question — and why only Mistplay has moved19:45 MAU 2027 — the number-one rewarded platform North Star

Most teams treat influencer marketing as a series of one-off campaigns. The ones who actually scale treat it as a system — one continuous testing framework that runs from your first nano creator all the way to a Mr. Beast integration.Marion Balinoff returns for episode two of the influencer marketing series, going one level deeper than the foundations. Drawing on 12 years building influencer programs across 15+ studios and eight-figure budgets, this episode lays out the complete testing framework: the three-phase path from knowledge-gathering to scaling, how to read the vertical assessment table, the CPM/conversion/LTV diagnostic for fixing what's broken, the gift-code and giveaway mechanics that move conversion without killing LTV, and the custom in-game integrations that lifted conversion 437% on average. If you watched episode one, this is where the foundations become a machine.The single most important mindset shift: you're not buying reach, you're buying learnings. Volume isn't the goal - data density is.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Why influencer marketing is a system, not a campaign01:30 The three-phase framework: gather, optimize, scale02:40 Influencer size — why 8% of channels drive 63% of views03:40 The vertical assessment table and the three thresholds06:00 The CPM / conversion / LTV diagnostic08:30 Gift codes that doubled ROI (and the starter pack that killed LTV)13:00 Custom in-game integrations — 437% conversion lift16:30 The five key takeaways and the 12-month timeline

Voodoo wasn't supposed to be making this kind of money. For years their entire portfolio sat at sub-$100K/day games — Mob Control, Cap Heroes, the usual hyper-casual treadmill. Then something switched in early 2026 and now they're suddenly running at $1M/day in IAP across the portfolio. The flag-bearer for the new era is Marble Sort.We dig into Marble Sort by Voodoo — a sort-category puzzler that scaled from launch in February to $200K/day in IAP plus $52K/day in ad revenue by March. The conversation covers the sorter-category explosion (Pixel Flow's Scopely acquisition for close to $1B set the precedent), the 800-1,100 creatives running on AppLovin and what they tell us about Voodoo's creative production discipline, the level-design and APS-curve methodology that Tripledot-style studios actually use, why this game could be just a mini-game inside Royal Match (and why that matters), and the bigger story underneath: Voodoo just launched a mid-core PvP studio led by ex-Kameli Games French founders, signaling a serious IPO push in the next 1-2 years.If you want to understand the Voodoo renaissance — or just figure out why Jakub keeps insisting "the sort category is the new hot shit" — this is the episode.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Voodoo is suddenly doing $1M/day in IAP02:24 The sorter category is the new hot shit (and why)05:36 The Voodoo portfolio renaissance — Castle Clashers + Marble Sort08:56 Walking the game — sorting mechanics, level curve, no live-ops yet13:40 The level design metrics — APS curve, booster win ratio17:38 32% ad revenue + $52K/day = roughly $250K/day total19:59 800-1,100 creatives in 30 days — AI + gameplay + AppLovin altered videos28:33 Voodoo's new mid-core PvP studio + the IPO setup--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

A top-5 mobile game with 60-70 million daily active users just disappeared from Google Play for 24 hours and came back. Nobody from Hungry Studios is saying anything. That's the headline.Jakub Remiar flies solo this week with nine stories from the May 23-29 news cycle. The Block Blast Android outage is the biggest shock — a game that big going dark on a major platform for an entire day with zero public explanation. The Monopoly Go licensing story is the most quietly important: Scopely paid Hasbro $41M last quarter alone, confirming the $168M/year run-rate that puts Monopoly Go in genuinely different stratosphere from everything else in social casino. And Valve raised the Steam Deck OLED 1TB from $649 to $949 — a 40% hike that prompted Tim Sweeney to publicly joke about Gabe Newell's $500M super-yacht.Plus: Playtika layoffs as social casino keeps declining, Unreal Engine 6 teased via Rocket League, NetEase posts 7% YoY growth, CD Projekt Red announces a new Witcher 3 expansion called Songs of the Past, IO Interactive's James Bond game hits 1.5M copies in 24 hours, Fortnite returns to iOS to a 3.4M download spike, and the GDC 2026 trend report confirms generative AI is the only thing anyone in the industry is talking about.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — the Steam Deck mega-yacht joke00:30 Block Blast vanished from Google Play (and came back)02:00 Playtika layoffs + Monopoly Go's $41M Hasbro license fee03:30 Unreal Engine 6, NetEase Q1, Witcher 3 + James Bond05:24 Sponsor — Potensus06:32 GDC 2026 trend report — generative AI dominates07:30 Fortnite iOS return drives 3.4M downloads in 8 years08:30 Steam Deck +40% price hike + the mega-yacht punchline

One guy. Five helpers. $30 million a year in revenue. 97% profit margin. Zero UA. 700 million lifetime downloads. The most successful solo developer in mobile gaming history is Swedish and you've probably never heard of him.Matej Lančarič, Jakub Remiar, and Felix Braberg return with another One Man Wonder episode — this time on Robert Topala (RobTop Games) and Geometry Dash. The game launched in 2013 as a premium $1.99 title, spawned a free-to-play Lite version, and has been compounding ever since. Active users just hit an all-time high of 10 million DAU — double where they were in October last year. Daily revenue is $75K, with 2025 trending toward $27M after a record $33M in 2024.The most uncomfortable part isn't the revenue. It's that Topala has literally one UA creative running, his entire growth engine is organic, and his profit margin has stayed between 93% and 97% every single year since 2015. He's still in Sweden paying full Swedish tax because he can't be bothered to relocate. The lesson for everyone else? Either build something so good that creators on TikTok and YouTube market it for free for a decade — or accept that you'll never operate at this margin profile.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — $27.4M revenue, one employee02:32 One Man Wonder #N — meet Robert Topala from Sweden05:18 All-time-high 10M DAU and the growth curve doubling14:32 Ad revenue breakdown: $75K/day total revenue16:35 The Swedish financial filings — 93-97% profit margin since 201520:12 How AppLovin mediation 3x'd revenue from 2022 to 202422:41 Third biggest platformer by downloads — just one person26:34 TikTok and YouTube as the real UA engine--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠#mobilegaming #useracquisition #gamedesign #geometrydash #robtop #onemanwonder #f2p #geometrydashshowcase Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

MAU Vegas 2026 is over, the biggest booths in mobile gaming, and a single conversation dominating every panel and corridor: AI. Specifically, what happens when AI creatives cut your CPI in half.Matej Lančarič and Jakub Remiar catch Felix Braberg up on what he missed while taking care of his baby. The 2.5 Gamers Gaming Summit kicked off Tuesday with ~100 attendees (roughly 10x the next-biggest competing summit), Christina Larionova from the Last War / Whiteout Survival team shared CPI and ROAS data showing AI creatives are literally half the cost of human-made ones, AppLovin had the biggest booth and announced Pixel Portal, UA financing went fully mainstream (per Jeff at PVX Partners), CTV is exploding, and retention is now openly being talked about as "the new UA" — partly thanks to Mistplay's Mychips acquisition.If you couldn't make it to Vegas, this is the catch-up. And if you weren't already planning Bellagio 2027 (May 4-6), make yourself available.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Bellagio 2027, why you have to be there02:32 Felix missed MAU + the 2.5 Gamers Summit's 10x outperformance04:31 "MAU is the new GDC" — Jeff from PVX nailed the framing06:23 The standout talks: Nebo, Christina, Marion, Katja08:55 AI is everywhere — 70% of creatives are now AI-generated13:24 AppLovin's biggest booth + Pixel Portal announcement15:38 CTV explosion: TV Scientific, Vibe, Roku, Pinterest20:01 Bellagio 2027 + closing thoughts on what's coming━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

AppQuantum's Golden Goblins is five years old and still dropping new creatives nobody else is matching. Magic Sword is running 5,000+ new playables per month. Match Villains just flipped the "save the king" formula and is converting harder than ever. And AI creatives are now indistinguishable from human ones in roughly half of the libraries we looked at.Matej Lančarič is joined by Felix Braberg and John Wright (Playable Maker, sitting in for Jakub) to walk through Sensor Tower's April creative trends and figure out what's actually winning right now. The conversation covers the Golden Goblins production machine and why they're still using gates (yes, gates), Match Villains flipping the king-rescue formula into peasant-rescue, the AI invasion of creative libraries, why near-death experience hooks are showing up everywhere, the $40 vs $10 CPI gap between 4X and idle arcade creatives, the brutal volume race (Magic Sword 5K, Royal Match only 300), and the 80/20 iteration rule that separates winners from everyone else.If you ship creatives every week and want to know what's actually working in April 2026, this is the episode.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — "what signals do you look for anymore?"02:14 Golden Goblins is still dropping new stuff (and using gates)09:13 The 5,000 creatives per month volume race13:55 The 80/20 rule — iteration beats new concepts21:00 "Save the Peasants" — Match Villains flips the king formula30:40 The Royal Match Apple billion-dollar problem35:30 AI creatives are now 50% of some libraries39:13 The $40 vs $10 CPI gap and the Tasty Travels playbook━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Special guest: John WrightJoin our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej Lancaric

Has AppLovin been fingerprinting iOS users all along? A white-hat hacker says yes — and they cracked the mediation cipher to prove it.Felix Braberg breaks down the three biggest mobile gaming stories from the week ending May 22, 2026. Sensor Tower acquired App Magic to build out their SMB offering and consolidate market intelligence even further. A white-hat hacker published a detailed breakdown of AppLovin's mediation cipher, claiming 50+ device parameters get extracted per ad call across 12+ downstream networks — effectively recreating deterministic IDFA-level tracking even when users deny ATT. And Embracer wrote down their mobile business by $192M after divesting Easybrain to MiniClip for $1.2B last year, with the market now pricing in another major acquisition.The cipher story is the spicy one. If confirmed, it explains why iOS performance has been so strong post-ATT — and it sets up a potential antitrust collision course because Apple's own ad business would be exempt from any policing they did against everyone else.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — the cipher and what gets extracted00:30 Sensor Tower acquires App Magic for SMB market03:00 White hat hacker cracks AppLovin's mediation cipher05:30 What 50 device parameters means for ATT07:00 The Apple antitrust collision course08:00 Embracer writes down mobile arm by $192M09:30 Why the market expects another Embracer acquisition━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A 5-year-old location-based game just 5x'd its downloads. There were no new creatives. No new geos. No marketing push. Just one regional event that changed how the game actually works in Taiwan.We break down Pikmin Bloom by Niantic — the quiet survivor of the post-Pokemon-Go location-based wave that everyone forgot about, but which has been quietly making $30-50M/month for years and just spiked dramatically in early 2026. The conversation covers the Pikmin IP history, the game's walking-based resource-conversion mechanics, why 58% of revenue comes from Japan, the brutal scale comparison to Pokemon Go ($85M in 5 years vs $75M in 30 days), and the most interesting product story of the episode: Niantic's regional experiment in Taiwan where they moved mushroom locations weekly from November to February, driving a 5x download spike that's still scaling.The takeaway isn't about Pikmin specifically. It's about what product-driven UA looks like when creative-led UA stops moving the needle.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Pikmin Bloom is scaling, why?03:16 Pikmin history lesson — Nintendo IP, RTS origins06:16 The actual game: walking, flowers, Pikmin work for you13:01 The 5x download spike and Taiwan's surprise dominance14:53 The brutal comparison — Pikmin Bloom vs Pokemon Go17:01 The Japan IP rule: everything Nintendo touches is sacred24:12 The Niantic Taiwan experiment that changed everything━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Long-form playables aren't just back — they're crushing it. The top playable in April hit 75% impression share. Whiteout Survival is doing it with 3 new playables a month. And the format that's winning everywhere is the one your mum would recognize.Matej Lančarič is joined by Ondrej Monsberger and John Wright for another Playable Trends deep-dive. The crew goes through Sensor Tower's top playable creatives for April, focusing exclusively on long-form playables and what's actually driving impression share right now. The conversation covers the production trick of building one playable script and shipping 20 variations, why the "mum test" puzzle format is dominating, the BitLife "find the shoes" frustration mechanic, Royal Match's redirect-then-return experiment, and the awkward truth that Whiteout Survival made only three new playables in April but still has 99% impression share on puzzle creatives.If you make playables — or you're trying to understand why CPI keeps climbing despite shipping more creatives — this is the episode to bookmark.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 the "mum test" and recognizable formats02:24 Welcome — the never-ending playables debate revisited06:15 Sensor Tower setup and April's top long-form playables09:27 One script, 20 variations — the production playbook13:50 The completion-rate vs engagement-clicks tradeoff21:00 The 75% impression share playable of April25:48 Royal Match's redirect-then-return experiment30:05 Whiteout Survival: 99% impression share, 3 new playables38:24 Predictions for next month — and the arrows trend

The first AI-native programmatic stack for mobile publishers is real, and the early numbers are absurd. 10-20% revenue lifts across every publisher they've launched.Felix Braberg sits down with Dan Sack — Co-founder of CloudX, formerly MoPub, Twitter, Max, and AppLovin — for round two of their conversation, three months after CloudX went GA in February. The company now works with dozens of publishers, has five bidders fully live, a dozen more integrating, and a 35-person team. The pitch is "monetization as code" — a publisher platform where every setup lives in code and can be operated by humans OR AI agents.What's actually working today is the infrastructure layer: transparent fees, no competing ad network, verified auctions, and integration options that include first look, parallel, and standalone. The agentic capabilities are coming in Q3 — and that's the part that could reshape how publishers operate.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — dating app publisher up 14% revenue01:19 Round two intros + Dan's torn ACL update03:30 What CloudX has shipped since February GA04:39 Monetization as code: human + AI agent operated07:28 Felix's example: "kill DT for IAP whale cohorts"08:43 First look vs parallel vs standalone explained14:27 The real reason CloudX delivers 10-20% lifts24:14 Felix's pickle: 3 weeks of manual tuning, no AI yet32:19 The Q3 automation + intelligence layer roadmap━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Dream Games swore they would never add ads to Royal Match or Royal Kingdom. In February 2026, they quietly did it. Here's the proof — and what it means for the rest of the industry.Felix Braberg flies solo this week to break down the three biggest stories in mobile gaming: Playtika officially walking away from social casino to chase Disney Solitaire (with D2C revenue now at 62% of their IAP), Mistplay's acquisition of Mychips as the rewarded UA M&A wave begins, and the most interesting story of the week — Dream Games caught adding ads to Royal Kingdom via Wayback Machine forensics, generating an estimated $170-190K/day in interstitial and rewarded revenue while 6x'ing downloads in markets like Brazil.If Dream Games breaks, Playrix is next.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Royal Kingdom's $190K/day ad revenue01:25 Playtika exits social casino, casual is now 76% of business03:10 The D2C dark pool — Playtika now at 62% off-platform04:45 Mistplay acquires Mychips — the rewarded UA M&A wave07:00 Royal Kingdom's secret ads — Wayback Machine forensics08:30 The Brazil test — 25K to 150K downloads/day, IAP also up09:30 Top charts wrap — Magic Sword, Grand Games, Monopoly Go━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Rewarded UA used to be a test bed. In 2026, it's a third of your UA spend. Mistplay just made it easier to scale. We sit down with the full Mistplay leadership team — Tricia (CEO), Aaron (CCO), and Mark "Bear" Bearman (GM, B2B) — to unpack the launch of the Mistplay Audience Network. The conversation covers the state of rewarded UA in 2026, validating rewarded as a core channel, why the category is consolidating, what the MyAppFree acquisition actually unlocks for advertisers, and how the audience network expands Mistplay reach to MyAppFree and Connected Rewards inventory with a single check-box.If you've been treating rewarded UA as a tactical add-on rather than a core part of your stack, this episode is the wake-up call.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — what the audience network means for UA01:33 Welcome + guest intros (Tricia, Aaron, Bear)02:55 The state of rewarded UA in 202606:23 Survey data: rewarded UA at 20-30% of budgets07:29 The scale-vs-performance tension and the "patient path"13:17 What the audience network actually is, in plain English17:51 Brand budgets and the value-exchange opportunity23:00 The "tick a box" advertiser experience explained30:31 Where rewarded UA goes next — discovery + retention

The AppLovin setup playbook. No micromanaging, no manual optimization, no bullshit. UA template for you! Applovin UA explained!Solo for episode three of the MVP UA Template series (after Facebook and Google), this time breaking down AppLovin / Axon end-to-end. Tracking setup, campaign structure, bidding, ROAS targets, the new CPM-vs-CPI billing change, creative strategy, the real Axon dashboard with real numbers from his own game, and the patience required to actually scale.The headline lesson: AppLovin is a beast, but it really matters what you feed it. Garbage MMP signals = garbage results. Playables aren't optional. And the geo-bucket strategy that works on Facebook and Google does NOT work here — worldwide campaign with geo targets is the only sensible setup.If you've been avoiding AppLovin because it feels like a black box, this is the episode that demystifies it.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Axon dashboard preview02:20 Why AppLovin and what this episode covers04:14 Budget, MMP signals, and the "garbage in, garbage out" rule07:42 Worldwide campaign + geo targets (NOT geo buckets)10:58 D7 vs D28 ROAS — which attribution window to pick12:57 CPM vs CPI billing — the new setting most teams miss14:40 Creative strategy: 80% playables, 60 new per month17:59 Push budgets hard when something works (30-50%)━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A Chinese-developed Farmville replacement just shipped 4,000 AI-generated creatives in 30 days. And it's only making $30K/day. What's actually going on?We dig into Cozy Florist by Rift Sky Games — the Western counterpart to "My Garden Tale," which is already doing $10M/month in China. The game is a remarkably polished Farmville without the annoying resource puzzle, with stacked cores including flower-merging mechanics, Solitaire-association customer orders, gacha-style flower rarities, social raids, and TikTok Live integration baked into the metagame.But the puzzle is the creative volume. 4,000 ads in 30 days is Forex-scale UA output. The game is testing primarily in Philippines despite being released globally in December. And the revenue isn't moving in proportion. The hosts spend half the episode trying to figure out what's happening — and the conclusion they land on is uncomfortable for Western UA: this is what "second generation" Chinese UA looks like, and the West isn't ready.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 What's going on02:55 Cozy Florist walkthrough — Chinese fonts, sad-story onboarding05:21 Stacked cores — flower merging, Solitaire customers, gacha13:00 TikTok Live integration baked into the metagame16:44 Revenue reality — 90% China, 2% US, $30K/day21:31 4,000 AI creatives in 30 days — Forex-scale output25:21 Why this game isn't soft-launching like a Western game27:55 The "second generation UA" gap Chinese studios are openingGet our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

We sit down with Katie Madding (CEO, emhanceAI, ex-Adjust CPO) and John Hobson (founded user research at Bungie and Blizzard, 20+ years on Halo, Destiny, WoW). The conversation walks through two real case studies — a Skullgirls Mobile playtest and a creative comparison — using emhance AI's facial-emotion analysis (0.89 ROC AUC, basically "lie detector" precision).The findings are uncomfortable. Skullgirls' tutorial pauses combat to teach mechanics players don't need yet. Every level ends with 5 passive screens stacked back-to-back. And the creatives with "near-death experience" hooks within the first 4 seconds genuinely outperform — not because Chinese UA teams said so, but because the emotion data shows it.If you build games or ads for mobile, this is required viewing.The link to the report is here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0v1sLM0Peaksel case study: https://www.emhance.ai/success-stories/peaksel-emhance-case-study⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — designing the engagement curve01:30 Welcome + Katie and John intros03:48 How AI facial-emotion playtesting actually works07:57 Skullgirls case study: the first 15 minutes broken11:25 The attention budget — what it is, why it caps at 317:14 High vs low engagement moments in Skullgirls24:13 Creative case study: Cat Match Two vs Sheep Swipe One29:52 Why "near-death experience" creatives win — confirmed━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Every new mobile game is now a copy of a copy. And that's not a complaint — it's the strategy.We dig through the soft launch charts to surface 15+ new games released in the last three months. Voodoo's Block Pals (which is literally just Block Jam 3D again). Moon Active's two new merge games are chasing Gossip Harbor. Spike's Hexa Out, Quick Send, and Solitaire Sort. Grand Games hiding its new Aerogem on the Zimbabwe App Store to dodge takedowns. SuperSend's template-driven creative-first approach with FROZIA and Daily Farm Harvest Empire. Plus the bigger structural question: is Overwatch Rush actually going to make it?The pattern is clear - 80% works, 20% iteration. Every serious studio is following the same playbook. The question is who executes it best.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — merge is the new match-304:04 Field Day by Bitod — ex-Supercell startup goes GTA06:15 Overwatch Rush — Blizzard's mobile play (high CPI face)09:53 Moon Active's merge wave — Reality Bay + Family Bay12:43 Voodoo's Block Pals + Century's DakiMage Color Puzzle15:35 Turkish section — Rolik, Spike, Grand Games dominance25:16 Aerogem hidden on the Zimbabwe App Store27:00 Arrows hits 6.5M DAU — the new template everyone copies28:38 SuperSend's creative-first templates: FROZIA, Daily Farm— "80% works, 20% iteration" is now the default soft launch strategy. Every game in this episode is an iteration on a proven winner — Block Jam, Gossip Harbor, Pixel Flow, Lesmore's Arrows, Township, Last War Creative.— Merge is officially being treated as the new match-3. Moon Active alone has two new merge games in soft launch. Caveat: merge is much harder to balance and live-ops than match-3, so most of these will fail.— Grand Games is hiding its new game Aerogem on the Zimbabwe App Store specifically because legal teams from incumbents (likely MiniClip / Lesmore) don't operate there. This is apparently a real soft launch tactic now.— Spike has abandoned its main App Store account and is publishing everything from a new "testing" account, releasing Hexa Out, Quick Send, and Solitaire Sort in rapid succession with the same template strategy.--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiarPlease share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

MoonActive just launched the obvious counter-punch to Monopoly Go — and it's already pulling 2.2M monthly downloads against Monopoly Go's 1.8M, with 10x fewer creatives.We break down Coin Master Board Adventure end-to-end: the stacked core loops (board + merge + Klondike + bombs + idle tree pets), the static-vs-seasonal album split, the 5-pop-up energy trap, the UA creative library, the launch trajectory, and why social casino monetization is still a money printer that the rest of the industry can't crack.Plus the question that opens the episode and pretty much defines the genre: what is the D365 retention of users spending $5,000+ a month? (Spoiler: basically 100%.)If you work on UA, live-ops, or social casino product, this one's required viewing.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — D365 retention of $5K/month whales02:55 The setup: MoonActive's counter-launch to Monopoly Go04:13 Coin Master is a $70M/month plow horse — for years08:50 Walking the actual game: pop-ups, energy, board core13:12 Five stacked cores: merge, Klondike, bombs, idle tree20:00 Launch trajectory — $300K/day, 80K downloads/day21:27 UA creatives: 1.5K running, why CPIs stay at $90+31:21 Year-end predictions and the Las Vegas granny--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

The mobile gaming industry just posted record revenue ($195.6B) while simultaneously firing 44,000 developers. Here's what's actually going on.Matej Lančarič flies solo this week to break down the five stories that matter most: NTE's massive global launch, IronSource's official shutdown after one of the worst acquisitions in mobile gaming history, the State of Mobile Gaming 2026 report and what its genre data really tells us, Adam Foroughi's spicy 20VC interview, and Google's ad tech antitrust ruling that's about to reshape programmatic advertising.Five stories, one signal: the market growth is real but extremely concentrated. If you're not in the right two genres or one of the live-service giants, you're competing for table scraps.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Record revenue, record layoffs paradox00:50 NTE / Neverness to Everness global launch02:30 IronSource is officially dead — RIP $4.4B acquisition03:45 $195.6B revenue + 44K layoffs — the concentration story05:15 Adam Foroughi on 20VC — $83M payday, AI, layoffs05:45 Google ad tech antitrust ruling — what comes next06:30 Closing — the week ahead━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Welcome to Review Radar #11 — the "broken dreams and hopes" edition. We revisit every game they reviewed between September and December last year to see which ones survived, which ones got killed, and which ones genuinely broke through.The verdict is brutal. AceCraft dropped from 800K downloads a day to 4K. Galaxy Defense never scaled. The Squad Busters of the world joined Supercell's graveyard. But there were real winners: The Tower, Level Devil, Sunday City (the "Casino GTA"), and Heads Down all proved that smart design beats hype every time.If you want to understand what actually predicts mobile game survival, this is the episode.#mobilegaming #gamedesign #useracquisition #liveops #f2pGet our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠ Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — "broken dreams" radar incoming01:51 AceCraft, Galaxy Defense and the September graveyard07:54 The Tower — one of the best games we've reviewed12:01 Sudoku Master and the puzzle category check-in20:11 The Supercell post-2018 graveyard + MoCo's slow death28:38 Sunday City — the "Casino GTA" winning at $100K/day34:00 Final verdict — who survived and who didn't---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

How do you pick the right core for your next puzzle hit?Jakub Remiar breaks down the methodology behind some of the most successful puzzle launches of the last two years — Domino Dreams, Magic Sword, Block Out, Hexa Out, Arrow Gem — and explains the pattern that connects all of them.The short version: stop trying to invent new cores. Find a puzzle sub-genre that already has massive download volume but is monetized almost entirely through ads. Take that core, wrap it in level-based design, blockers, and live-ops polish, and convert the ad-revenue audience into IAP players. Domino Dreams did it with Domino. Magic Sword did it with Water Sort. Block Out did it with Color Block Jam. Same playbook every time.This is the video to send to anyone who asks "what genre should I build in next."Potensus is a premium ad network built by people who've actually been on both sides of this industry - game publishers, agencies, and successful exits. They get it.Here's the thing - Potensus has direct deals with Amazon, Apple, Coca-Cola, Vodafone. Not programmatic. Direct. Those budgets land in your game at premium CPMs, no middleman tax.And they handle everything with their in-house team. PLUS they're partnered with PlayableMaker WINK WINK - so they'll take a brand's YouTube video or a static banner and actually turn it into a playable ad or rewarded video. Proper interactive format, built for gaming inventory. Brands getting a gaming-native creative, publishers getting higher CPMs. Everyone wins.Head to potensus.com to get started or check their creative portfolio here https://vimeo.com/showcase/12093300?fl=so&fe=fs⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Intro — how to pick a core for a new puzzle game02:21 Domino Dreams: capturing the Domino category05:20 Magic Sword: turning Water Sort into IAP gold07:50 Spyke Games / Combo Games portfolio strategy10:50 Hexa Out — when iteration becomes innovation13:00 Grand Games portfolio: the templatization machine15:55 Arrow Gem: the obvious next move after Lesmore's Arrows17:30 Why this is a lottery — and consistency wins it18:30 Closing methodology: pick your strengths, know your shot

Township just hit $45M/month - at 17 years old. How?We sit down with Erno Kiiski (Game Refinery, a Liftoff company) to dissect what is arguably the most underrated transformation in mobile gaming: how Playrix quietly turned an evergreen farming tycoon into a stealth match-3 game with the tycoon repurposed as a UA funnel.We trace 17 years of Township across five eras — from Facebook Canvas farming sim to hyper-casual mini-game platform to its current form, where match-3 is the main engine and the tycoon is essentially the onboarding. Plus a year-by-year archaeology dig through Township's UA creatives from 2019 to 2026: Pull the Pin, Golden Goblins, Idle Lumber, King Shot iterations, and AI-generated ads.If you work in mobile games, product, or UA — this episode will change how you think about evergreen titles, portfolio strategy, and the CPI/LTV equation.Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej Lancaric⁠Special Guest: Erno Kiiski https://www.linkedin.com/in/erno-kiiski/Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters00:00 - Epic intro01:23 - Welcome + Game Refinery intro with Erno Kiiski03:36 — Why Township now ($45M/month)07:29 — The five eras of Township20:37 — Pull the Pin and the Playrix portfolio play23:00 — 2021: when the puzzle became the core38:24 — Disco Ball and sense-of-urgency design57:47 — The January 2026 currency inflation play1:18:21 — Township is a UA funnel, not a tycoon1:19:32 — The Reverse 4X concept1:23:08 — UA creatives archaeology: 2019 → 20261:47:38 — Is Playrix now bigger than Dream Games?---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

Habby goes ALL-IN on midcore… and removes adsToday, we break down Dicero, the latest game from Habby — and honestly, it's one of the most surprising strategy shifts we've seen in a while.

Today, we finally break down one of the most overlooked parts of UA strategy - playable ads.https://lancaric.substack.com/p/playable-ads-trends-in-mobile-games-b16?r=7qqafAnd the truth is…

In this episode of Two and a Half Gamers, we break down over 120 AI-powered creatives and uncover what's actually working in 2026.From Golden Goblins physics hooks to Last Asylum's 70% AI-assisted pipeline, the scale is insane — with some games launching thousands of creatives and iterating faster than ever.We dive into:

Major shifts in mobile gaming, UA, and investmentsThis week's Two and a Half Gamers Breaking News covers three massive trends shaping the industry right now:

We break down the latest creative trends shaping mobile game marketing in 2026.And honestly… things are getting weird.We cover:

In this solo episode of Two and a Half Gamers, Felix breaks down one of the most underrated growth levers in mobile gaming — your mediation setup.The reality is that ad monetization performance varies massively by geo — especially in Tier 4 markets like India and Indonesia. Low-end devices, low LTV, and poor fill rates create a completely different optimization problem compared to Tier 1 markets.The biggest unlock is not adding more networks. It's designing your mediation stack around constraints. Device filtering, delayed ad loading, language segmentation, and local demand sources can significantly increase revenue without increasing DAU.The takeaway is simple.If your mediation setup is the same globally…you are leaving money on the table.This episode is brought to you by Potensus. If you're a mobile game publisher tired of leaving money on the table - listen up.Potensus is a premium ad network built by people who've actually been on both sides of this industry - game publishers, agencies, and successful exits. They get it.Here's the thing - Potensus has direct deals with Amazon, Apple, Coca-Cola, Vodafone. Not programmatic. Direct. Those budgets land in your game at premium CPMs, no middleman tax.And they handle everything with their in-house team. PLUS they're partnered with PlayableMaker WINK WINK - so they'll take a brand's YouTube video or a static banner and actually turn it into a playable ad or rewarded video. Proper interactive format, built for gaming inventory. Brands getting a gaming-native creative, publishers getting higher CPMs. Everyone wins.Head to potensus.com to get started or check their creative portfolio here https://vimeo.com/showcase/12093300?fl=so&fe=fs---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters00:00 Intro + why mediation matters01:20 What are Tier 4 geos02:30 Ad loading strategy (critical!)05:30 Avoiding ANRs on low-end devices08:00 Mediation setup for India11:30 Fill rate problems and solutions13:30 Indonesia best practices15:30 Banner optimization tricks16:50 Japan bonus strategy18:00 Final thoughts---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

We break down one of the biggest and most misunderstood “games” in the world - NYT Games Wordle & crossword.With over 8.5 million DAU, this app sits among the largest mobile games globally.But here's the twist:

This week's Breaking News covers one of the most important shifts happening right now across mobile gaming and ad tech.Here's what's happening:

In this episode of Two and a Half Gamers, we break down Butcher Hero / Hook RPG, a new game from Multicast that's currently pulling 20–30K downloads per day , but struggling to reach the scale of its predecessor, Alien Invasion.At first glance, the concept is strong:• Warcraft-inspired hook mechanics• Idle-RPG progression• Weapon-based scaling and map farmingBut after hours of gameplay, the cracks start to show.We dive into:• Why the game feels like a grinding simulator• Missing meta systems and progression loops• Why ad monetization doesn't scale with player progress• How strong UA creatives are masking gameplay issuesGet our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters00:00 pure grind02:00 What Butcher Hero actually is04:30 Warcraft / Dota inspiration explained07:00 Core loop: farming, timers, repetition10:00 Weapon system and scaling issues13:00 Why the map feels empty16:00 Missing meta systems vs Alien Invasion19:00 Event system and progression bottlenecks22:00 Ad monetization problems (no scaling)25:00 IAP pressure and VIP system28:00 UA strategy and creative analysis32:00 Why creatives are better than gameplay35:00 Revenue, downloads and scaling potential37:00 Final verdict : needs “magic” to grow---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

In this solo episode of Two and a Half Gamers, Jakub breaks down 5 advanced ad placements that are actively driving revenue in top mobile games.No theory. No fluff. Just practical systems you can implement today.He covers:

This puzzle game feels like work… but it's making moneyIn this episode of Two and a Half Gamers, we break down Brilliant Sort, a puzzle game by Belka Games that is scaling fast - despite gameplay that feels more like a chore than entertainment.With around 50K DAU and strong monetization, the game proves once again that in mobile gaming, player psychology beats gameplay innovation.We analyze:• Why “cleaning mechanics” are so addictive• How extreme friction drives monetization• Why UA creatives are completely fake (and still work)• How this fits into the broader “sort game boom”Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠ Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters00:00 First reaction — this feels like work01:30 What Brilliant Sort actually is03:00 Why this screams UA play05:00 Core gameplay (and why it's painful)08:00 The “cleaning / sorting” psychology11:00 Monetization breakdown (coins, ads, friction)14:00 Why difficulty is intentional17:00 DAU vs revenue reality19:00 UA strategy and fake creatives22:00 AI creatives and concept diversity25:00 Scale potential (60–100K/day ceiling?)27:30 Final verdict---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

Layoffs, closures, and major strategy shifts across gamingThis week in Two and a Half Gamers Breaking News, we cover one of the toughest weeks for the gaming industry — with layoffs, shutdowns, and major strategic pivots across multiple companies.Here's what happened:

Today, we break down Castle Clashers, a new game from Voodoo that's generating $220K+ daily revenue and scaling aggressively with 100K downloads per day.But this is not your typical Voodoo game.It combines:• Artillery shooter gameplay (Worms-style)• Clash Royale-inspired gacha systems• Heavy-rewarded ad monetization• Aggressive UA scalingWe dive into why this hybrid approach works, where it breaks industry “rules”, and why this could be a blueprint for the next generation of midcore-lite games.Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters00:00 intro02:00 Gameplay breakdown (Worms-style combat)05:00 Why the core loop works09:00 Repetition problem vs retention12:00 The “Voodoo gacha” explained16:00 Why this breaks traditional gacha rules20:00 Rewarded ads as progression engine23:00 Ad monetization vs IAP balance26:00 Category analysis (Artillery Shooter)29:00 UA strategy and creative volume32:00 Why creatives are weak (and still scale)34:00 Missed creative opportunities36:00 Final verdict---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

In this special episode, we sit down with Tactile Games and Loomit to break down how ad monetization actually works at scale - using Lily's Garden as a real-world example.https://loomit.ai/https://meetings.hubspot.com/iortizf/25gamers?uuid=c4c16368-14b8-4277-9ab2-ab55d5614c2d - to book a meetingFrom segmentation and A/B testing to dynamic floors, multiple ad units, and user-level optimization — this episode goes deep into the systems behind modern ad revenue.We also tackle the biggest challenges in ad monetization today:• Cannibalization vs incremental revenue• Ad quality vs revenue trade-offs• Why most setups leave money on the table• How AI and automation are changing AdMon

In this episode of Two and a Half Gamers, we break down one of the strangest success stories in mobile gaming right now — Yarn Loop.Despite having a relatively small player base, the game is already generating millions in revenue, driven by strong Tier 1 users, efficient monetization, and heavy AppLovin scaling strategies.We explore how this “Pixel Flow-inspired” puzzle game evolved into a top performer, why iteration beats originality in today's market, and how studios like Spyke are building scalable puzzle machines using templates, AI, and ruthless execution.

Subway Surfers City just hit 10 million downloads in 3 weeks — but is it actually a good business?We tear apart Sybo's long-awaited follow-up to one of the most downloaded games in history. We break down the gameplay, the surprisingly advanced (and stingy) economy, Felix's obsession with the ad placements, and why the UA setup is basically a ghost town despite having MiniClip's full weight behind it.After 5+ years of development in Denmark and a soft launch back in July 2024, Subway Surfers City finally went global — but the numbers are already declining. Is this a profitable sequel or a $20K/day money pit that'll never recoup its dev costs?Topics covered:Game breakdown: gacha system, hoverboards, shard economy, modes & daily trialsAd monetization deep dive: 8 rewarded ads/day cap, ad boxes, interstitials done rightWhy Felix wants to sell you a subscription to watch MORE adsRevenue reality: ~$100K/day total, DAU at 730K and shrinkingUA analysis: 51 creatives, mostly Facebook, no AdROAS, no AppLovin — why?The organic trap: can Subway Surfers City ever escape the shadow of the original?Cross-promo mystery: 16M monthly downloads next door and zero funnel into CityWas this game worth building at all?Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters00:00 intro02:38 Game overview – What is Subway Surfers City?04:13 Background – Sybo, MiniClip, and the original game05:49 Monetization model – IAPs vs. the original's ad-only approach06:26 Ad placements deep dive – Rewarded ads, revives, doubler07:32 Economy breakdown – Shard gacha, currencies, and the 8-ad daily cap21:13 Felix's wild idea – Pay to watch MORE ads22:07 Interstitial placement & eCPM balance23:37 Numbers – Downloads, DAU, revenue26:14 Revenue reality – $20K/day IAP, ~$100K/day total31:03 UA breakdown – 51 creatives, Facebook only, no AdROAS33:05 Why is the UA so weak? MiniClip, earn-outs, LTV issues36:06 Cross-promo – Why isn't Subway Surfers 1 pushing City?39:10 Final verdict – Was this game worth making?Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiarPlease share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

I automated my weekly UA reporting using AppsFlyer MCP and it took less than 15 minutes to set up. https://bit.ly/4lMS8jMEvery week, I was doing the same painful thing: opening AppsFlyer for one client, then another, then another. 10 accounts, 10 dashboards, hours gone before the week even starts. Not anymore.In this episode, I walk you through the exact setup I use - live, on screen - so you can copy it for your own accounts today.What you'll learn:→ What MCP (Model Context Protocol) actually is, in plain UA terms→ How to connect AppsFlyer MCP to n8n (or Claude Desktop / ChatGPT)→ How to build an automated weekly UA report in under 20 minutes→ How to deliver reports to Slack, email, Notion, Google Sheets — wherever you work→ How to scale to 10+ client accounts using a multi-agent setup→ What's coming next: creative fatigue alerts, spend cap monitoring, and moreThis works whether you're an internal UA manager with one app or a consultant running campaigns for multiple clients. No coding required.— Links mentioned —AppsFlyer MCP GitHub (open source): https://github.com/AppsFlyerKnowledge/appsflyer-ai-agents-examplesAppsFlyer MCP setup guide + templates: https://bit.ly/4lMS8jMAppsFlyer workflow library (executive summary, caps alert, and more): https://bit.ly/4lMS8jMn8n (free automation tool): https://n8n.ioMy Companion article (step-by-step written guide): My newsletter (Sub Stack): https://lancaric.substack.com/p/i-tested-all-10-new-appsflyer-products— Chapters —00:00 Why I hate weekly UA reporting01:45 What is MCP — the 2-minute version03:30 Where to find AppsFlyer templates and the workflow library05:00 Step 1: Get your AppsFlyer MCP token06:30 Step 2: Connect to n8n and set up credentials08:15 Step 3: Run your first automated report10:30 Customising metrics — CPI, ROAS, creative performance12:00 Delivering reports to Slack, email, Notion, Sheets13:30 Scaling to multiple accounts: the multi-agent setup— Who this is for —UA managers, growth marketers, and mobile gaming consultants who run campaigns on AppsFlyer and want to automate the parts of their job that don't require human thinking.#MobileUA #AppsFlyer #MCP #UAautomation #MobileGaming #UserAcquisition #n8n #AIautomation---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

In this episode of Two and a Half Gamers, we break down the insane launch strategy behind Last Asylum: Plague by 37 Entertainment - a game that mixes onboarding mini-games, massive AI-driven creative production, and aggressive scaling tactics that could define the next phase of the 4X market.From My Perfect Hotel-style onboarding loops to hundreds of AI-generated creatives flooding ad networks, this launch shows how Chinese publishers are building growth machines that are almost impossible to compete with.Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters00:00 Why the Last Asylum launch is shocking02:10 Fake-ad onboarding becomes real gameplay05:10 My Perfect Hotel mechanics inside a 4X08:40 Star gating progression and retention design12:00 Building pressure systems and event timers15:10 Alliance onboarding and server population tricks18:00 Early performance data and Tier-1 scaling22:00 Comparing launch trajectory vs King Shot26:30 Chinese revenue reality vs Western dashboards30:00 AI production pipeline and creative volume34:00 Creative strategy breakdown and winning concepts39:30 Playables gap and future scaling potential42:30 Final prediction — biggest 4X of 2026?---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

Mobile Gaming & AI Industry Breaking News. This week's biggest stories reveal major shifts in platform power, investment flows and UA channel consolidation.In this Breaking News segment of Two and a Half Gamers, Felix explains:• How Apple is making nearly $1B from generative AI apps despite lacking a clear AI product strategy• Why new mobile gaming funding rounds signal renewed investor confidence• The strategic acquisition of JustPlay by NCsoft for $200M• Why rewarded UA companies are starting to consolidate globally• How Nazara's acquisition strategy shows the rise of owned-traffic ecosystemsThe episode highlights a key trend:Distribution and monetization infrastructure are becoming more valuable than individual game launches.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

Slay the Spire 2 just proved that game design still winsIn this episode of Two and a Half Gamers, we break down one of the biggest indie launches in recent years.Slay the Spire 2 reportedly generated over $100M in revenue within two weeks of early access, driven by massive wishlist numbers, Twitch coverage and an already legendary community built over nearly a decade.The hosts discuss why the game works despite minimal visual upgrades, how roguelite deck-building loops create extreme engagement, and why premium PC launches can still outperform heavily marketed mobile titles.They also explore the marketing blueprint behind the launch: massive media coverage, creator distribution, and community-driven hype instead of traditional paid UA.Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters00:00 $100M early access shock02:10 Slay the Spire history and genre impact04:30 Community scale and Steam metrics06:40 Why small teams can win big08:10 Deck-builder gameplay loop explained12:00 Progression depth and content volume16:30 Why engagement beats graphics19:40 Premium pricing and revenue math23:50 Community power and long-term hype27:00 Marketing without UA spend30:30 Mobile port opportunity discussion33:40 Revenue predictions and future outlook---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

Influencer marketing in mobile gaming is growing fast, but most campaigns still fail. Not because creators are bad or games are weak. The real problem is setup.In this episode of Two and a Half Gamers, Marion breaks down the real execution framework behind profitable influencer campaigns. From defining goals and calculating budgets to choosing the right creators and measuring organic uplift, this episode is a practical guide built on real campaign experience.You will learn why organic traffic matters more than tracked installs, how to calculate the minimum views needed to see impact, and why influencer vertical testing should follow strict profitability ratios.If you are running influencer marketing or planning to test it as a UA channel, this episode gives you the playbook.

How Super Bear Adventure Became a Massive Ad Revenue MachineIn this episode of Two and a Half Gamers, Matej, Jakub and Felix break down one of the most surprising mobile success stories right now.Super Bear Adventure looks like a nostalgic low-budget console platformer.But behind the simple visuals hides a huge scale business driven by ads, social features and organic traffic.The game reached millions of daily active users, especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets like Indonesia, Brazil and Russia.Instead of relying on paid UA, growth seems to be fueled by YouTube content, multiplayer updates and strong exploration gameplay loops.The hosts analyze the monetization design, rewarded revive mechanics, cosmetic economy and why this game could be earning tens of millions per year despite 0 marketing spend.Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipgChaptersSome studios spend millions on UA, build Hollywood trailers, hire growth ninjas…and still pray for scale.Then this cozy little bear shows up.Looks like it escaped from a 1999 console game.Movement is clunky.UI feels like it was built during a power cut.And it's casually pulling millions of players and huge ad revenue.No massive marketing push.No creative testing war room.No Meta rep screaming about ROAS.Just exploration.Multiplayer vibes.And rewarded revives printing money.Meanwhile somewhere a product team is debatingwhether the grass shader feels premium enough for soft launch.The lesson?Players don't scale because your game is beautiful.They scale because your game is fun, sticky and everywhere.This bear didn't need better graphics.It needed session length.And honestly…that's the most mobile gaming story ever.---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

This week's biggest industry stories come straight from GDC announcements, platform changes and new market predictions.Here's what we cover:

In this episode of Two and a Half Gamers, we run Steam Scanner to look at the latest PC games that are quietly exploding in revenue.Why does this matter for mobile?Because some of the biggest mobile hits originally came from PC trends first. Studios that watch Steam early often get a 12–24 month head start on mechanics that later dominate mobile charts.We break down several surprising titles, including Escape From Duckoff, which generated nearly $70M, and discuss why quirky concepts, niche genres, and experimental mechanics on Steam often become the next big opportunity for mobile studios.If you want to know what mobile games might look like in 1–2 years, Steam is still one of the best places to look.Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠Podcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipgChapters00:00 A $70M Steam Surprise01:05 Intro – The Steam Scanner02:05 Why Steam Trends Matter For Mobile04:15 Escape From Darkhoff Breakdown07:10 Why Weird Steam Games Win10:20 Steam Mechanics Mobile Studios Should Watch14:05 The Next Wave Of Mobile Inspiration18:20 Genre Experiments Working On Steam22:30 What Mobile Studios Usually Miss26:10 Which Games Could Actually Port To Mobile30:15 Final Thoughts & Biggest Opportunities---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai