Playio Blog

How to design in-game currency for mobile F2P: soft vs premium currency, faucets and sinks, price ladders, ad payouts, the metrics they move, and 2026 rules.

How to run a Steam Playtest in 2026: setup, open vs limited signups, Playtest vs demo vs beta, recruiting testers, metrics, and a pre-launch pilot plan.

App Store and Google Play fees for games as of October 2026: new Play rates, Apple US link-outs, EU and Japan terms, web shop costs, and net revenue math.

How to turn Steam store page visits into wishlists in 2026: wishlist rate math, what visitors see first, what to fix, who to hire, and a 4-week test plan.

ARPPU meaning in mobile games: the formula with a worked example, ARPU = ARPPU × payer conversion, gross vs net, 2026 benchmarks, and how whales skew it.

A 2026 game genres list for mobile marketers: how stores and data firms classify genres, plus each genre's monetization mix, retention, CPI and revenue share.

App Store pre-order vs Google Play pre-registration for games: 2026 setup rules, launch-day behavior, rewards, conversion tracking, and a 12-week plan.

What IPM means, the formula, 2026 mobile game IPM benchmarks by genre, OS, format and channel, and how many impressions a creative test needs.

Steam capsule art in 2026: official sizes, Valve's rules, small-size legibility, artist costs, testing without an A/B tool, and wishlist conversion data.

MAU meaning in mobile games: 28-day vs calendar-month windows, the DAU/MAU stickiness formula with an example, genre benchmarks, and when the ratio misleads.

Estimate mobile game ad revenue with one formula: DAU, impressions per DAU, fill rate and eCPM. 2026 inputs, three worked examples, ad LTV and forecast traps.

A game studio's guide to buying ASO services: what agencies do, agency vs tool vs in-house, 2026 prices, measuring impact, red flags, and a 90-day pilot.

Holiday advertising for mobile games as of October 2026: how CPM and CPI move from Black Friday to January, plus a week-by-week Q4 UA calendar.

How game studios choose an influencer marketing platform or gaming agency: types, pricing models, creator vetting, contract terms, RFP questions and a pilot.

2026 mobile game ad CTR benchmarks by channel, format and OS, how CTR feeds IPM and CPI, and when a high CTR signals accidental clicks rather than real interest.

Cross-promotion for mobile game portfolios: formats, real cost vs paid UA, cannibalization data, holdout measurement, and options for single-title studios.

App promotion services for mobile games compared by type: what each one buys, pricing, when it fits, how to measure it, red flags, and a pilot budget split.

How game studios should calculate customer acquisition cost: blended vs paid CAC, cost per payer, a worked example, LTV:CAC targets, and payback by genre.

How game UA teams buy offerwall advertising: CPI/CPA/CPE and multi-event payouts, pricing each event from LTV, fraud controls, RFP questions and a pilot plan.

2026 mobile game eCPM benchmarks by ad format, region and OS, why sources disagree by up to 4x, what moves eCPM, and how the Q4 price window really behaves.

Self-publish or sign with a game publisher? What publishers actually provide, typical revenue shares and recoupment terms, and why UA capability now decides the deal.

How to choose a mobile advertising platform for your game in 2026: platform types, evaluation criteria, an RFP question list, and a 2-4 week pilot design.

How game studios use Discord from pre-launch to LiveOps: server structure, onboarding, moderation cost, how to measure impact, and where it stops working.

A buyer's guide to CPA (cost per action) advertising for mobile games: which in-game action to pay for, how to set the bid from LTV, fraud controls, and what to ask vendors.

A practical guide to incrementality testing for mobile game UA: holdout, ghost ads, PSA and geo-lift designs, sample size and duration, and reading lift against attribution and MMM.

Web2app works for subscription apps, but games are a different funnel. What changes after Google Play's 2026 external payment rules, and where web2app actually fits.

Lifecycle marketing for mobile games in 2026: why 74% of studios call it their top retention lever while 80% say tactics have gone stale, and how to design stages that work.

What one interstitial really costs in retention: 2026 frequency benchmarks, Google Play's Better Ads rules, and how to judge installs bought on full-screen inventory.

Agency, in-house team, or direct with ad platforms? A 2026 framework for game studios comparing UA cost structures, data ownership, and fit by stage.

Offerwall benchmarks for 2026 from neutral sources: real retention lift, revenue an offerwall adds, when it cannibalizes IAP, and how to read 20% claims.

What UGC ads look like in mobile game UA, why creator clips often beat trailers, how to brief creators, and where AI UGC fits under 2026 disclosure rules.

What an MMP actually sees in 2026, how Android attribution works after Privacy Sandbox, and the four misreads that make three dashboards disagree on installs.

ARPDAU explained: formula, 2026 benchmarks by genre and region, the misreads that fool UA teams, and how to turn it into a CPI ceiling and LiveOps read.

Installs fell 12% while gaming ad spend rose 8% in H1 2026. How a mobile game should structure app install campaigns by channel, optimization event, and budget.

Playables run 4.8 IPM against video's 2.9 and fatigue in 15 days instead of 9. What the 2026 numbers say about when playable ads earn their production cost.

Mobile game CPI ranges from $0.08 to $60 depending on genre, platform, and region. The 2026 benchmark tables, and why a single average tells you nothing.

Platform subscriptions added $4.8B and 52% of US gamers now subscribe to something. Where subscription fits in mobile game revenue, and who it actually suits.

Southeast Asia holds roughly 350 million gamers on an Android-first, low-ARPU base. How the six major markets differ, and what that means for UA planning.

Next Fest amplifies momentum rather than creating it. What the February 2026 data says about wishlist outcomes, and how to prepare a demo six months out.

Averages hide the players who actually decide your revenue. How RFM and behavioral segmentation work in mobile games, and how to feed segments back into UA.

Hybrid-casual delivers 5-20x the LTV of hyper-casual with D7 retention of 15-22%. The economics behind the genre shift, and how the IAP-ad mix actually works.

Top gaming advertisers now ship 2,400+ creative variations a quarter, half AI-made. Volume is easy now — here is how to keep judgment, brand, and data quality.

With usable identity coverage down to 30-60%, attribution alone cannot steer budgets. How media mix modeling works for mobile games, and when to adopt it.