We go deep on Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Japan’s gacha horse girl sensation, and a masterclass in roguelite meta complexity. With real horse DNA, multi-layered training runs, six gacha layers, and a live ops cadence that powers up to 72 million dollars per launch month, Uma Musume is a unicorn in the global market—an RPG sim that’s too Japanese for most of the West, but a billion-dollar franchise at home. What’s inside: Japan-First, World-Second: Ninety-five percent of all revenue still comes from...
Jul 07, 2025•1 hr 6 min
We dissect the phenomenon of FPS Strike, a low-poly, Counter-Strike-inspired mobile shooter racking up more than 4 million DAU, mostly across India, Pakistan, Brazil, Egypt, and Southeast Asia. Despite its massive scale, nearly everything about the game is stuck in the “admon nightmare” zone—zero iOS presence, almost no user acquisition, unoptimized ad stack, endless rewarded ads, and zero LiveOps. Yet, even with all those gaps, it is still a money-printing machine, generating $30,000 to $50,000...
Jul 03, 2025•38 min
Paul West, founder of Fumb Games, joins Two and a Half Gamers to share the real growth story behind the studio’s breakout year. From Bitcoin Miner’s $10 million run to the launch of Idle Mine and a creative rebrand that hit $1 million in sixty days, Paul explains how ruthless UA strategy, creative expansion, and a “cut what doesn’t work” mindset allowed a lean team to scale tenfold—right in the middle of the industry’s hardest year. What’s inside: UA: Bigger Risks, Smarter Focus Fumb Games ditch...
Jul 02, 2025•20 min
We break down Wittle Defender, Habby’s latest departure from the mass market, blending deep meta, squad RPG mechanics, and a relentless gacha system. This is not another Survivor IO. It is a meta monster built for hardcore RPG fans, multi-layered progression, gear grind, rune systems, and dozens of monetization hooks. But is it too deep for global scale? What’s inside: Meta Gone Wild Gacha and Progression More Modes, More Monetization Deep automation and idle mechanics Ad Revenue Shrinks UA and ...
Jun 30, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Today, we deep-dive into Raid Rush, the Turkish-made tower defense game that is bringing roguelike deck-building, build-your-own-path mechanics, and IP crossovers to the top of the mobile charts. The crew unpacks why this game feels so deep, why Korean and US players are eating it up, and how the game balances heavy progression, smart ad placements, and old-school strategy with real modern LiveOps. What’s inside: A Real Tower Defense for 2025: Raid Rush lets you build your own road, place towers...
Jun 26, 2025•48 min
In this episode, Two and a Half Gamers sit down with Shobeir Shobeiri, Director of Publisher Sales at Moloco, to give the industry’s most practical, no-BS crash course on the history, mechanics, and real money in mobile ad monetization. From the origins of banners to today’s machine-learning DSPs, the crew demystifies ad tech jargon, reveals the margins and secrets behind every middleman, and lays out what every publisher needs to know about maximizing revenue in 2025. What’s inside: The Evoluti...
Jun 25, 2025•43 min
Today, we break down Carnival Tycoon: the “idle” game that’s really a Trojan Horse for social casino and slot machine mechanics. We compare every feature, monetization trick, and creative strategy to Coin Master, Monopoly Go, and the social casino giants. Find out how Carnival Tycoon hit five million dollars a month, why rewarded ads are hidden everywhere, and what makes this copycat succeed where others flop. You will learn: Why Carnival Tycoon is more social casino than idle, and how it fakes ...
Jun 23, 2025•49 min
We tackle the legacy and latest iteration of Puzzle & Dragons, the game that defined Japanese mobile gaming and reached a mind-blowing five billion dollars in lifetime revenue. From wild metagame depth and monster collection to why Western players just never clicked with the formula, the crew unpacks the hits, misses, and museum-piece vibes of a true industry legend. What’s inside: No Gacha in the Gacha Game? Cultural Roots Run Deep Museum Piece, Not Modern Hit Game Design DNA Ads, UA, and P...
Jun 19, 2025•35 min
In this brutally honest episode, Matej interviews Zino Rost Van Tonningen, CEO of Tyr Ads, live from MAU (with zero construction noise this time). The focus is on running rewarded UA without getting burned by fraud, bad partners, or weak setups. Zino shares knowledge from his journey through agency work, the wild world of offer walls, and leading Tyr Ads from rewards app to global SDK powerhouse. What’s inside: The Fraud Playbook: How faked events, cheat engines, and emulator hackers can drain $...
Jun 18, 2025•47 min
We break down BitLife, a simulation game that proves you do not need flashy graphics or complex meta to print money. With an aggressive monetization model, evergreen retention, and a loyal fanbase, BitLife has been going strong for over seven years, now pulling in more than $110,000 a day, with ad revenue making up half of its total income. What’s inside: Ad Monetization on Steroids: Interstitial ads hit you right from the tutorial, with a cooldown of 70 seconds, banners refresh every five secon...
Jun 16, 2025•46 min
We just dropped our latest episode, and it is a must-watch for anyone building or buying mobile game ads. We break down the biggest trends ripping through the creative market: AI hooks and seamless transitions: five art styles in five minutes, and the line between real and fake is now a blur. Celebrities everywhere: Monica, Phoebe, LeBron, Christina Aguilera, even C-tier cameos nobody asked for Satisfying gold bars, drowning waifus, and cruelty hooks: Virality still rules the creative graveyard....
Jun 12, 2025•58 min
Legend alert. In this episode, we sit down with Jane Whittaker, a developer, executive, and innovator whose career spans from coding 8-bit chart toppers and Atari’s biggest hits to shaping the DNA of open-world, survival, and RPGs. Jane shares candid stories from the 1980s video game crash, building Alien vs. Predator with just two programmers, working with Sid Meier and Mike Singleton, and steering giants like EA and MGM. What’s inside: Real Video Game History Indie Roots and All-In Dev: From w...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Today, we sit down with Supersonic’s Samantha Benjamin and Guy Agiv to discuss the hit game Screw Master 3D. From adapting trends out of China to hybrid monetization tricks and creative secrets, this episode is packed with actionable insights for anyone in mobile gaming. What you’ll learn: How Screwmaster 3D’s physics-puzzle and meta layers drive insane engagement The models and tactics behind maximizing eCPMs and LTV in ad-heavy games The secret to rapid adaptation, culturalization, and scaling...
Jun 09, 2025•1 hr 20 min
We just dropped a new Review Radar episode in which we examined every major mobile game from the last three months. Some are breaking the ‘podcast curse’ and scaling up, others are stuck in stable dinosaur mode, and a few are just… lost. Highlights: Triple Match City and Color Block Jam are stacking revenue with surprising ARPU and ad mixes Royal Kingdom and Pokémon Sleep show that audience and IP still trump any new feature Cloning is the new normal, but most ‘copy-paste’ games never hit the KP...
Jun 05, 2025•48 min
In this special episode recorded LIVE at MAU, Matej Lančarič sits down with Noa Gutterman (VP UA, Misplay) and Brett (Senior Manager, UA, Misplay) for a no-BS deep dive into the business and creative secrets powering Misplay’s explosive growth, and their high-stakes launch on iOS. Brutally honest breakdown: How Misplay overcame App Store hurdles to launch on iOS Incrementality testing, the “always-on” strategy that’s blowing up the myth of last-touch attribution Building a predictive PLTV signal...
Jun 04, 2025•45 min
In this brutally honest episode, the 2.5 Gamers crew and puzzle expert Laura Taranto dive into Century Games’ match-3 ambitions, dissecting new titles like Family Farm Match, Party Match, and Truckstar. Once a 4X and farming powerhouse, Century is now flooding the puzzle genre with games and wild creative tests, but is there any real strategy?We break down:The copy-paste engine and meta behind Party Match and Family Farm MatchTruckstar’s unique angle and why it’s struggling to scaleUA and creati...
Jun 02, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Running UA on AppLovin in 2025? Don’t waste another dollar until you hear this. In this episode, we sit down with Alexis Lejeune (ex-AppLovin, now UA advisor) to dive deep into how AppLovin’s UA stack really works — including how to scale, when to use D28 ROAS, how to test creatives, and how Axon 2 finds your payers before you do. What we cover: Axon 2: How AppLovin’s black box blends mediation + advertiser data D0 vs. D7 vs. D28: Which ROAS model works best and when Why $500 budgets won’t calib...
May 29, 2025•1 hr
In this live-recorded episode from MAU Vegas, Matej sits down with Damon Marshall and Berkley Egenes of Xsolla's mobile leadership team to discuss how the April 30 court ruling opened the floodgates for direct-to-consumer monetization. We unpack: How mobile devs can now promote web shops directly inside iOS apps Why this moment is the “William Wallace freedom moment” for game publishers How Xsolla is helping everyone from indie devs to AAA publishers go direct Key monetization tactics: segmented...
May 28, 2025•37 min
Today, we take on Lands of Jail, a Chinese-built 4X survival-sim mashup that combines Frozen City onboarding, Whiteout Survival progression, and King Shot-style map layering, all dressed in prison jumpsuits, toy factories, and riot suppression mechanics. Lands of Jail is one of the weirdest, deepest, and most well-executed SLG hybrids we’ve seen in 2025. Built by Chinese studio eWorld, it mixes: Frozen City-style idle onboarding Hardcore 4X warfare Saga events, riots, gacha, and Discord-forced a...
May 26, 2025•40 min
We go “Full Steam Ahead” with a special guest, Adam Telfer, unpacking how Steam hits influence mobile game development in 2025: from Dreamdale-ified Palworld clones to digging simulators, idle RPG mashups, and more. The crew explores: Why some Steam-inspired mobile games (like Repo Online) hit 10M+ downloads and $1.3M in ads Why others (like Lilith's Palworld clone) flop despite a powerful IP remix Which genres (like Plinko roguelites and digging sims) are best suited for mobile The risks of lit...
May 22, 2025•1 hr 3 min
In this solo 2.5 Gamers Monologue, Felix walks you through a full setup and strategy guide for AppLovin MAX mediation, from the basics to advanced performance optimization. Whether you're new to MAX or want to stop leaving revenue on the table, this video covers: How to set up ad units correctly Which networks to start with in 2025 How to manage fill rates, waterfall placements, and API syncing What to monitor daily (like ad ARPDAU, viewer rates, and impressions per DAU) Real-world benchmarks fo...
May 21, 2025•25 min
How do you build a mobile game that does $168K/day in ad revenue… with no fail states, no IAP pressure, and a monetization wall that doesn’t even kick in until level 24? You study Word Search Explorer, the latest word game from the Lands of Jail studio (PlaySimple/MTG), and a masterclass in calm, deliberate ad monetization. In this episode, we break down the ad placement strategy, retention metrics, and soft pacing systems that power one of the most deceptively profitable games on the App Store ...
May 19, 2025•45 min
🎙️ This might be the most dangerous podcast episode we’ve ever released. An anonymous insider, voice-modulated for protection, joins us to expose the truth about mobile UA, ad network manipulation, and how millions are spent with zero payback logic. With voice modulation in place, our guest “Dr. Doom” reveals what happens behind the dashboards, network sales decks, and investor slides. You’ll hear : Dream Games' $50M brand campaign: brilliant market takeover or the dumbest ROI play of 2025? Why...
May 15, 2025•48 min
Want real ROAS benchmarks from 300+ games and $200 M+ in spend? This episode of 2.5 Gamers goes deep with ZJ from PVX Partners, who brings an insane dataset from UA financing across puzzle, casual, strategy, and 4X games. We cover what’s really happening in 2025: 📉 Payback windows stretching to 12–24 months 📈 Ad revenue up 15%, but not fast enough to catch CAC inflation 🧠 M1 ROAS is the best early predictor of long-term success 🔥 Payer retention is dropping, and revenue is clustering around ...
May 14, 2025•43 min
We talk with the Drama Pops team from Codeway — one of Turkey’s top mobile app publishers — about how they scaled a short drama app from scratch into one of the most promising products in the entertainment app space. www.codeway.co https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.deepvision.shortdrama&hl=en 🧠 What You’ll Learn: Why they chose to avoid ad breaks during cliffhangers (and how it helps retention) The economics of short-form drama production (yes, it's cheaper in Turkey than LA...
May 12, 2025•1 hr 2 min
In this episode, the 2.5 Gamers crew — Matej, Felix, and Jakub — dissect the top mobile ad creative trends spotted across platforms in April 2025. From AI-generated hooks dominating 5-second ad intros, to IP-mirroring creatives, TikTok-style POV playables, and Freezing Families never going away — this is a masterclass in what’s hot (and not) in mobile game UA right now. You’ll see: ⚙️ The rise of AI-generated 5-second hooks — and how top studios use them 👑 Royal Kingdom going full Hollywood wit...
May 08, 2025•54 min
Ever wonder why some gacha systems print money, while others crash in weeks? In this special solo deep-dive, Jakub from 2.5 Gamers breaks down everything you need to know about gacha system design, from token economies to deck-building, duplicate handling, meta shifts, and the subtle art of collection drivers. If you're building a game with gacha mechanics — or just want to understand why Genshin, AFK Arena, and Clash Royale all work so differently — this episode is essential viewing. What You’l...
May 07, 2025•52 min
MAU Events: May 20, Tuesday Pre-Game 4pm PT https://lu.ma/919nx0pq May 21, Wednesday brunch 11am PT https://lu.ma/krnfc16q May 2,1 Wednesday Gaming Soiree 4pm PT https://lu.ma/il21m7r7 Disney Solitaire is scaling fast. Today, we break down how SuperPlay + Playtika + Disney IP = one of the smartest casual game executions in years. From a familiar Domino Dreams-style template to a scaling UA strategy (with estimated $1.5M/day in spend), Disney Solitaire targets nostalgia-rich audiences with high p...
May 05, 2025•57 min
On April 30th, 2025, a U.S. court ruled that Apple’s anti-steering policies are anti-competitive and unenforceable. That single sentence could redefine the mobile app economy. For the first time ever, developers can now directly link to their own web stores from inside their iOS apps, promoting them, pricing them competitively, and funneling players off-platform without fear of being banned. We unpacked everything on a special emergency episode with Chip Thurston, Head of Gaming at FastSpring (a...
May 04, 2025•41 min
What if a cozy puzzle game could generate $80K/day — with 89% of that from ads? Dreamy Room is the breakout hit you didn’t see coming. It's not Royal Match. It's not hypercasual. It's deterministic puzzling at its finest — and it's scaling fast. We break down why Dreamy Room is crushing downloads, how its simple-but-hard core loop drives ad revenue at scale, and why it's one of the most innovative ultra-casual games of 2025. 🧠 What You’ll Learn: How Dreamy Room hit $80K/day, mostly from interst...
May 01, 2025•34 min
