Mistplay’s new mobile gaming growth report unveils key 2025 trends

Mistplay has released its 2024 Mobile Gaming Growth Report, providing fresh perspectives on user acquisition (UA) and monetization trends, alongside bold predictions for the mobile gaming landscape in 2025. With insights drawn from leading industry experts and Mistplay’s extensive user data, this report offers marketing, product, and monetization teams the tools to optimize the earliest stages of the mobile growth funnel—starting from the first ad impression through Day 7 of the user journey. By emphasizing user “stickiness” in these early stages, the report outlines strategies to drive long-term retention and maximize lifetime value (LTV).

Mistplay’s Chief Product Officer, Ramanand Reddi, highlighted the transformative potential of this report. “As mobile game publishers navigate the challenges of 2025, the real opportunity lies in adopting a player-first approach across all departments. Embracing adaptability and innovation will be essential for teams seeking sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive space,” he stated. With the goal of empowering publishers to drive incremental revenue while managing rising customer acquisition costs (CAC), the report underscores the importance of player-centricity for lasting success.

The report offers several key predictions for 2025, emphasizing the importance of personalization and full-funnel strategies to maximize player engagement and retention:

• Hyper-Personalized User Journeys: Publishers are expected to craft deeply personalized user journeys to optimize LTV, tailoring experiences to the unique preferences of each player.
• Enhanced Brand Marketing Initiatives: Integrating brand marketing with paid acquisition strategies will help reduce CAC while enhancing engagement.
• Diverse Monetization Models: New, innovative monetization approaches will continue to gain traction, enabling scalable revenue growth.
• Emphasis on IP and Brand Collaborations: Partnerships with well-known brands will be leveraged to boost player retention and increase spending.
• Full-Funnel Reward Programs: Publishers will increasingly implement reward programs that span the entire player journey, from acquisition to retention, encouraging sustained engagement and reducing churn.

In addition to its future-focused predictions, the report provides segmented insights based on player personas, including spenders, non-spenders, and gamers grouped by popular genres. These findings help publishers tailor strategies to different audience segments:

• Brand Collaborations Fuel IAP Growth: Over 54% of players who interact with in-game brand collaborations report making in-app purchases linked to those brands, while 18% say these collaborations spark interest in trying new games.
• Early Churn Driven by Misaligned Expectations: The report identifies misaligned gameplay and monetization as major drivers of early churn, with 77% of players citing gameplay-monetization imbalance and 66% noting ad-gameplay mismatches as key reasons for leaving a game.
• Game Discovery Challenges Due to Ad Saturation: Nearly half of gamers feel overwhelmed by the volume of game advertisements, and over 25% express concerns about pay-to-win mechanics and offline availability when choosing new games.
• Informed Install Decisions Through Research: A significant 75% of players conduct research before downloading a game, with 49% reading reviews and 16% exploring additional online information after seeing an ad.
• The Rise of DTC Webshops: Direct-to-consumer (DTC) webshops are growing in popularity, with 26% of gamers open to browsing exclusive IAP deals on publisher websites, and 8% of spenders already making purchases directly through these platforms.