🎮 Matching Story review: The 2-Year Soft Launch That Turned Into a $100 Million Match-3 Success

What if Royal Match and EverMerge had a baby… and it made $250K/day?

That’s Matching Story, the surprise hit that blended match-3, merge, and classic narrative-driven creatives into one of the most polished casual games of 2025.

Today, we dissect how Matching Story, which soft-launched in 2021, took its time, perfected its systems, and is now out-earning most casual titles on the charts.

🔍 What’s inside:

How Matching Story blends match-3 + merge mechanics to create deeper monetization

Why it took 2 years of soft launch to get right

The role of event meta, merge economy, and story triggers (yes, freezing families are back)

The creative strategy: Product-led UA at its finest

Key metrics:

🧮 $250K/day revenue

📲 7M+ downloads

🇺🇸 50% of revenue from the US

📈 Day 1 retention: 41%, Day 30: 15%

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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

Youtube: https://youtu.be/Avb2F9MXY9A

Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipg

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Public Service Announcement

05:52 Matching Story: A Game's Journey

08:48 Gameplay Mechanics and Features

11:52 Monetization Strategies and Player Engagement

14:54 Market Impact and Competitor Analysis

17:51 Visual Appeal and Game Iteration

20:44 Conclusion and Future Prospects

25:04 Visual Progression and User Engagement

26:37 Monetization Strategies and Ad Revenue

28:50 Retention Metrics and User Acquisition

31:23 Game Design Innovations and User Experience

34:14 Product-Led User Acquisition Strategies

37:43 Historical Context and Market Trends

42:42 The Emotional Roller Coaster of Gaming

44:54 Trends in Casual Gaming: Freezing Families and More

46:58 Reviving Old Concepts in Game Marketing

48:47 The Importance of Mastering Game Creatives

51:52 The Evolution of Game Creatives and AI Influence

53:55 The Cutthroat Nature of Game Development

56:45 Analyzing Game Performance and Market Trends

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Matej Lancaric

User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant

⁠https://lancaric.me

Felix Braberg

Ad monetization consultant

⁠https://www.felixbraberg.com

Jakub Remiar

Game design consultant

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar

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Takeaways

Combine merge and match-3 for exponential monetization potential

Use merge to create downtime gameplay when match-3 lives run out

Product-led UA is real: build the ad inside the game

Leverage classic triggers like “fix the house,” “save the family,” “choose the makeover”

Spend 2 years if that’s what it takes to get it right

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