two & a half gamers 😱 Only 14 of the TOP Grossing 100 Games use Ads by Felix Braberg
Felix delivers a 30-minute solo masterclass on how the top-grossing mobile games use ads, revealing the real truth:
Only 14 of the Top 100 IAP games use in-game ads.
This is shocking considering the category earned $2.6B in the last 30 days — likely over $3.6B when counting D2C webstores. Yet only 55M of the 660M DAU are exposed to ads.
The episode breaks down each of those 14 games, but uncovers three major meta-shifts.
This episode reveals how Candy Crush, Coin Master, Gossip Harbor, Merge Mansion, Homa, June’s Journey, and more use segmentation, boosters, energy, timers, SkipIt tickets, Remove Ads bundles, and hybrid strategies to unlock millions in incremental ad revenue.
This is the most practical breakdown of how ads work at the highest tier of mobile gaming.
What you’ll learn
• How Candy Crush earns $200M+ yearly from ads
• Why only 14 of the top 100 IAP games use ads (and why that’s changing)
• The difference between Western “premium illusion” mindset vs Chinese “data-first” mindset
• SkipIt tickets → now invading midcore and puzzle (June’s Journey)
• Remove Ads Bundles (iKIM, Capybara Go, Merge Prison)
• Why merge, match, and puzzle rely on energy boosters & timers
• How to segment ads by GEO, payer probability & time since last IAP
• The next wave of hybrid monetization
The future isn’t “ads OR IAP.”
The winning studios are mastering ads + IAP, using segmentation, bundles, SkipIts, and hybrid models to grow revenue without hurting payers.
Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop
---------------------------------------
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-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipg
Chapters
00:00 — intro
02:00 — Candy Crush & Coin Master: The Segmentation Masters
05:20 — Merge & Match: Energy, Boosters, and Rewarded Moves
10:00 — SkipIt Tickets & Remove Ads Bundles Take Over
14:30 — Chinese Studios vs Western Studios: Mindset Split
19:10 — Subscriptions, Ad-Free Bundles & Perk Stacking
23:30 — The New Hybrid Meta: Ads + IAP → The Future
---------------------------------------
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
---------------------------------------
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
Do you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask Matej AI - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai