two & a half gamers 🚗 Car Match Review: A 9/10 Product With with 3/10 UA Strategy = Heartbreaking 💔
Grand Games is back with another puzzler and it’s a monster. Car Match has hit $120K/day, combining bench mechanics, Pixar-style cars, and a polished Royal Match meta. On paper, it’s a textbook case of how to scale a puzzle game.
Product, amazing. UA? Not so much.
Here’s why:
The product is a 9/10. Meta depth, endless events, and a proven template.
Monetization is efficient. ~30% of revenue comes from ads, bundles are cleverly layered in, and interstitials start at different levels for different players.
But the UA machine is broken. Grand Games has only 5-7 creatives live. For a game printing $2M in 30 days, that’s a scaling disaster waiting to happen.
Jakub nailed it: “If they stop producing new creatives, they die immediately.”
Felix added: “It’s an easy fix — upscale creative production.”
But Matej countered: “Not that easy. You need concepts, not spaghetti on the wall.”
$5M/month with Magic Sword + Car Match combined
The takeaway: Car Match proves that you can copy, paste, and polish your way to $120K/day. But without a creative firehose, momentum will stall.
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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
Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipg
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Car Match and Hosts
02:16 Overview of Game Mechanics and Comparisons
04:12 Gameplay Experience and Difficulty Levels
07:11 Meta Mechanics and Game Events
10:16 Monetization Strategies and Player Engagement
13:25 Discussion on Customization and Player Preferences
16:13 Game Performance and Market Insights
20:34 The Financial Landscape of Game Development
22:08 Understanding User Acquisition Challenges
24:59 Creative Strategies for Game Marketing
27:13 The Importance of Scaling Creative Production
31:19 Analyzing Revenue and User Acquisition Costs
36:08 The Role of Data in Game Marketing Success
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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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