TecRah

How to realize the cash is the focus of continuous discussion in the game industry.

In the face of market fluctuations and the continuous evolution of the industry, manufacturers are always faced with a number of key decisions Whether it’s track selection, communication strategy, overseas market expansion or platform cooperation, every decision may affect the final profitability of the project. Therefore, where are the breakthrough points in 2025? What areas should we focus on? This has become the core issue for all major players since the beginning of the year. Fortunately, there are always keen observers in the market who pay close attention to the changes in trends every year, trying to distill strategies to guide the industry to effectively realize, in order to present a more intuitive picture of opportunities and risks.

Recently, ToBid released the China Game Market Realization Report 2024 , which provides a comprehensive compendium of game realizations and offers a valuable reference for the industry. The report not only compiles data on China’s mobile game market in 2024, such as revenue scale user base and cash-out trends, but also prospectively analyzes the industry outlook for game cash-out. At the same time, it analyzes the market landscape in-depth, taking into account the characteristics of different game categories and their current cash-out situations, providing insights and thoughts for vendors’ future cash-out strategies.

01 Under the trend of all-you-can-eat for leading products, there are still opportunities for cash generation.

01

Headline products are all-you-can-eat, but the realization opportunity is still there

A notable trend can be observed The overall revenue of China’s mobile gaming market in 2024 showed an upward trend.

According to the report, the revenue scale of China’s mobile game market reached approximately 284.33 billion yuan in that year, with a year-on-year growth rate of 10 74 . This figure not only surpassed the all-time high of 2021, but also achieved a new growth milestone.

Similarly, in 2024, the issuance of game licenses maintained a steady monthly pace, and the number of single issuances was significantly higher than in previous years. Meanwhile, imported game licenses maintained their frequency of being issued at least once every two months.

It can be said that after the ups and downs of the previous years, the pace and number of game license numbers issued have entered a phase of steady growth. This change has prompted the emergence of new games, driven the continued expansion of the market scale, and provided a solid foundation for major manufacturers to explore commercial breakthroughs.

From the perspective of product type, the traditional categories such as MOBA Shooting MMO still accounted for the top revenue share. However, it is worth noting that the content-driven RPGs centered around single-player experience have risen to become the second largest category in the market. In addition to Miha Tour Family Bucket, which continues to maintain its popularity as a second-generation mobile product, Love and Deep Space, a model that significantly upgrades RPG content on the basis of female-oriented games, has also fully demonstrated its ability to realize cash in the past year, and deserves our attention.

So it seems that the policy support is solid, and the types of products with outstanding commercial performance are becoming more and more diversified. The revenue situation of China’s mobile game market seems to be positive.

However, although the market as a whole is improving steadily, potential pitfalls can still be seen in the increasingly fierce competition in the stock market. The report clearly points out that although the revenue scale of China’s mobile game market will grow by more than 10 percent in 2024, the revenue of the top products will grow by 26.68 percent year-on-year, and the market share will further increase by 2.59 percent, while the revenue of other games outside the Top 200 will decline.

It can be seen that although the market size is still huge, the revenue is highly concentrated, and small and medium-sized game enterprises relying only on in-buy realizations are facing considerable challenges to their survival. In addition, while the trend of head product monopoly is intensifying, the report also mentioned that the growth rate of China’s mobile netizens will continue to slow down in 2024, and the demographic dividend is gradually disappearing, and the pressure of competition in the stock market will only be further intensified.

Indeed, the report also pointed out some directions to break the game. For example, driven by the small game boom of the previous year, the advertising cash model still has huge growth potential. At present, the proportion of games relying on hybrid cash and advertising cash is still less than 50%, which indicates that the potential commercial value of a large number of non-internal purchase paid game users still needs to be further explored. Meanwhile, many IAP in-app purchase games have already begun to gradually transform into hybrid cash mode, and this trend is expected to further intensify in 2025.

In addition, the innovation of mobile advertising forms is also full of expectations. Compared with the current mainstream ad types, interactive game ads can more effectively stimulate active participation of users, thus obtaining users’ preference and behavioral data at lower costs, and showing better performance in tapping user value and promoting commercial conversion, which is worth continuing to pay attention to.

Overall, there are still many possibilities for advertising to break through in promoting cash flow, especially for small and medium-sized manufacturers, and the key to further commercial breakthroughs lies in how to deepen the refined operation of user value at the advertising level. It’s a prerequisite.

02 Understanding the advertising preferences of different types of products is a prerequisite.

02

Understanding the advertising preferences of different types of products is a prerequisite.

Specifically, how to more deeply explore the user value of advertising cash? The first and foremost task is to understand the differences in the performance of different ad formats on various platforms and game categories. Only by clarifying the performance characteristics of various types of ads can we accurately build a competitive advantage.

For example, from the platform perspective, the display ratio of incentive video on Android and iOS is 36 and 27 respectively, while the revenue ratio is as high as 79 and 76 respectively, and its eCPM per 1,000 displays is much higher than that of other ad types. Banner ads have a high display share of 50 on iOS, but a low eCPM and a revenue share of only 3.

As for native ads, the display share on Android is 28, and the revenue share is 6, which has been surpassed by plug-in ads. Obviously, there are significant differences in the display ratio and eCPM of each type of ads on different platforms, each with its own advantages and adaptive scenarios. Therefore, to optimize the allocation of advertising, it is necessary to make strategic judgments based on data.

On the basis of platform differences, further focusing on different game types can more clearly present the differences in advertising effect. For example, in the field of online games, the proportion of incentivized video ads on the Android side is particularly prominent. This is because domestic developers need more checking mechanisms to guarantee product security, so incentive video has become the main cash flow method in this category.

On the other hand, with the extreme pursuit of ROI for online earning products, insertion screen ads and open screen ads are gradually accepted by more developers as additional means of increasing revenue. The iOS side, due to the limitations of the platform and system, has a relatively high threshold, and only a few head developers are deeply plowing in the field of net income. Influenced by the differences between advertisers on both sides of the system differences and other factors, the eCPM of the iOS side is much higher than that of the Android side, and the revenue share is more balanced, with the incentive video and screen insertion accounting for more than 70% of the total revenue of the developers.

In the field of non-network income games, incentive video occupies a larger proportion of revenue in both iOS and Android. Meanwhile, the performance of screen insertion ads in both ends is also remarkable, especially the non-blocking screen insertion ads popping up at key milestone nodes, which are gradually becoming the first choice for more and more light casual games. And the application of native ads in the settlement page and other scenarios is also increasing, and is gradually developing into one of the main cash flow methods for some games, occupying a certain market share.

Among all advertising styles on both ends, the per capita display frequency of opening screen ads for casual games is the lowest. This shows that casual game developers, while pursuing the maximization of advertising revenue, also pay attention to reducing the interference to users when they start the game. In addition, the display frequency of banner ads and native ads on Android is significantly higher than that on iOS. In terms of overall revenue, inserted screen ads can more effectively increase user engagement, so it is relatively easy to bring in higher revenue, and it is worthwhile for developers to consider increasing the display frequency in their cash flow strategy.

Medium-heavy games mainly rely on in-buy rather than advertisements for their current cash flow, and at the same time emphasize user stickiness and experience. Therefore, the number of advertisements displayed per capita is significantly lower than that of casual games, and the number of advertisements displayed per capita for different types of advertisements usually does not exceed 2 times. Compared with iOS, Android has a significantly higher number of displays per capita, and this difference may be related to the eCPM performance of native ads on both ends.

According to the report, we can clearly see that there are significant differences in the performance of different ad formats on different platforms and game types, and each ad type has its own unique placement logic. This involves product characteristics, player habits and other complex factors, if you do not know the degree of ad fit, it is difficult to implement the refined operation After all, in the current industry environment, all placement adjustments and strategy development must follow the rules of the industry, and the large-scale, one-size-fits-all approach of the past is no longer applicable.

03 Professional tools are indispensable to enhance the value of advertising

03

The professional tools are indispensable to increase the value of advertisements

While recognizing advertising preferences is a necessary first step, vendors ultimately need to take concrete steps to address the challenges. To solve the problem, the core of the problem must first be identified. According to the report, there are four main challenges facing the current realization of the mobile game market

1 Instability of Ad Fill Rate and Revenue In the traditional tiered bidding model, the fill rate and eCPM of ad spots are greatly affected by bidding fluctuations among platforms. Due to the unstable user demand, even if the user scale is large, some ad spots may fail to fill resulting in losses, and developers often find it difficult to adjust their strategies in a timely manner. 2 Inefficiency of revenue maximization Under the traditional bidding model, the priority of advertising platforms is fixed, and the advertising strategy is the same for all users. If the eCPM of a platform drops or a user’s specific behavior leads to a decrease in the platform’s estimated value, still requesting in a fixed order will lead to a large number of invalid requests, which reduces execution efficiency. 3 is the underestimation and homogenization of user value As the fixed tiering model fails to accurately consider the behavioral interests and engagement of users, this results in the commercial value of some users not being fully explored. With the diversification of game content, developers need to flexibly use a variety of ad formats to meet the needs of different players and game progress.

1 The Instability of Ad Fill Rate and Revenue

In the traditional tiered bidding model, the fill rate and eCPM of the ad space are greatly affected by the bidding fluctuations among platforms. Due to the unstable user demand, even if the user scale is huge, some ad spots may fail to be filled resulting in losses, and developers often find it difficult to adjust their strategies in time.

2 Inefficiency of revenue maximization

Under the traditional bidding model, the priority of advertising platforms is fixed, and the advertising strategy is the same for all users. If the eCPM of a platform drops or a user’s specific behavior leads to a decrease in the platform’s estimated value, still requesting in a fixed order will lead to a large number of invalid requests, which reduces execution efficiency.

3 Undervalued and homogenized users

The fixed tiering model fails to accurately consider users’ behavior, interests and engagement, which results in the business value of some users not being fully explored.

4 Single type of advertisement

With the diversification of game content, developers need to flexibly utilize a variety of advertising forms to meet the needs of different players and the game process.

In short, the traditional advertising strategy can not quickly adapt to the real-time changes in the market, and can not deeply explore the value of users. Therefore, even with a refined operational mindset, manufacturers still need to use some services and tools to realize more automated and targeted advertising.

In today’s inventory market, it is difficult to expect a one-size-fits-all solution. It is necessary to deeply analyze their own characteristics, understand the laws of the market, study the characteristics of the product and user ecology, and effectively utilize the assistance of service platforms and automation tools in order to find a solid foothold in this unpredictable market.

While it’s challenging to predict what new realizations will emerge in 2025, I think the basic strategies and resources are relatively clear. Continuing to build a unique and effective portfolio of products and ads may be the key differentiator in the future.

The graphic is from Game Gyro , for reference only, please contact to remove any inappropriate.

Previous Recommendations Textbook Cultural Refresh! See how to use the new paradigm of social games to kill the Three Kingdoms to circle millions of fans without trademarks can’t operate the game? These potholes must be known The red line of version number must not be touched! What happened to the teams that got on the bus first and then made up the tickets? Share Favorite Watch Like

Past Recommendations

Textbook Cultural Renewal! How to use the new paradigm of social game to get millions of fans?

Can’t Run a Game Without a Trademark? These are the pitfalls you need to know

The red line of version number cannot be touched! What happened to all those teams that got on the bus first and made up their tickets later?

Share Favorite Watch Like

Share

Bookmark

Tap on Watch

Tap to Like