Mobile Game Publishing: Scaling Mobile Games with ROAS

Mobile game publishing is no longer a “nice-to-have” option for future growth. In practice, mobile game publishing has become a necessary step for scaling mobile games in a predictable way, entering Tier-1 geos, and building a stable business model.

Based on our experience, iOS projects can generate up to 35–40% of revenue from in-app purchases, while Android games usually reach 15–25%. At the same time, advertising remains the main revenue source for most mobile games. Mobile game publishing at CAS.AI is designed so that these revenue streams do not compete with each other, but reinforce one another.

What Mobile Game Publishing Means at CAS.AI

At CAS.AI, mobile game publishing is not only about user acquisition. It is a complete growth system, where every decision is driven by data.

We take responsibility for:

monetization and mediation with 14–20 active ad networks,
user acquisition with a transition from CPI to ROAS,
analytics at the geo, placement, and campaign levels,
ASO with regular A/B testing,
creative production and continuous testing.

The role of a mobile game publisher is not just to bring traffic, but to ensure that every acquired user pays back and can be scaled profitably.

If you want to see how we apply this in practice, explore our publishing overview here.

Minimum Requirements for Mobile Game Publishing

We do not require perfect metrics at the start, but there are baseline benchmarks without which scaling is not possible.

Retention and Engagement

For most casual and midcore games, we expect:

Day 1 retention (R1): 20–22% or higher,
Day 3 retention (R3): 10–12%,
Day 7 retention (R7): 5–7%, depending on the genre,
average session length of 5–8 minutes,
2.5–4 sessions per active user per day.

If metrics are below these levels, we focus on product improvements first, not scaling.

Monetization at the Early Stage

For successful mobile game publishing, monetization must already be implemented or easy to scale:

6–10 interstitial impressions per user per day,
8–12 rewarded video impressions per user per day,
no aggressive placements that harm retention,
baseline ad ARPDAU of $0.02–0.05 on Android and $0.05–0.08 on iOS.

These numbers are not a ceiling, but they show monetization potential.

Analytics as the Entry Point to Mobile Game Publishing

Every mobile game publishing project at CAS.AI starts with analytics. We build unit economics for each geo and channel, including:

CPI by country,
D0, D1, and D3 ROAS,
ARPDAU and LTV,
eCPM by format and geo,
session depth and return funnels.

Initial UA tests usually start with $100–300 per channel, which is enough to collect meaningful data for decisions.

For a real example of how we analyze and scale performance, see Publishing Case #4.

Monetization Within Mobile Game Publishing

Monetization at CAS.AI is based on a hybrid model:

bidding + waterfall,
different setups for Tier-1, Tier-2, and Tier-3 countries,
separate strategies for rewarded video and interstitials.

In practice, this leads to:

2–3x eCPM growth within the first 30–60 days,
1.5–2x increase in ad impressions per DAU without retention loss,
5–20x monthly revenue growth during scaling.

If you want another case that highlights a different growth path, check Publishing Case #2.

User Acquisition and Scaling Mobile Games

CAS.AI does not scale traffic blindly. For scaling mobile games, the process looks like this:

CPI campaigns to collect data,
retention and ROAS analysis by channel,
transition to ROAS campaigns after reaching D1 ROAS of 50–70%,
scaling only profitable geos.

In stable cases, this results in:

100k–300k installs per month,
creative CTR of 5–8%,
click-to-install conversion rate of 25–40%.

Creatives as a Growth Driver in Mobile Game Publishing

Creatives have a direct impact on scaling. At CAS.AI:

new hypotheses are tested every 3–5 days,
10–30 creatives are tested simultaneously,
video, static, and playable formats are used.

Strong creatives can reduce CPI by 20–40% and improve traffic quality, which immediately impacts ROAS.

For a broader view on how UA systems scale in mobile, you can also reference Google’s guidance on app growth and measurement here.

ASO and Mobile Game Publisher Strategy

ASO in mobile game publishing is not a one-time task. We regularly test:

app icons,
the first two screenshots,
localization for specific countries.

Improving store page conversion from 30% to 42–45% is equivalent to increasing the UA budget without additional spend.

For platform-level best practices, see Google Play’s developer documentation here.

Partnership Model with CAS.AI

CAS.AI works as a mobile game publisher under a partnership model:

existing revenue stays with the developer,
incremental growth generated through publishing is shared under an agreed model,
all analytics are fully transparent for the partner.

We focus on long-term growth, not short-term metric spikes.

Why Mobile Game Publishing Works

Based on our cases, mobile game publishing allows teams to:

increase project revenue by 10–50x,
enter Tier-1 geos with positive ROAS,
build a sustainable economy independent of organic traffic,
scale games systematically, not randomly.

Hybrid Monetization 2026: Adapting Your User Acquisition for a Blended IAA + IAP Model

Your UA team is busy chasing D7 ROAS. Product rolls out new IAP bundles. Ad ops keeps adjusting interstitial floors. Each team is optimizing on its own, and the player ends up stuck in the middle. They get hit with ads before they even see a purchase offer. Or they run into a paywall when all they wanted was a rewarded video. Hybrid monetization tossed out the old playbook. You cannot just pick ads or IAP now. The studios that win in 2026 run both at the same time for every player. Now every user has two lifetime value curves, not one. Mediation decides who sees ads, how often, and under what rules. This piece covers where studios slip up when they try to add hybrid monetization to a UA plan that only thinks about one thing. It shows how one mid-core studio rebuilt its stack using entitlement checks and frequency caps for different player groups. There is also a five-step sequence for setting up mediation without ruining the player experience.

August 12, 2026 15 min read

How to advertise your app

Programmatic advertising is an automated, real-time auction that determines which ad wins each impression in a mobile app. Inside the mediation SDK, the ad request goes out to every connected network and DSP simultaneously, not one at a time. Each bidder returns a price in milliseconds, and the highest bid wins before the ad ever renders. This is what separates in-app bidding from the older waterfall model, where networks are called in a fixed sequence, and lower-priority demand never sees the best impressions. With programmatic, every impression goes to whoever values it most, which typically results in higher eCPM and less manual reordering. Mobile adds its own constraints SKAdNetwork, Privacy Sandbox, and device ID limits that make in-app bidding a distinct engineering problem, not a straight port of web header bidding. Publishers access it through mediation platforms like CAS.AI, which connect networks and DSPs into a single real-time auction.

October 8, 2024 14 min read

App Monetization Guide

Making money from an app is not as simple as flipping a switch. You need a whole toolkit. Ads, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and mixing them together all come with their own twists. What actually works depends on your app and the people using it. This guide walks you through every model that is actually worth your time. I will show you how in-app ads and mediation work in practice, where in-app purchases and subscriptions fit in, and why hybrid monetization is taking over in 2026. You will see how to choose a strategy based on your app, your platform, and your region. I will also break down the five metrics that really matter and the common mistakes that quietly put a lid on revenue for most teams. Let us look at some real numbers. One CAS.AI publisher, Fail Games, saw their revenue jump by about 80 times after it switched to a hybrid setup with both ads and in-app purchases, using mediation to manage the ads. Another publisher went from making just four dollars a day to eighteen thousand euros a month, simply by adding mediation. Here is how they did it.

January 20, 2026 13 min read

What Is Ad Mediation for Unity Developers

For Unity developers, ad mediation is the essential technology layer that sits between your mobile game and dozens of global ad networks. Instead of relying on a single provider, mediation connects you to a vast marketplace, triggering real-time auctions for every impression. By polling multiple networks simultaneously, the system ensures the highest-paying ad is always served, significantly increasing your eCPM and fill rates. Modern platforms utilize programmatic bidding (or header bidding) alongside traditional waterfalls to create a competitive environment where 20 to 70+ networks bid for your inventory. For Unity creators, this eliminates single-network dependency and centralizes reporting into one dashboard. Whether you choose native solutions like Unity LevelPlay or high-performance independent options like CAS.AI, implementing a robust mediation strategy is the most effective way to automate growth and ensure you aren't leaving money on the table.

March 8, 2025 5 min read