Essays & field notes.
Operator notes from mobile gaming—where monetization, acquisition, analytics, and product loops meet—and the lessons that travel to apps, SaaS, ad networks, and digital products.
Latest
RSS feed →- Sep 2026 · ASO & Organic Growth
AEO Is the New ASO
Ten years ago, app store optimization rewarded the people who got in early. Answer-engine optimization is at the same moment now — and the lessons from ASO transfer almost directly.
3 min read → - Sep 2026 · UA & Payback
AI in Mobile Game User Acquisition: Where It Helps and Where It Misleads
AI has made ad creative cheap to produce. That moves the bottleneck to briefing, testing discipline and reading cohorts — which is where UA teams should put their attention.
3 min read → - Sep 2026 · Product Systems & AI
AI × Game Growth: Q3 2026 Roundup
The quarter’s AI moves that matter to mobile game growth teams — measurement, ad platforms, creative and engines — each with an operator’s read on what to do about it.
3 min read → - Sep 2026 · Product Systems & AI
AI Models and Tools for Game Teams: What to Use for What (2026)
A practical map of AI model families and tools by job — code, analysis, writing, art, video, audio and in-engine creation — and how to choose without chasing every release.
3 min read → - Sep 2026 · UA & Payback
Google App Campaigns vs Apple Search Ads vs Meta for Mobile Game UA
The three self-serve giants buy different things: Google’s algorithm finds more of the conversion you define, Apple Search Ads captures stated intent, Meta’s models find people like your best users. Use each for what it is.
3 min read → - Sep 2026 · Ad Monetization & Mediation
AppLovin MAX vs Unity LevelPlay vs Google AdMob: Choosing Mediation in 2026
The three platforms dominate mobile game mediation, and each is tied to a UA and demand ecosystem. Choose on delivery quality for your placements, not on a dashboard eCPM.
3 min read →
Ad Monetization & Mediation
Topic guide →- Sep 2026 D—05 · Networks 3 min
AppLovin MAX vs Unity LevelPlay vs Google AdMob: Choosing Mediation in 2026
The three platforms dominate mobile game mediation, and each is tied to a UA and demand ecosystem. Choose on delivery quality for your placements, not on a dashboard eCPM.
- Sep 2026 D—05 · Networks 3 min
Mobile Ad Networks for Games: A Directory by Role
The mobile ad ecosystem looks like dozens of categories, but a game’s revenue and UA usually run through a handful of platforms. Here is who does what.
- Sep 2026 D—05 · Networks 3 min
Revenue per Eligible Opportunity: The Ad Metric That Fill Rate and eCPM Miss
eCPM ignores unfilled requests; fill rate ignores price. Revenue per eligible opportunity counts both — which is why it is the right scorecard for floors, networks and bidding migrations.
- Sep 2026 D—04 · Revenue 3 min
Rewarded Video vs Interstitial vs Banner Ads: Format Economics for Games
Each ad format earns differently and costs the player differently. The right mix depends on your genre, your IAP depth and where each exchange lands in the player journey.
- Sep 2026 D—04 · Revenue 3 min
Web Shop Platforms for Mobile Games: How to Choose a Provider
Web shop providers handle payments, tax, fraud and storefronts so studios can sell directly. They differ in merchant-of-record coverage, store building tools, LiveOps features and pricing.
- Sep 2026 D—04 · Revenue 3 min
What Is Hybrid Monetization in Mobile Games?
Hybrid monetization combines IAP, ads and sometimes subscriptions. Done well, it routes each value exchange to the moment where it fits. Done badly, it is format stacking.
- Sep 2026 D—05 · Networks 3 min
When to Add Another Ad Network — and When It Hurts
A new network can fill a real gap. More often it adds SDK weight, latency and crashes for a lift that disappears in the blended numbers. Here is how to tell the difference before you integrate.
- Sep 2026 D—04 · Revenue 3 min
When Should a Mobile Game Launch a Web Shop?
A web shop can improve margin and deepen the relationship with payers. It only pays off when you can drive players to it and connect its purchases back to the rest of the player journey.
- Sep 2026 D—05 · Networks 3 min
When to Switch From Waterfall to In-App Bidding
Most games should already run bidding-first mediation. The real questions are what to keep in the waterfall, how to migrate without a revenue dip, and how to tell whether it worked.
- Sep 2026 D—05 · Networks 2 min
Network Revenue Quality Is More Than eCPM
eCPM is still useful. It just does not tell you enough once bidding is involved — a bidder can show a strong eCPM and still contribute less.
- Sep 2026 D—04 · Revenue 2 min
Hybrid Monetization Is Not Format Stacking
Adding IAP, rewarded video and interstitials does not by itself create a hybrid strategy. Without routing logic, it creates more ways to interrupt the same player.
- Sep 2026 D—05 · Networks 2 min
Stop Managing Monetisation Like an Ad Tech Directory
Ad tech landscape diagrams show 20+ categories. A mobile studio’s revenue flows through two or three pipes. When revenue softens, the fix is usually in the game, not the stack.
- Aug 2026 D—05 · Networks 2 min
Fill Rate Is Not a Strategy
Fill rate tells you how many auction opportunities returned an ad. It does not tell you how much value the auction created across all of them.
- Jul 2026 D—04 · Revenue 2 min
Monetization Optimisation Should State What It Refuses to Damage
“Increase ad ARPDAU by 10%” is a valid target. The brief is incomplete until it also says what the team is not willing to damage getting there.
- Jul 2026 D—04 · Revenue 4 min
Same Ad, Different Player Moment
A rewarded ad is not only an ad format. It is a product event. The same placement can be a continuation mechanic in one context and an escape route in another.
- Jun 2026 D—04 · Revenue 2 min
Royal Match and the Renegotiated “No Ads” Promise
Delaying ads until the system understands a player’s value is rational on a spreadsheet. At Royal Match scale, it is a product contract being renegotiated.
- Feb 2026 D—01 · Gaming 11 min
Against the 'whale' metaphor
Top-spending users aren't a species. They're a stage. The taxonomy is costing you product decisions.
- Dec 2025 D—03 · Analytics 6 min
Diligence checklists for ad-network acquisitions
What I check in a target's investment deck before reviewing anything else — the flags that decide if deeper diligence is worth the time.
UA & Payback
Topic guide →- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
AI in Mobile Game User Acquisition: Where It Helps and Where It Misleads
AI has made ad creative cheap to produce. That moves the bottleneck to briefing, testing discipline and reading cohorts — which is where UA teams should put their attention.
- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
Google App Campaigns vs Apple Search Ads vs Meta for Mobile Game UA
The three self-serve giants buy different things: Google’s algorithm finds more of the conversion you define, Apple Search Ads captures stated intent, Meta’s models find people like your best users. Use each for what it is.
- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
Mobile Game Growth Conferences and Events, Late 2026 to 2027
The events where mobile game growth, UA and monetization people meet — with dates as published by organisers, and how to decide which are worth the trip.
- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
Mobile Game UA Agencies: A 2026 Shortlist and How to Choose
A shortlist of agencies that specialise in mobile game user acquisition and creative, how they differ, and the questions that separate a good fit from a good pitch.
- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
What Is Marginal ROAS — and Why Blended ROAS Misleads Scaling Decisions
Marginal ROAS is the return on the last block of spend. It is the number that should decide whether a UA budget goes up again — and the one most dashboards never show.
- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
When to Scale UA Spend: A Decision Framework for Mobile Games
Scaling is a sequence of evidence-sized bets, not a switch. The question at each step is whether the data you have can support the size of the decision you are about to make.
- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 2 min
What the Last Video Teaches the Next One
A new game video needs a purpose beyond being new. The brief should say what the team wants, what the last video taught, and what the next one is meant to learn.
- Sep 2026 D—03 · Analytics 2 min
D1 Retention Is a Promise-Keeping Metric
When one scaling creative made the wrong promise, blended D1 drops — not because the game broke, but because one cohort swamped the average.
- Sep 2026 D—05 · Networks 2 min
App Campaigns Are Not Google Search for Apps
With Search you control the query. With App Campaigns you define the conversion and its price, and the system finds more of it — cheaper installs are not automatically better users.
- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 2 min
Linking Discovery and Monetisation in Mobile Games
More discovery outside the store and cheaper payments through web stores are both useful. If you cannot connect the two, you still do not know what the player is worth.
- Aug 2026 D—01 · Gaming 2 min
A Healthy Blended ROAS Can Hide a Bad Scaling Decision
Blended ROAS is reporting. Marginal ROAS is allocation. The average can stay flat while the economics of the newest spend get worse.
- Jul 2026 D—01 · Gaming 2 min
A Small UA Increase and a Scale Decision Need Different Evidence
Stable CPI and encouraging early ROAS can justify a capped increase. They do not yet prove the campaign can absorb a much larger budget.
- Jul 2026 D—01 · Gaming 2 min
Cheap Installs Can Still Produce an Expensive Growth Problem
Reading the India Gaming Growth Outlook 2026: the yield gap between India and global markets is only slightly larger than the acquisition-cost gap. Cheap CPI buys learning, not an answer.
- Jun 2026 D—04 · Revenue 8 min
The Scale Ceiling Loop
Every product has a ceiling past which it can't scale. The only way to find it is to push against it deliberately.
- May 2026 D—03 · Analytics 11 min
The Green Dashboard Problem
Soft-launch metrics can be green for the wrong reasons. The question isn't whether the numbers are healthy — it's what made them healthy.
- Apr 2026 D—03 · Analytics 10 min
The Maturity Illusion
Most teams don't lose money because their data is wrong. They lose it because they treat immature data as mature truth — and pivot before the numbers have finished baking.
- Apr 2026 D—05 · Networks 5 min
The Algorithm Saw It Before You Did
When a ROAS campaign loses delivery for no visible reason, the first question is not what changed in the campaign. It is what shipped in the last 72 hours.
Analytics & KPI
Topic guide →- Sep 2026 D—03 · Analytics 3 min
AppsFlyer vs Adjust vs Singular: Choosing an MMP for a Mobile Game
Every major MMP attributes installs and supports SKAdNetwork. The differences that matter for games are in cost and ROI aggregation, raw data access, pricing model, fraud tools and ownership.
- Sep 2026 D—03 · Analytics 3 min
Bookings vs Revenue in Games, Explained
Bookings tell you what players spent this period. Revenue tells you what accounting recognises. Confusing the two is how teams misread momentum in both directions.
- Sep 2026 D—03 · Analytics 3 min
The Game Growth Tool Stack: MMPs, Analytics, Market Intelligence, ASO and CRM
A map of the tools most game growth teams use, what each category is for, and how to avoid buying five tools that all answer the same question.
- Sep 2026 D—03 · Analytics 3 min
How to Calculate LTV for a Mobile Game
LTV is retention multiplied by revenue per active day, summed over a horizon. The arithmetic is easy; the judgment is in the tail of the curve you have not observed yet.
- Sep 2026 D—03 · Analytics 3 min
Using LLMs for Game Analytics: A Practical Workflow (and Where It Fails)
Large language models can write SQL, summarise cohorts and draft analyses fast. They are only as reliable as the definitions you give them — so the metrics dictionary becomes the most important prompt you own.
- Sep 2026 D—03 · Analytics 2 min
The Averages Trap: Why Cohort Blending Hides Burning Markets
Blended D30 can stay flat while the market receiving your next UA dollar deteriorates. An average is useful for reporting; it is not automatically the right number for allocation.
- Sep 2026 D—03 · Analytics 2 min
A Dashboard Should Compress a Decision, Not Display the Database
Most dashboards answer a question the operator did not ask: what data do we have? The useful question is what changed, who decides, and what they can do now.
- Aug 2026 D—03 · Analytics 2 min
Recurrent Revenue Percentage Is Composition, Not Health
Take-Two reported recurrent consumer spending at 84% of net revenue in Q1 FY2027. That number describes revenue mix — it cannot tell you whether the quarter was healthy.
- Aug 2026 D—03 · Analytics 2 min
Bookings and Revenue Run on Different Clocks
Roblox reported $4.89B of 2025 revenue and $6.79B of bookings. The gap is not an error. It is a clock.
- Aug 2026 D—03 · Analytics 2 min
A Metrics Dictionary Is a Product, Not a Document
“Retention is up” can be true and still useless if the team hearing it and the team writing it mean different things.
- Jul 2026 D—03 · Analytics 2 min
A Recommendation Should Come With an Expiry Condition
Teams document the recommendation and the numbers behind it. The assumption carrying it usually stays in the meeting — so nothing reopens the decision when the evidence changes.
- Jun 2026 D—03 · Analytics 7 min
More Data, Less Signal
More channels don't just add inventory — they dilute signal until you're reconciling data instead of making decisions.
- May 2026 D—03 · Analytics 4 min
When Market Intelligence Becomes Infrastructure
As market intelligence consolidates, the advantage stops coming from having the tool. It comes from the internal intelligence you build around it.
- Apr 2026 D—04 · Revenue 8 min
Your KPI tree is probably a graph
Why North Star frameworks quietly produce the wrong roadmap, and the cheap fix.
- Oct 2025 D—02 · Apps 9 min
When to A/B test, and when not to
Most teams under-experiment on pricing and over-experiment on copy. Here's the heuristic I use.
ASO & Organic Growth
Topic guide →- Sep 2026 D—02 · Apps 3 min
AEO Is the New ASO
Ten years ago, app store optimization rewarded the people who got in early. Answer-engine optimization is at the same moment now — and the lessons from ASO transfer almost directly.
- Sep 2026 D—02 · Apps 2 min
Your Store Listing Is a Conversion Surface, Not a Tag Cloud
Keywords help the right users discover the page. The storefront then has to convert the visit — and it should make the same promise as the query and the ad.
- Aug 2026 D—02 · Apps 2 min
Your Store Listing Is Creative Too
A store listing can win the install and still acquire the wrong player. Screenshots shape who converts, not just how many.
- Jul 2026 D—02 · Apps 10 min
ASO is an organic growth system, not a metadata project
A practical ASO operating model for mobile teams: connect store intent, creative promise, first-session delivery, retention, ratings, and paid acquisition into one learning loop.
Game Economy, LiveOps & Retention
Topic guide →- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
What Is a Good Retention Rate for a Mobile Game?
There is no single good retention number. Genre, platform, country, source and definition all move it. Here is how to judge whether yours is good enough for the decision in front of you.
- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
Mobile Game Companies to Know, by Region (2026)
A regional map of mobile game studios and publishers — from global leaders to fast-growing mid-size studios — with a representative title and where to find their open roles.
- Aug 2026 D—04 · Revenue 2 min
Pricing Architecture Is Product Architecture
An energy cap, a free allowance or a tier limit shapes the rhythm of the product before it shapes revenue. The price is also the tutorial.
- Jul 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
When Play Becomes Upkeep
Players don't usually leave on the day they stop opening the app. The exit starts earlier — when play quietly turns into maintenance.
- Jun 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
When the Player Becomes a Queue Manager
A game can have plenty of content and still feel empty if the player is only clearing the designer's queue. Mid-game retention is often an ownership problem, not a content problem.
- Jun 2026 D—01 · Gaming 2 min
Reward Systems: What Did This Reward Make the Player Do Next?
The claim event is visible and measurable, so it is what teams optimise. The real read is what the reward made the player do next.
- Jun 2026 D—01 · Gaming 2 min
Roblox and User-Generated Retention
UGC is the visible layer. The deeper engine is that players carry part of the attention burden — and most mobile games can borrow a small piece of that without becoming a sandbox.
- Jun 2026 D—01 · Gaming 10 min
Where Are Your Boss Fights?
Most products celebrate milestones. The best ones design moments where users earn the next level.
- May 2026 D—04 · Revenue 10 min
Every Product Has a Hidden Economy
Most teams design features. They're actually designing exchange rates — whether they know it or not.
- May 2026 D—02 · Apps 11 min
Magic Gets the First Try. Progression Gets the Second Week.
Most AI products have a wow moment. Very few have a reason to come back tomorrow.
- May 2026 D—01 · Gaming 8 min
Event Debt: When Live Ops Stops Amplifying and Starts Replacing
Most live games don't collapse suddenly. They accumulate event debt — until a normal Tuesday exposes it.
- May 2026 D—02 · Apps 6 min
The Play Effect
Attention is not an asset you capture once and celebrate. In an era of infinite AI content, the advantage goes to the businesses people willingly return to.
- Apr 2026 D—04 · Revenue 3 min
Most Monetization Problems Are Timing Problems
An offer that appears before the player cares about what it protects will underperform however well it is priced. Fix the sequencing before the surface.
Working With an Operator
Topic guide →- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
Consultant, Agency or Full-Time Hire? Choosing Growth Help for a Game Studio
Consultants, agencies and full-time hires solve different problems. Choosing the wrong one is expensive in both directions: paying for judgment when you need hands, or hands when you need judgment.
- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
What a Fractional Head of Growth Does for a Game Studio
A fractional operator sits inside your rituals part-time, owning the system while the team owns the execution. It works best for studios past product-market fit and before a full leadership layer.
- Sep 2026 D—03 · Analytics 3 min
How to Judge Whether Outside Growth Help Paid Off
Advisory ROI is not only the revenue lift you can attribute. It is decisions made faster and better, mistakes avoided, and a team that can do the next one without help. Here is how to measure all three.
- Sep 2026 D—01 · Gaming 3 min
How to Get the Most From a First Call With a Growth Advisor
A first call is most useful when it starts from one number you cannot explain. Here is what to bring, what to expect, and what a good advisor should tell you — including when you do not need them.
- Sep 2026 D—04 · Revenue 3 min
Seven Signs Your Game Needs Outside Growth Help
Most studios bring in outside help too late — after a quarter of arguing about a number. These are the signals that the problem has outgrown the way the team is organised to solve it.
- Sep 2026 D—04 · Revenue 3 min
What a Good Monetization Audit Should Actually Uncover
Most monetization audits stop at the dashboard: eCPMs, placements, price points. The useful findings are usually upstream — in timing, player state, measurement and the trade-offs nobody decided.
- Sep 2026 D—04 · Revenue 3 min
When to Hire a Monetization or Growth Consultant — and When to Build In-House
An outside operator is useful for a specific window: a decision you cannot resolve internally, a system nobody owns end to end, or a capability you need before you can hire it. Here is how to tell.
- Sep 2026 D—02 · Apps 3 min
Why App and SaaS Teams Should Borrow From Game Growth
Games run the hardest version of the growth problem: free products, paid acquisition, ad and purchase monetization, and daily retention — all measured to the cent. The same systems travel to apps, SaaS, MMPs and ad networks.
Product Systems & AI
- Sep 2026 D—02 · Apps 3 min
AI × Game Growth: Q3 2026 Roundup
The quarter’s AI moves that matter to mobile game growth teams — measurement, ad platforms, creative and engines — each with an operator’s read on what to do about it.
- Sep 2026 D—02 · Apps 3 min
AI Models and Tools for Game Teams: What to Use for What (2026)
A practical map of AI model families and tools by job — code, analysis, writing, art, video, audio and in-engine creation — and how to choose without chasing every release.
- Aug 2026 D—03 · Analytics 2 min
Scope Creep Begins When the Decision Remains Undefined
Scope creep rarely starts with a stakeholder asking for one more thing. It starts earlier — when no one wrote down which decision the work is supposed to support.
- Jul 2026 D—02 · Apps 2 min
Adaptive Products Need a Predictable Core
Games have adapted difficulty, rewards and offers around player behaviour for years. AI lowers the cost of doing it everywhere — and raises the cost of operating it.
- Jul 2026 D—01 · Gaming 2 min
Product Prioritisation Requires Displacement
A game can move to the top of the roadmap while UA allocation, product capacity and older commitments stay exactly where they were. That is addition, not prioritisation.
- Jul 2026 D—02 · Apps 2 min
The Two-Model Disagreement Signal
When different AI models reach meaningfully different conclusions on the same brief, the disagreement is diagnostic. Averaging the answers throws that information away.
- Jun 2026 D—02 · Apps 5 min
Faster Bottlenecks
One of the biggest AI mistakes will not be bad prompts. It will be faster bottlenecks — more output routed back through the same person.
- Jun 2026 D—02 · Apps 5 min
Prompting Is Not Briefing
Most AI work looks useful too early. AI does not fix weak briefs — it just makes them harder to reject at first glance.
- Jun 2026 D—02 · Apps 4 min
Apps Gave Us Buttons. AI Has to Earn Trust.
The next AI interface shift is not smarter answers. It is delegated action — and which tasks we are willing to let AI do instead of us.
- Jun 2026 D—02 · Apps 8 min
Your AI Stack Needs a Draft Phase
The mistake isn't which tool you pick. It's skipping the question of which workflow deserves the first pick.
Life
Notes from building an independent practice in public, while the answers are still unfinished.
- Sep 2026 Life 2 min
A Reconstructed Week Is Not a Lived One
By Friday evening we can make almost any week look legitimate. That still doesn’t say whether anything important had room.
- Sep 2026 Life 2 min
39 Years In. Different Lives. Same Person.
Looking back, it does not feel like one continuous story. It feels like a few different lives lived by the same person.
- Jul 2026 Life 2 min
The Path Is Still Working
Visible progression does not tell you what the path is training you to become.
- Jul 2026 Life 5 min
When the Week No Longer Holds Itself Together
Leaving a long role is described as freedom. What I notice more is the absence of structure — and the work of deciding what gets protected.
- Jun 2026 Life 2 min
The Most Expensive Category in Your Budget
Money spent on the person you intend to become is easy to file as progress before it has produced any.