Liftoff, the leading growth acceleration platform for the mobile industry, today unveiled its annual casual gaming report, analyzing cost per install (CPI), return on ad spend (ROAS), and ad completion rates across the genre.

Amid the pandemic, consumers coped with lockdowns by playing their favorite casual games. However, user spending on mobile games dropped year-over-year for the first time in Q1 2022, down from the pandemic-driven spend peak of $22.6 billion in Q1 2021. Despite the market correction, mobile is now 3.3 times larger than its closest competitor, home console gaming. The casual gaming sector is also projected to grow steadily, retaining its place as the mobile gaming genre made for everyone.

Liftoff's report categorizes casual games into three genres: Lifestyle, Puzzle, and Simulation. The data draws on more than 76.1 billion ad impressions and 3.4 billion clicks across 58.5 million installs between May 1, 2021, and May 1, 2022, to find:

For Casual Games, Rewarded Video Ads Have Higher Completion Rate Compared to Other Video Ads
The report found that rewarded video ads for Puzzle and Puzzle-adjacent casual games saw the highest ad completion rate at over 97% among the analyzed casual game genres. As a result, marketers using rewarded video ads for Match-3, Puzzle, and Simulation casual games receive the best results.

For video ad completion by genre, over 90% of users watched Hidden Object ads to completion, followed by 69.03% for Coloring genre ads and 69.02% for Comics genre ads. The highest ranked video ad completion by genre, Hidden Object games, has a nearly 60% percentage point difference from the median. The lowest ranked genre was Word games at 11.24%.

“Our data tells us that the mobile gaming industry is on the rise and marketers need to pivot their strategy to best appeal to users' gaming interests, location and device platform,” said Jeremy Bondy, CEO of Liftoff.

Post ATT Landscape: iOS Users 2x More Costly to Target for Casual Gaming Apps
In the post-ATT (Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework) landscape, the report depicts that in comparing CPI (cost per install) the overall difference between Android and iOS is drastic, with Android costing an average of $0.75 and iOS $2.27. Android users exhibited similar D7 and D30 ROAS rates to iOS users but cost significantly less to acquire.

Cast Your Bet on Lifestyle Games
As a result of the pandemic, people consumed record-breaking levels of spending on mobile games. Within the past two years, mobile gaming increased its market share to over 60% of the gaming industry. From 2021 to 2022, the average CPI for casual game apps averaged $1.10. At $1.40 CPI, Lifestyle players cost the most to acquire whereas Simulation players have the lowest CPI at $0.91. Lifestyle games may have the highest CPI, but they also post the highest returns, with ROAS rates at 10.57% on Day 7 and 22.56% on Day 30. Lifestyle games include Interactive Stories, Home Customization, Dress-Up titles, and Rhythm and Music games.

The Drastic Cost Differences Between Gaming Ads Worldwide
While casual gaming apps are a worldwide phenomenon, certain regions cost more to acquire. Liftoff's report reveals that at an average of $0.66, Latin America is the most cost-effective to target, with those in the North American region costing about five times more at an average rate of $3.32. In general, marketers targeting APAC and LATAM will have great ROAS with a CPI average of less than $1.

For the first time, Liftoff's report includes an interactive data visualization that reveals where installs come from for major gaming verticals. This visualization provides an aggregate view of the sources of installs across several marketing categories, genres and subgenres. This data reveals the pockets of performances that marketers can maximize by matching creatives to audience preferences.

For more details on Liftoff and to download the full report, visit here.

Methodology
The 2022 Casual Gaming Apps Report draws from Liftoff's data from May 1, 2021, through May 1, 2022—which spans 76.1 billion ad impressions and 3.4 billion clicks across 58.5 million installs to deliver key takeaways on casual gaming apps engagement worldwide.

About Liftoff
Liftoff is a leading growth acceleration platform for the mobile industry, helping advertisers, publishers and game developers scale revenue growth with solutions to market and monetize mobile apps. With a suite of solutions including Vungle, JetFuel, GameRefinery and TreSensa, Liftoff supports over 6,600 mobile businesses across 74 countries, including gaming, social, finance, ecommerce, entertainment and more. Liftoff is proud to be a long-term partner to leading advertisers and app publishers since 2012. Headquartered in Redwood City, CA, Liftoff has a growing global presence with offices around the world.

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