Mobile revenue barely grew in 2025. Downloads fell on both app stores. Meanwhile 200,000+ new games launched across iOS and Google Play. The market is saturated and attention is fragmented.

The only category that keeps expanding across downloads, revenue and time spent? Strategy. Especially 4X. Deep systems, high LTV, long retention curves. That’s where scale still exists.

The lesson is simple. You can launch another puzzle game. You can chase trends. Or you can build depth and monetization power. In 2026, monetization design and category selection matter more than ever.

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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 – Strategy Is Still Expanding (Hello Kingshot)

00:30 – Fresh Game Launches This Week

01:15 – Tencent x Blockblast Talks

01:55 – ByteDance Selling Moonton?

02:20 – Sensor Tower State of Gaming 2026

03:05 – 55K Games Launched… Downloads Falling

03:30 – Rainbow Six Mobile Goes Global

03:50 – Agatha Christie & Survivor Partnerships

04:10 – Playtika Earnings Breakdown

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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

---------------------------------------

Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!

Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!

Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

---------------------------------------

If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej Lancaric

Do you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai

In this episode, we break down War Inc: Rise, the new title from the studio behind Art of War: Legions - a game that previously generated over $150M.

The gameplay? Solid.

The systems? Efficient.

The monetization? Confusing.

The UA strategy? Questionable.

We dive into:

Why War Inc feels like Battle Legion + Lucky Defense combined

How Fastone Games recycled their old IP smartly

Why ad monetization is almost nonexistent (and why that’s crazy)

The missed Applovin opportunity

Creative strategy mistakes that cap scale

Whether this can become their next big hit

This game should be scaling 2–3x harder. It’s not. And the reason is simple.

War Inc is actually good. Clean core loop. Smart recycling of IP from Art of War. Efficient production. Even layered modes like Lucky Defense built in.

But here’s the problem.

They barely monetize through ads. They don't push AppLovin. They’re still heavy on Facebook and Google. And their creative playbook looks like 2021.

The lesson? In 2026, you can’t just build a good game. You need the full growth stack aligned. Miss one piece of the puzzle and you cap your scale.

Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop

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PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.

Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/

They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.

- Scale fast

- Keep your shares

- Drawdown only as needed

- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you

+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors

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For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.

Our sponsor FastSpring:

Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 years

They power top mobile publishers around the world

Launch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.

---------------------------------------

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 – “Why Isn’t This Game Bigger?”

02:00 – First Impressions & Battle Legion Comparison

06:30 – Core Loop Breakdown (Merge + Army Builder)

10:30 – Gacha System Explained (And Why It’s Weird)

15:30 – Limited Banner Strategy & Power Units

18:30 – Lucky Defense Mode Inside War Inc

23:00 – Why Co-Op Actually Matters

26:00 – Comparing It to Art of War: Legions

30:00 – Revenue & Spend Deep Dive ($40K/Day Reality)

33:30 – Retention, Payback & Scaling Limits

36:00 – Creative Strategy Review (What’s Missing)

39:00 – The Ad Monetization Mistake

41:30 – AppLovin, Blended ROAS & The Missed Scale

43:00 – Final Verdict: Great Game, Capped Growth

---------------------------------------

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

---------------------------------------

Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!

Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!

Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

I also built a playable during the recording! Playables are no longer optional. If you're running on AppLovin, Unity, ironSource, or any SDK network and you don’t have playables, you’re leaving scale on the table.

https://playablemaker.com/25gamers/ build your playables now!

In this solo episode, I break down:

• Why top games produce 60 playables per month

• The real playable testing structure

• Why “just wrapping your tutorial” doesn’t work

• Template strategy vs gameplay fidelity

• How to iterate instead of building from scratch every time

• And I built a playable live on camera

This episode is a teaser for the upcoming Playable Bible.

If you want to scale outside Meta/Google/TikTok in 2026, this is mandatory.

🧠 Key Takeaway

Playables are not a creative asset. They are a system these days. If you build one playable and stop, you lose. If you build a pipeline that outputs 5+ per month, you scale.

Recent playable trends: https://open.substack.com/pub/lancaric/p/playable-ads-trends-in-mobile-games-127?r=7qqaf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

---------------------------------------

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: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Matej Lancaric⁠

Podcast:

Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipg

Chapters

00:00 – Why Playables Are Mandatory in 2026

02:20 – The Shift to SDK Networks (AppLovin, Unity, etc.)

05:00 – Why Longer Ad Units Convert Better

07:30 – Build Playables as a System, Not One-Offs

10:00 – What’s Working Now (4X, Merge, 3x3, Gates)

13:00 – Templates vs Real Gameplay Debate

16:00 – Anatomy of a Converting Playable

19:00 – Testing Structure (Video + Playable Combinations)

22:30 – Iteration Framework & Monthly Cadence

25:00 – Case Study: 3x3 Puzzle That Scaled

27:30 – Building a Playable Live (Quick Walkthrough)

29:00 – Final Advice + Playable Bible Teaser

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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

---------------------------------------

Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!

Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!

Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

---------------------------------------

If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej Lancaric

Do you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai