Top apps use bonus items, loyalty programs, and free XP to drive battle pass purchases on web stores.

Dark War Survival closely mirrors the mechanics of other top 4X apps like Whiteout Survival but sets itself apart by using heroes to unlock new base-building areas and offering immersive storytelling with voice-acted dialogue.

Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Mobile faithfully adapts the franchise’s tactical FPS gameplay to mobile, including team-based combat, destructible environments, and a diverse pool of heroes with unique abilities.

Archero introduces an expansion that includes a tower defense mode with an extensive upgrade tree and its own battle pass. Meanwhile, Call of Duty: Mobile adds a new type of cosmetic progression, and Legend of Slime offers a puzzle mini-game popularized by casual apps.

Cookie Run: Kingdom’s Cookies for Hire allows players to rent out one hero from their collection, enabling all other players to temporarily use that hero in primary game modes. This feature benefits players of different experience levels by rewarding veteran players with deep collections of strong heroes and giving new players access to powerful heroes.

Celebrity ads with strong narratives, humor, and related in-game content perform better than traditional ads that play it safe.

Coin Master innovates on chain offer events by offering rows of prizes that players collect by stopping a moving selector. Meanwhile, Cash Frenzy blends team events with pachinko mechanics, and Bingo Frenzy adds a sliding puzzle mini-game.

Bingo Frenzy’s Wings & Whims is one of only a few bingo rooms released in the past six months that offers mechanics that modify bingo cards during gameplay. This room offers powerful boosts that players collect by daubing spaces, which keeps anticipation high and significantly accelerates reward cadences.

Big Fish Casino offers respins where a horizontal prize wheel spins above the reels and awards payouts when prizes land above respin symbols. Plus, Jackpot World introduces free spins that enhance a subsequent respin bonus, and Cash Frenzy adds a machine with a Pachinko board above the reels.

In Jackpot World’s New Year Funfair, respins use three different symbols to add a variety of enhancements for a subsequent player choice bonus. Because each respin symbol modifies each bonus differently, the respins have an unpredictable outcome that creates an open-ended sense of anticipation.

Hybrid monetization generates higher revenue per player than other monetization methods, but only 40% of apps use it.

Our User Growth experts discuss why playable ads are so successful, what their KPIs actually mean, and how to innovate on the competition’s successful ads.