Hyper-casual advertising after Apple changes – Infographic 2021 Q3

It’s that time of the year already! Once again we have created a report to help hyper-casual publishers navigate the challenges of the ever-changing mobile industry. This year, we focus on the most interesting quarter: the third quarter, when the industry felt the full effect of Apple’s privacy changes. We have presented all of the insight in one hand infographic, available to everyone.

Hyper-casual ad spend by platform

The distribution of advertising spend between the two main mobile ecosystems shows hyper-casual spend is a shade higher on Android than iOS (55% vs 45%).

In the history of our benchmark reports, this is the first time that iOS has not outperformed Android in hyper-casual ad spend.

Hyper-casual ad spend by ad networkIn terms of the top ad networks by hyper-casual ad spend, 8 ad networks (AppLovin, Mintegral, Google Ads, Facebook, Unity Ads, ironSource, Vungle, TikTok) feature in the top 10 on both iOS and Android. Nevertheless, some interesting trends do emerge:

• Firstly, while many ad networks have different levels of spend in each ecosystem, AppLovin is dominant on both iOS and Android.
• Understandably, with Google Play unavailable in China, Google Ads receives far more ad spend on Android than iOS. This is mirrored by hyper-casual ad spend with Facebook.
• This has a knock-on effect for spend on ad networks on iOS, where Mintegral is 2nd for hyper-casual ad spend (5th on Android). Likewise, Ocean Engine sneaks into the top 10 on iOS but doesn’t feature on Android.
• The increasing although sometimes overstated importance of Apple Search Ads is shown by its position in 6th place on iOS.
• And, with more hyper-casual developers and publishers exploring campaigns on TikTok, its network features at 8th on Android and 9th on iOS.
• On Android, MolocoAds and AdColony make the grade in 9th and 10th place respectively, but don’t feature on iOS.

Hyper-casual ad spend by country

The key difference in hyper-casual ad spend when segmented by market is, again, impacted by China. The country features in 3rd for iOS ad spend but doesn’t yet feature in the Android list despite the growing importance of alternative Android stores.

The US and Japan feature at 1 and 2 in both lists, but there are some other big movers. South Korea is 5th for hyper-casual ad spend on Android, falling to 10th on iOS. Australia is the direct opposite (5th on iOS, 10th on Android)

Other than China, the only market that doesn’t feature across both lists is the big LATAM market of Brazil, which comes in 7th on Android.

Maximize the performance of key ad networks

Do you want to maximize the performance of Applovin, Mintegral, ironSource and other players from this report for your hyper-casual games?

Silly question, right? But the insights needed to do this are a closely guarded secret of the biggest publishers.

Not any more! Book a demo with Growth FullStack to learn how.

Email us at support@tenjin.com with any questions or feedback.