Unity: mobile game ad revenue increased by 8% in 2020, card games showed highest growth

Unity has released its latest gaming report, providing insights from 2020 on ad revenue and the market in general. The company also issues a forecast of key trends for 2021.

Key takeaways from the report

• First-day microtransaction purchases grew by more than 50% year-over-year, while ad revenues saw an increase of 8%;
• Card games showed the highest growth among all mobile genre, with ad revenue increasing by 108.1% year-over-year;
• Trivia, casual, puzzle, board, and action games also showed impressive growth, while ad revenue for the sports category decreased by 26.7%;
• In-app monetization took the largest percentage of total game revenues, with word, sports, and arcade being the only genres where ads bring more money;
• In casino games, one player spent an average of $11.92 for one in-app purchase, which is the highest amount among other genres;
• DAU in China returned to 2019 levels, meaning that the same can happen in other markets after the pandemic will slow down.

Unity also provided its predictions about the game industry trends for 2021:

• IDFA changes will impact the mobile’s ecosystem and ad market as user data will become less available to developers and advertisers;
• Cross-platform between mobile and PC/consoles might be the future as the line between platforms is blurring due to the ability of mobile games to adapt more mid- and hardcore mechanics;
• Some gamers who started to play games during the lockdown period will form new habits, so the overall number of gamers will stay high even after the pandemic.

The full report can be found here.