Lion Studios Enjoys 25% Uplift in Session Lengths

two phones on top of each other with Lion studios app showing
PUBLISHER
Lion Studios
APP
Multiple
REGION
Global
Highlights
20x
boost in installs*
3x
increase in ad spend*
25%
uplift in session lengths**
Background

Based in San Francisco, California, AppLovin’s Lion Studios, is a mobile games publishing studio with offices across the globe, in megacities such as Berlin and Shanghai.

The studio initially launched its business back in 2018 exclusively as a hypercasual games publisher but recently decided to branch out into different gaming verticals. It wasn’t long before the studio started specializing in high-quality, entertaining puzzle games, merge games, and word games.

Since its foundation, the company has reached almost 4 billion downloads worldwide and published many number-one games in the charts – as well as many more top-10 breakouts, including Mr Bullet, Ink Inc., and Pull Him Out.

Challenge

In the highly competitive mobile market, the US-based publisher’s overall strategy was to diversify the channels that it was buying traffic from.

Lion Studios wanted to increase its presence on different platforms to reach new traffic and boost install volume, while acquiring high-quality users.

Based on this strategy, the publishing studio needed to seek new networks that would help it reach high-value players from new traffic sources and engage them on a deeper level.

Solution

adjoe attracted the UA team at Lion Studios’ attention as a new traffic source for publishers who want to boost their scale with engaged users.

Playtime – a solution that rewards users based on time spent and events completed in gameplay – proved an ideal fit for Lion Studios’ extensive portfolio.

The publishing studio saw that both ad units positively influence users’ engagement and retention by driving them further into mobile game. With Lion Studios’ hypercasual titles, Advance’s continuous rewarded model based on level completion would enable the publisher to boost extended session times.

phone screen showing Lion Studios with Playtime offerwall
Phone screen with advertiser game with users earning rewards
Impact

With adjoe’s ad solutions designed for mobile gamers, Lion Studios leveraged a new traffic source, which was added to the pool of the more traditional rewarded and interstitial ad formats.

The publisher was able to acquire high-quality traffic and expand its user base with engaged and devoted gamers. The company could achieve its ROAS goals, and adjoe became a strong partner for Lion Studios on Android within a short period of time. In less than 6 months, the publisher increased the UA spend on adjoe’s network with a 3× budget increase.

Lion Studios also enjoyed a 10% increase in retention rate across its popular titles, such as Match 3D and Merge Life. When it came to its compelling hypercasual titles, including Pull Him Out, the publishing studio also boosted its Day 1 daily usage by 25%.

Lion Studios triples its adjoe ad spend and sees 10% increase in retention rate across its popular titles
phone screen with lion studios game showing
Looking Forward

Lion Studios remains determined in its mission to captivate and entertain a global audience through incredible mobile games, and the team is notorious for developing mobile games that transform into global phenomenons.

Lion Studios aims to continue expanding its portfolio with diverse gaming verticals – meaning there’s plenty in the pipeline for users to look forward to in terms of new and exciting gaming experiences.

The company plans to continue working with adjoe by not only exploring new promotions but also new targeting options and GEOs, as well as testing new games.

*adjoe network November, 2021 vs March, 2022 ** adjoe vs. social networks

image of Tatiana Sudakova
“With Playtime we see that, at first, users start playing our game for rewards, but then at some point they just get attached to the game. Then it becomes less about the rewards and more about enjoying our games in their free time.”
Tatiana Sudakova
Manager, Growth, at Lion Studios

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