Adjust: Gaming App Insights Report 2026
Adjust released annual mobile market report which has interesting data on sessions, marketing metrics (CPM, CPC, CPI), some Retention data.
Data covers the top 5,000 apps and the full Adjust dataset, aggregated and anonymized. Data collected from January 2024 to January 2026, across 23 game genres, 6 regions, and 21 countries.
Mobile gaming market
Mobile games accounted for 55% of total gaming industry revenue in 2025. The mobile gaming audience is approximately 3 billion people, or around 80% of all players.
IAP revenue across casual, midcore & hypercasual games grew to $81.8 billion. The segment has grown for three consecutive years on App Store and Google Play, though growth has nearly plateaued.
Total time spent in mobile games reached 444.6 billion hours (+1% YoY).
Installs and Sessions
Global session count grew 1% YoY. Install trends diverged by region: MENA was up 2% in installs and +7% in sessions. In LATAM, installs fall 9% with modest session growth (+0.4% YoY). In Europe, installs dropped by 7% while sessions grew 3%.
Hypercasual games retain the largest install share at 29.1% (up from 27% in 2024). Their session share also grew, from 11% to 15%.
❗️Yes, this refers specifically to hypercasual projects. The line between hypercasual and hybrid casual games has become increasingly blurry.
Casual and hybrid casual titles account for around 10% of installs each, with 7% and 8.5% of sessions, respectively. Some genres (puzzles, for instance) are calculated separately; puzzles have 10% of installs and 13% of all sessions.
Action games have the largest gap between installs and sessions: 8% of installs but 17.1% of sessions.
Strategy games led session growth in 2025, up 57% for the year. Casual games grew 37%, hypercasual 31%, simulators 18%, and card games 15%.
By the end of 2025, slots grew at +46% YoY. Casino came second (+22% YoY), casual games third (+19% YoY).
❗️It’s not entirely clear for me what falls under the casual category, if puzzles, card games, hypercasual/hybrid casual games, simulators, and word games are all broken out separately.
At the country level, Turkey grew sessions by 7%, France by 4%, and the DACH region by 3%.
Session Length
Strategy games saw the strongest growth in session length, up from 31.72 to 37.51 minutes (+18%). Racing games grew 17% (to 16.33 minutes), casual and hypercasual titles grew 15% and 13% respectively.
Action games have the highest average session length at 43.8 minutes, though it has declined slightly.
APAC is the only region where session length declined (-4%, from 34.48 to 33.14 minutes). MENA grew 3% to 30.88 minutes, and LATAM grew 2% to 25.44 minutes.
Day-zero session count (on install day) held steady at 1.65 in 2025, and this holds across nearly all genres. The average user plays one session on install day, making that session critical for hooking players.
Regional differences in day-zero sessions are modest. LATAM has the lowest count (with a declining trend), Europe has the highest among major regions, though Japan is the absolute leader.
Retention
D1 Retention across all genres was 27% in 2025. Hypercasual and hybrid casual have the highest numbers.
❗️Top games in the market regularly exceed 40-50% D1 Retention. Benchmarking against averages is somewhat misleading.
The biggest D1 Retention improvement by genre came from family games, up 5 percentage points from 18% to 23%.
Japan has the highest D1 Retention of any country, at around 25%.
Paid and Organic Installs
The median paid-to-organic install ratio grew from 2.07 to 3.33 (+61% YoY), with growth recorded across all verticals and regions.
Casino has the highest ratio at 11.05 (11 paid installs for every organic one), up 223% YoY.
❗️The numbers confirm that UA is scaling aggressively, especially in high-monetization genres.
By region, APAC saw the largest growth in paid install share (+45% YoY, from 2.05 to 2.97). North America grew 28% YoY (from 2.76 to 3.52), Europe 26% YoY (from 2.53 to 3.18).
Countries with the highest paid-to-organic ratios: Brazil (5.32), Turkey (4.28), India (3.81), and the US (3.53).
Marketing Metrics
IPM (Installs Per Mille) for gaming apps edged up slightly in 2025, to 8.62 from 8.59 the year prior. Racing games have the highest IPM at 16.2. Casino saw the strongest IPM growth, up 65% to 5.13.
IPM fell in most regions (Europe, LATAM, MENA, North America) but grew in APAC.
CPC (Cost per Click) grew from $0.03 in 2024 to $0.04 in 2025 (+33% YoY). The sharpest increases: strategy (+133% YoY, to $0.07) and slots (+106%, to $0.35). Among countries, the US saw the strongest growth (+86% YoY, to $0.13).
Global CPI (Cost per Install) rose to $0.56 (+30% YoY). The most expensive installs: slots ($4.47), idle RPG ($3.19), strategy ($1.03). Per Adjust, CPI fell for casino and family games.
CPI rose nearly everywhere in 2025. Europe was up 47% YoY (from $0.36 to $0.53), LATAM up 40% (to $0.14), North America up 31% (from $1.28 to $1.68).
The highest CPM (Cost per Mille) in 2025 was in the casino (above $12) and slots (nearly $12). Average CPM across all genres grew from $3.63 to $4.34 (+20% YoY).
North America remains the most expensive region by a wide margin, at $15.98 CPM. LATAM and MENA both saw CPM fall 3% for the year.
Ad Networks
The average number of ad partners per app declined from 6 to 5.3. Some genres saw partner counts grow (hypercasual, for instance), while others saw sharp declines (slots).
❗️As CPI and CPM rise, companies focus on the channels that deliver the highest LTV. Fewer experiments means fewer active channels.
ATT Opt-In
Global ATT opt-in rate grew from 38% in Q1 2025 to 39% in Q1 2026. Sports games (54%) and action games (50%) continue to lead.
Arcade is the only genre where ATT opt-in declined, from 50% to 46%.
The strongest ATT opt-in growth was in India, from 44% to 51%. In absolute terms, Indonesia leads at 60% in Q1 2026.