Mobile game UA costs are undergoing a structural shift. Ad volume is declining across nearly every genre, yet creative count is surging. This divergence signals a fundamental transition from traffic-based competition to creative-based competition.
Genre ad volume ranking
Strategy leads all genres with 1.36 million active ads (-8.5% MoM), paired with 204,143 creatives (+53.0%). Puzzle follows at 1.14 million ads (-29.3%) and 160,146 creatives (+63.2%). Simulation: 858,224 ads (-13.3%) and 149,654 creatives (+46.0%). Action: 886,365 ads (-17.9%) and 121,770 creatives (+73.3%). Arcade: 371,398 ads (-3.2%) and 77,206 creatives (+69.9%). Sim Fighting: 383,750 ads (-11.9%) and 59,759 creatives (+28.9%). Hyper Casual: 30,082 ads (-3.0%) and 7,128 creatives (+108.4%).
The key metric is creatives per ad. Hyper Casual has the highest ratio at 2,369 creatives per 10,000 ads, reflecting intense creative competition despite its smaller absolute size. Action follows at 1,374 per 10,000, Puzzle at 1,399, and Strategy at 1,506. Strategy's relatively lower ratio suggests higher advertiser concentration.
CPI is diverging by market. North America remains the most expensive: Strategy $3-5 CPI, Puzzle $1.5-3, driven by post-ATT measurement costs. Southeast Asia offers the lowest CPI floor at $0.3-0.8 for Strategy, though costs are rising approximately 15% MoM. Japan has the widest genre spread with RPG CPI reaching $8-12 while casual games maintain $1-2.
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Creative fatigue cycles are accelerating. Hyper Casual creatives wear out in 3-5 days. Action and Puzzle: 5-7 days. Simulation: 7-10 days. Strategy: 10-14 days, benefiting from higher-production-value real-person content.
The winning approach is a dual-track production system: AI-generated creatives for rapid cold-start testing and human-produced premium creatives for scaled deployment. Replace materials when CTR drops beyond 15% or CPC rises beyond 20%.
