ironSource / LevelPlay Earnings for Puzzle Game Apps

Typical ad setup for this category

These are the modelling defaults for the category, used in every table on this page.

Sessions per user per day

3.0

Typical session length

11 minutes

Retention day 1 / 7 / 30

40% / 18% / 8%

Typical iOS share

40%

Rewarded video

3 per user / day

Interstitial

3 per user / day

Banner

5 per session

Native

Off by default

App open

Not offered

Puzzle games reward patient, habitual players

Word games, sudoku, jigsaws, solitaire and logic puzzles draw a steady audience who play at the same times each day: over morning coffee, on the commute, in the evening. Those routines make puzzle titles some of the most predictable earners in mobile. We treat the category as the benchmark itself, with a multiplier of 1.0, so the base eCPM tables apply unchanged. What sets puzzles apart is less the price of each impression than how many impressions a loyal player produces across months of daily visits.

The pace of play helps. Puzzles are calm and mostly static, with few frantic taps, so a banner along the bottom causes fewer accidental clicks than it would in an action game, and it refreshes the whole time someone is thinking. Each solved grid gives you a clean pause for an interstitial. Rewarded video works best when it offers help: a hint, a revealed letter, an undo, or a second try at the daily challenge. Players stuck on a hard board are often glad to watch for a nudge.

Because the audience is loyal, mistakes show up slowly. An interstitial that appears too often may not cause a wave of uninstalls; sessions get a little shorter instead, and players drift away over weeks. Watch session length and day-30 retention after any change, not only day-1. Put your own daily users, sessions and format mix into the calculator to see how banners and interstitials compare for a game like yours.

Estimated monthly earnings by audience size

Monthly estimates for the typical setup above, balanced region split.

Where the money comes from

Split of the $10,190 estimate at 10,000 daily users (blended Android and iOS).

Rewarded video carries 49% of the total, so its placement and frequency matter most for this category.

Region makes the biggest difference

The same app at 10,000 daily users with three audience splits:

Moving from an emerging-market audience to a Tier 1 audience multiplies the estimate by about 2.4.

Revenue per install

Using the category’s typical retention curve, one install produces about 5.2 active days in its first 30 days and 8.7 in 90 days.

Ad revenue per install, first 30 days

$0.18

Ad revenue per install, first 90 days

$0.30

Compare these figures with your cost per install before buying users. They exclude in-app purchases.

How ironSource / LevelPlay fits this category

For Rewarded video, the Tier 1 eCPM in our ironSource / LevelPlay table is $12.50, about 4% above the middle of the eight mobile networks. For Interstitial, the Tier 1 eCPM in our ironSource / LevelPlay table is $8.50, about 5% above the middle of the eight mobile networks. For Banner, the Tier 1 eCPM in our ironSource / LevelPlay table is $0.85, about 3% above the middle of the eight mobile networks. ironSource / LevelPlay does not offer App open in our model. On networks that do, it carries about 3% of revenue for this category, so that share has to come from other formats here. Modelled fill is 86% for ironSource / LevelPlay against an average of 83% across the mobile networks, which adds a little to every format.

You open a LevelPlay account, add each app and receive an app key. The SDK goes into your build with adapters for the networks you choose, and each of those needs its own credentials entered in the LevelPlay dashboard. You then decide which instances bid and which sit in a waterfall with floors, which our guide to choosing floor prices covers. The integration test suite confirms adapters before release. Estimate first with the LevelPlay revenue calculator.

How ironSource / LevelPlay ranks for this category

All eight mobile networks, same category and audience (10,000 daily users, balanced).

ironSource / LevelPlay ranks 3 of 8 here, 27% behind AppLovin MAX.

Practical tips

• Keep a banner on the main puzzle screen but leave clear space between it and any keyboard or grid the player taps.
• Sell hints through rewarded video rather than handing out a generous daily allowance, so help keeps its value.
• Skip the interstitial after an abandoned puzzle and show it only after a completed one.

About ironSource / LevelPlay

ironSource LevelPlay is Unity's mediation platform, pairing the ironSource network with access to other bidders and waterfall sources. Our estimates put it at about $12.50 for Tier 1 rewarded and $8.50 for interstitials on Android, with fill of around 86%.

All figures come from our benchmark tables: Android eCPMs by tier, category or niche multipliers, modelled fill and the iOS multiplier. They are estimates for planning, not quotes.