Unity Ads Earnings for Entertainment App 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

13 minutes

Retention day 1 / 7 / 30

30% / 11% / 5%

Typical iOS share

40%

Rewarded video

1 per user / day

Interstitial

2 per user / day

Banner

4 per session

Native

Not offered

App open

Not offered

Entertainment apps compete with their own content

Wallpaper and ringtone apps, streaming guides, meme collections, quiz apps, fan hubs and soundboards share one trait: the user came to consume something, and every ad competes with it for attention. Sessions can run long as people browse item after item, yet loyalty is often thin, and many of these apps are found through search and dropped once the novelty fades. Our estimates put the category just under par at 0.95, reflecting browsing that is casual and an audience that is rarely in a buying frame of mind.

The natural break in an entertainment app falls between items: after a wallpaper is set, after a quiz round, after a clip ends. Interstitials at those moments go down far better than mid-browse. Native cards fit grids and lists because the layout is already repetitive. Rewarded video can unlock premium or exclusive items, and plenty of wallpaper and sticker apps build their whole model around it. Take care with video ads inside a video-led app, since an ad with sound colliding with your own content is a frequent source of one-star reviews.

Policy risk here concerns the content more than the ads. Apps that host copyrighted images, music or clips can be pulled from the stores or lose network approval, and advertisers steer clear of placements beside material they regard as unsafe. Seasonal content, such as holiday wallpapers or event quizzes, can draw traffic peaks that line up with the strongest ad prices of the year, so read the Q4 preparation guide before autumn arrives.

Estimated monthly earnings by audience size

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

Where the money comes from

Split of the $5,017 estimate at 10,000 daily users (blended Android and iOS).

Interstitial carries 44% 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 2.5.

Revenue per install

Using the category’s typical retention curve, one install produces about 3.7 active days in its first 30 days and 5.9 in 90 days.

Ad revenue per install, first 30 days

$0.06

Ad revenue per install, first 90 days

$0.10

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

How Unity Ads fits this category

For Rewarded video, the Tier 1 eCPM in our Unity Ads table is $13.00, about 8% above the middle of the eight mobile networks. For Interstitial, the Tier 1 eCPM in our Unity Ads table is $9.00, about 11% above the middle of the eight mobile networks. For Banner, the Tier 1 eCPM in our Unity Ads table is $0.80, about 3% below the middle of the eight mobile networks. Unity Ads does not offer Native in our model. On networks that do, it carries about 20% of revenue for this category, so that share has to come from other formats here. Unity Ads does not offer App open in our model. On networks that do, it carries about 10% of revenue for this category, so that share has to come from other formats here. Modelled fill is 84% for Unity Ads against an average of 83% across the mobile networks, which adds a little to every format.

You create a project in the Unity dashboard, switch on monetisation and receive a game ID for each platform. In the editor you install the Ads package, or the LevelPlay package if you want mediation, which is the route Unity increasingly points new publishers towards. You initialise the SDK with your ID, define rewarded, interstitial and banner placements, and use test mode to check the flow. Payment and tax profiles live in the dashboard. Try the Unity Ads revenue calculator to size the opportunity first.

How Unity Ads ranks for this category

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

Unity Ads ranks 6 of 8 here, 73% behind AppLovin MAX.

Practical tips

• Trigger interstitials after a completed action, such as setting a wallpaper, rather than while the user is still browsing.
• Make sure every item is original or properly licensed, because a takedown ends ad income overnight.
• Mute video ads by default in apps where your own content plays sound.

About Unity Ads

Unity Ads is a video-first network tied closely to the Unity engine, and in our tables it covers rewarded, interstitial and banner but not native or app open. Its Tier 1 Android estimates of about $13.00 for rewarded and $9.00 for interstitials sit among the stronger figures, helped by game studios buying installs from other games.

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.