Vungle / Liftoff Earnings for Casual 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

3.5

Typical session length

8 minutes

Retention day 1 / 7 / 30

38% / 14% / 6%

Typical iOS share

35%

Rewarded video

3 per user / day

Interstitial

3 per user / day

Banner

6 per session

Native

Off by default

App open

Not offered

Casual games balance ads against in-app spending

Match-3, merge and light simulation titles keep players for weeks or months rather than days. Sessions are short but frequent: a few levels on the bus, a few more before bed. That longer lifespan changes the maths. Each player is worth protecting, and some of them will pay for boosters, lives or a starter pack, so advertising has to earn alongside purchases without undercutting them. Casual eCPMs sit a touch under the typical-app baseline in our tables, at 0.95, yet a well-retained casual game usually earns more per player over its lifetime than a hypercasual one simply because people stay.

Rewarded video is the natural centre of a casual ad plan, because the economy already has scarce things to offer. Extra moves when a board is nearly cleared, a refill of lives or doubled coins after a level all give players a reason to opt in. Interstitials work at the end of a level or on return to the map, though frequency matters more than in simpler games: the regulars you annoy are the ones you can least afford to lose. Banners on map or menu screens add a small, steady top-up without touching play.

The awkward question is cannibalisation. If rewarded ads hand out too many free lives, fewer players buy them. Watch purchase conversion next to ad revenue whenever you change reward values, and consider switching off forced ads for anyone who has paid. The rewarded versus interstitial guide explains how to test the mix rather than guess at it.

Estimated monthly earnings by audience size

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

Where the money comes from

Split of the $8,755 estimate at 10,000 daily users (blended Android and iOS).

Rewarded video carries 48% 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 4.4 active days in its first 30 days and 7.0 in 90 days.

Ad revenue per install, first 30 days

$0.13

Ad revenue per install, first 90 days

$0.20

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

How Vungle / Liftoff fits this category

For Rewarded video, the Tier 1 eCPM in our Vungle / Liftoff table is $12.00, close to the middle of the eight mobile networks. For Interstitial, the Tier 1 eCPM in our Vungle / Liftoff table is $8.20, close to the middle of the eight mobile networks. For Banner, the Tier 1 eCPM in our Vungle / Liftoff table is $0.70, about 15% below the middle of the eight mobile networks. Modelled fill is 80% for Vungle / Liftoff against an average of 83% across the mobile networks, which trims a little from every format.

Sign up on the publisher side of Liftoff, register each app and create placements for the formats you plan to use. Most developers add Vungle through their mediation platform rather than integrating it alone, which means copying the app ID and placement IDs into that dashboard and installing the matching adapter. Add the app-ads.txt line Liftoff provides, run test mode until ads load reliably, and complete the payment profile. The compare tool shows how it stacks up against other networks.

How Vungle / Liftoff ranks for this category

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

Vungle / Liftoff ranks 5 of 8 here, 44% behind AppLovin MAX.

Practical tips

• Remove interstitials automatically for players who make any purchase, since their goodwill is worth more than the impressions.
• Offer extra moves through rewarded video on near-miss failures, where motivation is highest and the reward feels earned.
• Recheck reward values every time you rebalance the economy so free rewards do not quietly replace paid ones.

About Vungle / Liftoff

Vungle, now part of Liftoff, is a video-led network whose demand leans towards performance advertisers paying for app installs. Our tables put its Tier 1 Android rewarded estimate at about $12.00 and interstitial at about $8.20, close to AdMob, with fill of around 80%.

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.