Vungle / Liftoff 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

3 per user / day

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 $5,501 estimate at 10,000 daily users (blended Android and iOS).

Interstitial carries 35% 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 3.7 active days in its first 30 days and 5.9 in 90 days.

Ad revenue per install, first 30 days

$0.07

Ad revenue per install, first 90 days

$0.11

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. For Native, the Tier 1 eCPM in our Vungle / Liftoff table is $3.20, about 4% below the middle of the eight mobile networks. Vungle / Liftoff 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 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, 58% 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 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.