Established in 2011, East Side Games is a Canadian-based game developer that focuses on IP-driven free-to-play mobile games. Their longstanding portfolio has generated over 30M cumulative installs to-date and includes popular titles like Star Trek Lower Decks,The Office: Somehow We Manage, Bud Farm: Idle Tycoon, Cheech and Chong Bud Farm, RuPaul's Drag Race Superstar, and Trailer Park Boys: Greasy Money.

Challenge

Unlock new growth opportunities for a maturing portfolio of games.

With some of their games released as far back as 2017, East Side Games took a proactive approach to mitigate potential growth challenges while doubling down on the pursuit of acquiring high-quality users. As a result, the company sought to explore new and innovative media sources capable of delivering high-quality users globally. 

Solution

By harnessing the power of loyalty and tapping into Mistplay's highly-engaged community of gamers, East Side Games was able to significantly scale acquisition efforts on Android across their portfolio of idle games while driving ROAS, retention, and install volume.

Success was primarily achieved by using Mistplay's newest AI-driven tROAS campaigns.

Our target ROAS campaigns utilize a cutting-edge predictive AI model that leverages innumerable first-party and third-party data points encompassing user interests and behaviours. Our game recommendation engine and intelligent bidding technology work in tandem to deliver the right game to the right user at the optimal price point. The campaign employs advanced AI technology to automate more intelligent bids based on a user's propensity to make in-app purchases (IAPs). By automatically optimizing towards high-value users, the campaign drives increased installs for each game and maximizes total in-app purchases revenue. Once the model identifies the preferred user base, the campaign scales across the platform to achieve ROAS targets.

Given the strong performance in the US, we quickly expanded campaigns into four new geographies (UK, Germany, Canada, and Australia) which further empowered East Side Games’ growth strategy and helped deliver high  LTV users on a global scale. Additionally, their portfolio of games were “boosted’ inside of Mistplay, offering higher earnings rates for faster rewards, which amplified the performance of the tROAS campaigns. 

Impact 

By scaling Mistplay as a significant source within their media mix, East Side Games saw a substantial boost in aggregate UA performance on Android, ushering in a new era of user acquisition for their portfolio of idle games. 

The company was able to proactively combat the looming fatigue of traditional media sources and tap into a new loyalty-driven source to maximize the scale of its UA operations.

Highlights 

During Q1 2023, Mistplay improved the combined average performance of East Side Games’ user acquisition sources on Android, revealing significant improvements in key metrics.

• 15% increase in installs
• 9.5% increase D7 retention
• 7.7% increase in D7 ROAS

These figures offer valuable insights into Mistplay's market positioning and its relative effectiveness in driving user acquisition and engagement, providing actionable data for strategic decision-making.

“Mistplay's strategy of rewarding users to engage with our games for the long-term has proven to be highly effective. They've been a leading partner in boosting retention by nearly 10% across our Android campaigns which has been a game changer for overall performance and profitability. Their team has been exceptional in setting up and optimizing our campaigns, always quick to respond to our queries and offering sound recommendations to achieve more growth.”

Joao Becker, Lead UA Manager, East Side Games

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