PhotonFox, founded in 2019 in Chengdu, China, is a mobile game publisher that blends entertainment and storytelling within their games. Their mission involves propelling the industry forward through technological innovation and creative inspiration.

Magicabin: Witch's Adventure is a Simulation game developed by PhotonFox in which players take on the role of young wizards, creating their own magic cabin in a fantastical world. As a Simulation game, the mechanics revolve around players completing tasks to customize their home and explore the mysterious magical world. 

Ever since its launch on Android in 2023, the title has found consistent success, including ranking in the top 20 globally for Simulation revenue in 2024, and amassing an impressive 2.5 million+ download count.

The challenge: Starting from scratch to take a mobile game overseas

Right from its inception, PhotonFox has had its sights set on the global mobile gaming market. Through extensive research to understand player demands and market characteristics of different regions, PhotonFox ultimately identified North America and Europe as primary targets for global expansion.

To prepare, PhotonFox invested extensive time and effort in culturalizing and optimizing their games for the new markets. Ultimately, after substantial investments were made to prepare for global expansion, PhotonFox needed a high-quality media channel partner on the Android platform to acquire users and achieve sustainable growth in the North American and European markets upon launch. 

The solution: Mistplay’s loyalty-first and AI-driven user acquisition platform 

As the leading loyalty program for mobile gamers with an engaged community of 2M+ monthly active users across the globe, Mistplay was the perfect partner for PhotonFox’s expansion overseas with Magicabin: Witch’s Adventure. With a goal of driving installs, spend, and engagement at scale in NA and EU markets, here’s how Mistplay helped: 

1. Expansion guidance: With a global community of mobile gamers, the Mistplay team was able to provide in-depth insights into the mobile gaming landscape within their key markets to improve their UA strategies.

2. AI-driven tROAS campaigns: The AI-driven IAP tROAS campaign leverages machine learning algorithms to accurately bid based on a player’s likelihood to spend and continuously optimizes against the set ROAS goal.

3. Low campaign lift: The Mistplay platform does not require additional lift for the publisher such as SDK integration and unique ad creatives, which greatly reduces the time it takes to launch and optimize a campaign for results.

After an initial testing period with promising results, PhotonFox decided to leverage the Mistplay platform as one of its first Android channels for overseas expansion. With this low-lift yet powerful loyalty-first approach to UA, guided by Mistplay’s expertise in the markets, PhotonFox successfully acquired (and engaged) users in North America and Europe – and even beyond.

The results: Successful overseas expansion

Mistplay’s guidance, platform, and IAP tROAS campaign ultimately helped PhotonFox achieve their campaign targets and acquire new, high-value users in North America and Europe. Due to the campaign’s success, PhotonFox additionally expanded the campaign into South Korea and significantly increased their UA budget to further capitalize on their success for Magicabin: Witch’s Adventure. 

From January to April of 2024, PhotonFox achieved:

Compared to Magicabin’s channel average.

"With its unique loyalty model and active community, Mistplay continuously provides us with high-retention players globally. Their customer service team, with their deep understanding of global expansion and tROAS acquisition strategy, also offers us valuable insights into the global mobile game market and user behavior." – Zhai Huangyao, Project Leader of Magicabin, PhotonFox

Power up your UA with Mistplay 

Whether you’re expanding into new markets like PhotonFox, or just looking to generate more installs and LTV from your titles, Mistplay is ready to help. Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can work together to unlock the power of loyalty and drive real results.