Casual LiveOps Report H1 2025

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Casual Market Overview

Page 05

Casual LiveOps Trends

Page 16

Casino

Page 42

Puzzle

Page 29

Hybridcasual

Page 55

LiveOps in:

Contents

We work with
350+
companies, including many big names:

Our customers

Key premises:

How is the market categorized?

All market analytics are based on

AppMagic’s core categorization.

Click here to learn more

What is the basis for the Market

analytics data?

Estimates for downloads and revenue are

derived from app positions in the Top Free

and Top Grossing charts across all
countries.

How are the LiveOps events classiﬁed?

In the LiveOps sections, event types and app

genre categorization are deﬁned using the

LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool and may

differ from the app’s main categorization.

This method highlights how live events are used across the market, providing more consistent and

comparable insights across titles.

You can ﬁnd more details on the chart calculation methodology in the footer of each slide.

Methodology

This report is based on AppMagic data for the period of 2021 to 2025 for the Market Overview, and from December 2024 to June 2025 for the LiveOps

Overview, covering both Android and iOS platforms.

The analysis of LiveOps events is based on the behavior of non-paying Android users in the United States.

Casual Market Overview

LiveOps Report H1 2025

Casual Games in a nutshell

Casual
games are easy-to-play experiences with simple rules,

short sessions, and low complexity, which makes them

accessible to a broad audience.

Royal Match

Travel Town

Monopoly GO!

Genre deﬁnition is provided according to AppMagic’s categorization.

Signiﬁcant shifts in the ranking

of top-grossing countries

Japan showed a 20% revenue growth

compared to H1 2024.

Casual Strategy games market

is growing

The genre’s revenue in H2 2025 grew by

120%, while downloads increased by

80% compared to H1 2024, driven by

several titles.

Most revenue remains

concentrated in older titles

Only 11% of the 2023–2025 releases made it

into the top-grossing games for H1 2025.

Key Takeaways

Casual supergenre continues

to grow

Global revenue grew by 3.6% and

downloads by 6% compared to last year.

Top countries by downloads

have changed

Brazil dropped out of the top 3 countries

in terms of downloads, giving way to

Indonesia.

Casino segment saw a drop

in revenue

Among the top 3 Casual genres by revenue,

only Casino showed a 15% decline in revenue,

despite an 8% increase in downloads.

Hypercasual games continue

to evolve

The Hypercasuals showed a 111%

increase in revenue due to the deepening

of meta mechanics and increased

monetization.

Overall, the
Casual segment has been growing slowly in both

downloads and revenue for several years.
Over the past year,

downloads increased by 6%, largely driven by the winter months. In

terms of revenue, the growth was more modest compared to the

previous year: only +3%.

Yearly trend

Revenue

Downloads

Trends in downloads and revenue for 2021–2025 (Worldwide)

Dynamics of change in downloads and revenue for 2021–2025 (YoY)

Period

Revenue

Downloads

Jul’22 – Jun’23

$19.8B

–

27.4B

–

Jul’23 – Jun’24

$22.9B

15.74%

28.4B

3.80%

Jul’24 – Jun’25

$23.8B

3.68%

30.2B

6.31%

Casual Market Overview |

YEARLY TREND

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy.

H1 2025

Half-year trend

Since the beginning of the year, the global
Casual segment has shown

an uptrend in downloads: +5%
compared to the same period last year.

The opposite is true for revenue: globally, the
Casual games revenue

has remained relatively ﬂat
since the start of the year (
<1% change
).

Revenue

Downloads

Period

Revenue

Downloads

H1 2024

$11.9B

–

15B

–

H1 2025

$12B

0.80%

15.8B

5.78%

Trends in downloads and revenue for 202 4–2025 (Worldwide)

Changes in downloads and revenue compared to H1 202 4

Casual Market Overview |
HALF-YEAR
TREND

H1 2024

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy.

Half-year Revenue trend by GEO

Despite the absence of major global shifts in the

ﬁrst half of 2025, there has been a
noticeable

change in the revenue trend among the top

countries
:

— The United States, China, and Japan continue

to hold leading positions in terms of revenue.

— Compared to the same period in 2024,

revenue generated in the US and China

declined by 7%, while Japan saw a 21%

increase.

The top 10 countries by revenue have remained

largely unchanged, with the leading markets

being: the United States, China, Japan,

Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada,

Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, and France.

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy.

Casual Market Overview |
HALF-YEAR REVENUE TREND BY GEO

Trends in revenue H1 2025 by GEO

0 100M 2.3B

Top

H1 2024

H1 2025

United States

$6.29B

United States

$5.85B

-7.06%

China

$827.22M

China

$766.76M

-7.31%

Japan

$605.59M

Japan

$737.39M

21.76%

Half-year Downloads trend by GEO

More
signiﬁcant changes were observed in the

distribution of downloads
:

— While
Brazil ranked among the top 3 countrie
s

by downloads in H1 2024, it
was replaced by

Indonesia in 2025.

—
Downloads in Indonesia increased by 21%

compared to the ﬁrst half of 202 4, whereas Brazil

experienced a decline of around 20%.

— India remained in the top position despite a slight

drop, while the United States saw a 9.6% increase.

Similar to the revenue trend, the top 10 countries by

downloads remained unchanged: India, the United

States, Indonesia, Brazil, Russian Federation,

Mexico, Vietnam, Turkey, Pakistan, and Philippines.

Trends in downloads H1 2025 by GEO

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy.

Casual Market Overview |

HALF-YEAR DOWNLOADS TREND BY GEO

Top

H1 2024

H1 2025

Geo

India

2.31B

India

2.26B

India

-1.98%

Brazil

1.29B

United States

1.39B

9.68%

United States

1.27B

Indonesia

1.29B

Indonesia

21.90%

0 100M 2.3B

Changes in the Casual supergenre

Puzzle, Casino, and Simulation remain
the

top 3 revenue-generating genres

globally:

●
Puzzle showed the strongest

revenue growth among them:

+13.2 4%
, while downloads rose

modestly (+4.59%).

●
In contrast, the
Casino revenue

declined by 15.51% globally
, despite

a 7–8% increase in downloads.

●
Simulation was the most stable:

revenue grew by 4%, and downloads

remained steady worldwide.

The biggest relative growth came from

Casual AR Games and Strategy, mainly

due to individual games like:

Casual Market Overview |
CHANGES IN CASUAL SUPERGENRE

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy.

Monopoly

World

The Tower

快来当
领
主

Genre

Revenue H1'24

Revenue H1'25

Downloads H1'24

Downloads H1'25

AR Games

$4,651

$12,550

169.83%

106,261

535,172

403.64%

Shooter

$2.1M

$1.8M

-11.21%

71.1M

53.6M

-24.60%

Racing

$25.7M

$28.8M

11.78%

938.1M

1.0B

8.25%

Strategy

$26.5M

$58.4M

120.33%

50.4M

91.1M

80.84%

Action

$51.1M

$44.1M

-13.80%

1.6B

1.7B

4.51%

Party Games

$194.0M

$132.5M

-31.68%

443.2M

435.3M

-1.79%

Sports Games

$162.6M

$161.4M

-0.69%

534.9M

454.3M

-15.06%

Kids

$246.7M

$290.4M

17.71%

2.4B

2.6B

9.00%

Arcade

$251.0M

$315.3M

25.64%

766.1M

826.9M

7.94%

RPG

$287.0M

$347.1M

20.94%

140.6M

149.0M

5.97%

Adventure

$394.2M

$345.3M

-12.40%

772.6M

413.0M

-46.54%

Tabletop

$468.5M

$541.0M

15.47%

935.1M

1.1B

16.74%

Simulation

$1.1B

4.65%

2.4B

0.88%

Puzzle

$4.1B

$4.6B

13.23%

3.5B

3.7B

4.67%

Casino

$4.7B

$3.9B

-15.51%

799.3M

866.2M

8.38%

Game Collection

$83

$37,924

45591.57%

–

617,617

–

In H1 2025,
most of the global top 100 grossing games came from Puzzle (32%) and Casino (41%)
, with all other genres making up just a quarter of the market.

Slots dominated within Casino (63%), while Match-3 led within Puzzle (50%).

Despite steady growth, Merge remained limited, accounting for only 8% of all the top-grossing games and 25% of the Puzzle genre.

Review of the Top Grossing H1 2025

Despite market growth,
most revenue remains concentrated in older

titles: 48%
of the top-grossing games in H1 2025 were released between

2015 and 2020, while only 11% came from the 2023–2025 releases. This

highlights the lasting dominance of long-established games.

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy.

Casual Market Overview |
REVIEW OF THE TOP GROSSING H1 2025

Casual

Puzzle

Casino

Puzzle

Simulation

Tabletop

RPG

Adventure

Party Games

Kids

Sports Games

Arcade

Match-2 Blast

Physics Puzzle

Word Puzzle

Casino

Slots

Casual Casino

Bingo

Fish Hunter

Casino Card Games

before 2010

2015-2020

2023

2021

2022

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

2011-2014

2025

2024

Merge

Match-3

Match 3D

Chain Puzzle

H1 2025

Hypercasual games have been steadily evolving, introducing

deeper mechanics to support long-term retention and

enhance IAP monetization.

Since January 2025,
in-app revenue has seen a sharp

increase, rising by 111% globally
compared to the previous

year.

This growth has been driven by titles like:

Dynamics of changes in the Hypercasual segment (WW)

Half-year hybridization trend

Revenue

Downloads

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy.

Color Block

Jam

All In Hole

Screwdom

Mob Control

Pocket

Champs

Casual Market Overview |
HALF-YEAR HYBRIDIZATION TREND

Period

Revenue

Downloads

H1 2024

107.5M

–

610.8M

–

H1 2025

227.9M

111.95%

612.5M

0.29%

H1 2024

With downloads remaining relatively stable, the surge in

revenue points to stronger player engagement and improved

monetization. This shift reﬂects the ongoing move toward

hybridization within the Hypercasual genre.

Changes in downloads and revenue compared to H1 202 4

Increasingly complex meta-game systems in Hypercasual titles and rapid growth of

competitors are forcing developers to focus more on long-term user retention.

A key element of that is the effective use of LiveOps
.

In this report, we explore LiveOps through several lenses:

●
Overall trends
: to provide a holistic view of the market and identify common

patterns across casual games

●
Puzzle and Casino
: to dive into the most proﬁtable genres and highlight LiveOps

practices speciﬁc to each of them

●
Hybridcasual
: to track early-stage LiveOps adoption in this emerging segment and

identify its current direction

What's next

LiveOps in:

Casino

Page 42

Puzzle

Page 29

Hybridcasual

Page 55

Global LiveOps Trends

Page 16

Casual LiveOps

Overview

LiveOps Report H1 2025

Casino is the most demanding

LiveOps genre

The Casino genre hosts 1.6 times more

events than the Casual segment on

average.

Key Takeaways

Number of LiveOps events

is growing rapidly

On average, 10% more events were held

in the Q2 compared to the Q1.

Popular mechanics continue

trending

The following mechanics showed steady

growth: Lava Quest (up 29%), Win
Streak

(up 25%), and Digging (up 20%).

The end of the Fishing

mechanic

Fishing mechanics failed to gain popularity

and are no longer introduced in the new top

games.

IP collabs: a LiveOps

essential

Over 25% of tracked top games featured at

least one IP collaboration this year.

Race is Casual’s top

mechanic

Race is present in 70% of the top Casual

games: an absolute record for LiveOps

mechanics.

Love, everybody!

Valentine’s Day is the most popular short

holiday, featured in 66% of Casual
games.

Plinko events:

the ones to watch

The Plinko mechanic continues to gain

popularity, especially in Puzzle and

Casino games.

Some mechanics are more

common in new events

The most popular mechanics in the new

events were: Core Duplicates (6% of all

events), Digging (5.6%), and Win Streak

(5.2%).

Releasing new events is an

essential part of any LiveOps

82% of games have launched at least one

event this year.

Few games remain that haven’t

celebrated holidays

96% of games have already celebrated at

least one event this year.

Holiday and IP event schedules

are inversely aligned

While holidays are mostly celebrated in

January, February, and April, the
number

of IP-related events grows in April, May,

and June.

Scheduling trends

Since the beginning of the year,
the number of in-game

events has been steadily rising.
As of now, May marks the

peak, with an average of 97 events per game, representing a

15% increase compared to the January and February levels.

On average, 92 events are held monthly in the Casual

segment. Despite their short duration, Hourly events still

account for a smaller share across all segments compared

to, for example, Daily events.

The highest event density is seen in the Casino genre,

averaging 150 events per month per game, with a strong

emphasis on Hourlies and Dailies.

In contrast, Puzzle games display a lower event density, with

around 90 events per game per month, and tend to focus on

Short and Daily events.

Unlike the overall trend, the Hybridcasual segment features

signiﬁcantly fewer events, averaging 57 per month. This low

event density is largely due to the segment’s lower

long-term retention.

Events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic's taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool and launched between January and June 2025, were included in the analysis. Duration was

calculated for each event individually.

Casual LiveOps Trends |

SCHEDULING TRENDS

Average number of events per month by duration type per game

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

100

Average number of events per game

150

100

Casual (All)

Casino

Hybridcasual

Puzzle

Hourly

Daily

Short

Medium

Long

In the ﬁrst half of 2025, several well-established

mechanics continued to gain popularity. Compared to

the beginning of the year,
the following mechanics

showed steady growth: Lava Quest (up 29%), Win

Streak (up 25%), and Digging (up 20%).

Some mechanics with low overall event density also

saw certain development.
The number of Album

events increased by 2 4%
compared to the beginning

of the year.
Gacha and Expedition also experienced

notable growth
, both increasing by
more than 50%
,

although their overall presence in event schedules

remains limited.

The number of events using the Collection and

Customization / Decoration mechanics slightly

declined (by 13% and 17% respectively), likely due to

the end of the winter holiday season, during which

these mechanics were more actively used.

Trends in mechanics

Casual LiveOps Trends |
TRENDS IN MECHANICS

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. An event was attributed to a speciﬁc month if it ran for at least one day
on

said month. This chart doesn’t show absolute event numbers, as a single event may include multiple mechanics under the taxonomy and structure of the LiveOps & Updates Calendar.

Pick-a-Box/Card

*excluding events where mechanics are not listed

Average number of
mechanics in monthly schedules per game*

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization/Decoration

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

The most popular mechanics in the new events were: Core

Duplicates (6% of all events), Digging (5.6%), and Win

Streak (5.2%).

Collection and Casual Casino mechanics also remained a

popular choice for implementation.

Meanwhile, the
Fishing mechanic showed the weakest

performance.
Although it still appears in some games’ event

schedules, it was not used in any new events. This likely

reﬂects the fact that the trend around Fishing has failed to

develop, largely due to limitations related to its setting and

gameplay.

82% of games launched at least one new event during the

ﬁrst half of the year
. The peak of new event releases

occurred in February, while June was the quietest month,

with 15% fewer events compared to the six-month average.

Casual LiveOps Trends |
NEW EVENTS

New events

said month.

Distribution of mechanics across new events*

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

30%

20%

0 events

1-2 events

3-4 events

5-7 events

8+ events

10%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Project activity across

new events

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box / Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Average number of new events

by month

*excluding events where mechanics are not listed

Core Duplicates
in our classiﬁcation: Events with gameplay that is fully or almost

identical to the core one.

Digging
in our classiﬁcation: Events where players excavate tiles in a speciﬁc area to uncover items or rewards.

Trending mechanic: Digging

Although the
Digging mechanic was used in 43% of Casual games
during the ﬁrst half

of 2025, it
ranked among the top 3 mechanics

introduced in new events
from
January

to June.

Primarily, this mechanic appeared in Blast, Solitaire, Merge, and Tile games, but it was

also observed in Hybridcasual titles.

Typically, such events have a duration of up to one week, and monetization is driven by

special boosters (to speed up progress), battle passes, and limited-time offers.

Want to know more about Digging events?
Explore our LiveOps Features &

Monetization with the LiveOps & Updates tool.
Click here to learn more

Casual LiveOps Trends |
TRENDING MECHANIC:
DIGGING

said month. The chart includes mechanics that appeared at least once in a game between January and June 2025.

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box / Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Representation of mechanics in H1 2025

Other Mechanics

40%

20%

60%

80%

The
Win Streak mechanic appeared in 50% of LiveOps

events in Casual games
during the review period. It’s

important to note that the Win Streak mechanic requires a

level-based system (either in the core gameplay or in
events),

which makes it difﬁcult to implement in many games.

Therefore, its actual popularity is higher than it might initially

seem.

Despite this limitation,
the mechanic is gaining popularity,

showing a 25% increase in launches
since the beginning of

the year. Alongside Digging, it ranks among the top 5 most

frequently introduced mechanics in new events.

Win Streak events often include a Leaderboard as a

monetization driver. Their duration is usually just a few hours

or spans from 1 to 3 days.

Trending mechanic: Win Streak

Win Streak
in our classiﬁcation: Events where keeping or losing a win streak

impacts event progression.

Casual LiveOps Trends |
TRENDING MECHANIC: WIN STREAK

said month. The chart includes mechanics that appeared at least once in a game between January and June 2025.

40%

20%

60%

80%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box /

Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Representation of mechanics in H1 2025

Other Mechanics

Trending mechanic: Lava Quest

Lava Quest mechanics have continued to gain popularity since last year. Since the

beginning of this year,
the mechanic has appeared at least once in 41% of top Casual

games.
Until recently, much like Win Streak, Lava Quest was found only in level-based

games, but this year, it has also started appearing in games without clear level

progression, such as Merge games like
Travel Town
and
Alice’s Dream
.

Lava Quest events are most often limited to a single day, but there are exceptions. For

example, the
River Rush
event in
Angry Birds Dream Blast

runs for an entire week.

Lava Quest
in our classiﬁcation: Events that feature passing consecutive stages with some kind of restriction (time

constraint, mandatory win streak, etc.). A typical format would be a group competition where the prize fund is

distributed among the players who successfully completed all stages.

Casual LiveOps Trends |
TRENDING MECHANIC: LAVA QUEST

said month. The chart includes mechanics that appeared at least once in a game between January and June 2025.

40%

20%

60%

80%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box /

Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Other Mechanics

Representation of mechanics in H1 2025

In the recent months,
the Plinko mechanic has been appearing much more

frequently in Casual games’ schedules
. As of now,
the mechanic is present in 11%

of the games
in our database. Almost all games that use this mechanic have

integrated it into their regular event rotation. It is mostly found in the Puzzle and

Casino genres, although it also appears in Hybridcasual projects, such as
Survivor.io
.

The main advantage of the mechanic is that it is easy to monetize, thanks to the
ability

to sell extra attempts and additional bonuses, such as more rows or increased

rewards for dropping balls.

The
Plinko
mechanic follows the conventions of the genre: the player gets a space to launch balls that bounce

through a set of points in a random pattern and land in areas with speciﬁc random rewards. The more balls the

player uses, the greater the potential reward, but also the higher the risk of losing currency to unsuccessful drops.

Mechanic to watch: Plinko

Casual LiveOps Trends |
MECHANIC TO WATCH: PLINKO

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. The Plinko mechanic is currently not included in the AppMagic

classiﬁcation. Events featuring this mechanic are categorized under Casual Casino.

40%

20%

60%

80%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box /

Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Representation of mechanics in H1 2025

Other Mechanics

In the ﬁrst quarter of 2025, event design was more

focused on competitive motivation.
Although the

share of cooperative events was also higher during the

holiday period compared to other times, it remained

relatively low.

An opposite trend can be seen in events centered

around collection and customization. Starting in

March, their share began to increase.

Combined with the growing share of events aimed at

long-term retention, this suggests that developers are

shifting their focus toward preserving the audience

acquired during the holiday season.

This trend is particularly interesting, as it contrasts

with the overall mechanics trend: despite the growing

popularity of mechanics like Lava Quest and Race, the

presence of collection elements as a secondary

motivation in event types like “Other Events” and

“Core Duplicates” creates a misleading impression of

reduced focus on competitive motivation.

User motivation

Casual LiveOps Trends |
USER MOTIVATION

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. The charts reﬂect the share of a speciﬁc tag relative to all event tags and

do not represent the absolute number of events.

By Motivation

Collecting

Competitive

Cooperative

Customizing

Gambling

Sense of FOMO

Sense of achievement

Sense of novelty

Unique occasion

By Impacting

K-factor

Long-term retention

Number of sessions

Revenue

Session length

Short-term retention

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

25%

50%

75%

100%

By Goals

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

Main gameplay engagement

Resource depletion

Sense of community

LiveOps engagement

Jan-Mar

Apr-Jun

Jan-Mar

Apr-Jun

Jan-Mar

Apr-Jun

25%

50%

75%

100%

Monetization

Starting in April, the share of
sale elements in events

increased signiﬁcantly: from 6% to 10%.

Offers involving hard currency have also been gaining

traction month by month.
While they accounted for 15%

of monetization in January, their share rose to 20% by

May. At the same time, monetization through Paid Pass

went somewhat down from 16% to 13%.

These changes are largely driven by the need to burn

through resources accumulated by players during

numerous holiday events.

This is further supported by the shift in event focus.
Since

April, fewer events have targeted new users, while more

emphasis has been placed on paying users, veterans, and

dolphins, aiming to deplete their surplus currency

reserves.

Casual LiveOps Trends |
MONETIZATION

do not represent the absolute number of events.

By Monetization

Event Hard Currency Offers

Event Offers

Event Store

Other Monetization

Paid Pass

Sales

By Players

Casual

Hardcore

New

Paying

Whales

Veterans

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

Jan-Mar

Apr-Jun

Jan-Mar

Apr-Jun

IP & Holidays

IP collaborations continue to gain popularity in the Casual segment: 25% of the

games we track have featured at least one collaboration since the beginning of 2025.

On average, each game that featured at least one collaboration held 23 themed events

over the six-month period, with event activity peaking in May.

The most saturated genre in terms of collaborations is Casino, with the highest number

of IP collaborations and related events recorded.

Interestingly,
the trends for scheduling IP collaboration events and holiday-themed

events move in opposite directions: while holidays are mostly celebrated in January,

February, and April, the number of IP-related events grows in April, May, and June.

Casual LiveOps Trends |
IP & HOLIDAYS

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. A holiday/collaboration event was included in the chart if at least one day

of its duration fell between January and June 2025.

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Average number of holiday events per game

Average number of IP events per game*

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

*for games that have featured at least one IP collaboration this year

Most popular holidays in mobile games

IP & Holidays

Games that celebrate holidays make up a

signiﬁcant majority:
over 96% of games launched

holiday-themed LiveOps events this year.

The most popular holidays were:

●
Christmas and Winter Holidays (72%)

●
Valentine’s Day (66%)

●
Easter (58%)

Local holidays gained notable traction as well:

●
Chinese New Year (22%)

●
Cinco de Mayo (19%)

Many games also acknowledged cultural and

sporting events, such as:

●
The Oscars (2%)

●
Super Bowl (10%)

Casual LiveOps Trends |
IP & HOLIDAYS

of its duration fell between January and June 2025.

20%

40%

60%

80%

Anniversary / Birthday

Chinese NY

Cinco De Mayo

Earth Week

Easter

Father'S Day

Memorial Day

International No Diet Day

International Sushi Day

International Tea Day

International Women'S Day

Mother'S Day

National Astronaut Day

Pride

Spring Holidays

St.Patrick'S Day

Carnival

Mardi Gras

Golden Week

Int. Day Of Human Space Flight

Super Bowl

Valentine'S Day

Winter Holidays

Cherry Blossom

April'S Fool Day

Int. Children'S Day

Mental Health Awareness Week

National Space Day

Oscar-2025

Presidents' Day

LiveOps in Puzzles

LiveOps Report H1 2025

Puzzle Games in a nutshell

Puzzle

is
a parent tag for puzzle-solving games

that challenge the player’s wit and logic, problem-solving

and strategic skills.

Matchington

Mansion

Gardenscapes

Merge Gardens

Genre deﬁnition is provided according to AppMagic's categorization.

Some event duration types show

month-on-month growth

Notable growth since the beginning of the

year was recorded in Hourly events (+19%)

and Daily events (+14%).

Key Takeaways

Clear pattern in the segment’s

event scheduling

Short and Daily events peak on Fridays

and weekends, while events of Medium

duration are more common early in the

week.

Puzzle mechanics follow

overall trends

Top mechanics showed strong growth:

Lava Quest (+34%), Digging (+31%), and

Core Duplicates (+27%).

Digging has become

signiﬁcantly more popular

The Digging mechanic was chosen more

often than any other for new in-game events.

There is always a reason

to celebrate

Alongside major holidays, over 20% of

games also celebrated less popular ones

like Mother’s Day.

Mechanic to watch:

Merge

The Merge mechanic has become more

common in games and, for many, is now

part of the regular event schedule.

Album mechanics are now

present in 50% of Puzzle games

Albums have become a key part of the

LiveOps strategy and continue to appear

in the new games.

Competitive elements are

the foundation of the LiveOps

On average, 45% of LiveOps events in the

genre include competitive elements.

The event schedule in the Puzzle genre remains relatively stable, with a strong focus on regular and seasonal events and only a limited number of

experiments:

●
The core of the schedule consists of Daily (1.4), Short (2.4), and Medium (2.3) events per day.

●
On Fridays and weekends, the number of Short events increases (up to 2.8 per day), along with Daily events (up to 1.8 per day), while Medium events are

more concentrated around weekdays, especially early in the week.

●
Hourly events are less common in the genre.

Average schedule of events

Standard event schedule

LiveOps in Puzzles |
STANDARD EVENT SCHEDULE

Duration

One-time

Short

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

Medium

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.3

Long

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Irregular

Hourly

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

Daily

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.1

0.2

Short

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.6

0.3

0.4

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.4

0.5

0.4

0.5

0.4

Medium

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.4

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.4

0.2

Long

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.2

Regular

Hourly

0.3

0.4

0.2

0.4

0.3

0.4

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.2

Daily

1.4

1.3

1.6

1.5

1.4

1.3

1.2

1.4

1.5

1.3

1.2

1.3

1.2

1.6

1.3

1.4

1.2

1.4

1.2

1.5

1.4

1.2

1.5

Short

1.8

2.3

2.5

2.4

1.8

2.1

1.9

1.8

2.5

2.6

2.4

1.8

2.0

2.1

1.8

2.3

2.8

2.3

1.9

2.0

1.8

2.4

2.6

2.3

1.7

2.0

2.1

1.8

2.2

2.5

Medium

2.1

1.4

1.6

1.4

2.2

2.1

2.2

2.3

1.7

1.6

1.5

2.2

2.3

1.8

1.5

2.4

2.3

2.2

1.7

1.5

2.2

2.0

1.4

1.5

Long

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.1

Seasonal

Medium

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

Long

1.5

1.4

1.5

1.4

1.3

1.4

1.3

1.4

1.3

1.4

1.3

1.4

1.3

1.4

1.3

1.4

1.3

Duration types
are deﬁned as follows:

Hourly
: up to 1 hour

Daily
: 1 in-game day

Short
: 1–3 days

Medium
: 4–10 days

Long
: more than 10 days

Weekday

Weekend day

The event schedule is affected by both the day of the week and the date within the month. To ensure more representative data, the analysis is based on a single month. For each combination of repeatability and

duration, the average daily number of active events was calculated (for example, a 24-hour event could span two active days). Events that began in 2024 were also included if at least one day of their activity fell

within the period from May 1 to May 31, 2025.

Average number of started events per game by month

Trends in duration

Since February, there has been a clear upward trend

in the number of events launched across Puzzle

titles
. This trend spans all event durations, from
Hourly

to Long.

The highest average growth compared to January and

February was observed in:

●
Hourly (+19%)

●
Daily (+14%)

●
Medium (+15%)

However, there is no clear growth pattern tied to any

speciﬁc event duration.

For example, Short events increased by only 8% by the

end of the ﬁrst half of the year. This points to a broader

trend of strengthening LiveOps across the entire

event grid.

LiveOps in Puzzles |
TRENDS IN DURATION

Hourly

Daily

Short

Medium

Long

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Puzzle category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. The duration of each event is calculated individually. The data covers the

period from January to June 2025.

*excluding events where mechanics are not listed

Trends in mechanics

The Puzzle category largely follows broader market

trends.
The most frequently used mechanics in this

genre were Win Streak (10.9 events per game per

month), Core Duplicates (10.2), and Lava Quest (8.6).

Some of the most popular mechanics also showed

strong and consistent growth
compared to the

January–February averages:

●
Lava Quest (+34%)

●
Digging (+31%)

●
Core Duplicates (+27%)

Among the less common mechanics in the genre, one

also demonstrated a uptrend:

●
Album (+30%)

Negative dynamics were observed in the following

mechanics:

●
Tabletop (−20%)

●
Monopoly (−27%)

LiveOps in Puzzles |

TRENDS IN MECHANICS

Average number of
mechanics in monthly schedules per game*

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Puzzle category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. An event was attributed to a speciﬁc month if it ran for at least one day
on

said month. This chart doesn’t show absolute event numbers, as a single event may include multiple mechanics under the taxonomy and structure of the LiveOps & Updates Calendar.

Pick-a-Box/Card

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization/Decoration

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

New events

Distribution of mechanics across new events*

The ﬁrst half of the year saw clear ﬂuctuations in new event

activity
within the Casual Puzzle genre:

—
March and April marked the peak of event activity
, with an

average of 0.55 new events per game in the genre.

— June was the quietest month, with only 0.2 new events per

game, which can largely be attributed to preparations for

summer activities often launched in the second half of

summer.

— On average, most
Casual Puzzle games released one to

two new events per game over a six-month period.

—
Digging (9.6%) emerged as the most frequently integrated,

closely followed by Win Streak (8.6%).

— A notable portion of new events leaned on the

well-established Core Duplicates mechanic, which accounted

for 7.5% of all releases.

— Meanwhile, mechanics such as
Expedition, Fishing,

Monopoly, and Tabletop were entirely absent from new

events during this period.

LiveOps in Puzzles |
NEW EVENTS

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

40%

30%

20%

0 events

1-2 events

3-4 events

5-7 events

8+ events

10%

12.5%

10.0%

5.0%

0.0%

2.5%

7.5%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Project activity across

new events

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box / Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Average number of new events

by month

*excluding events where mechanics are not listed

said month.

Trending mechanic: Album

Album
in our classiﬁcation: Events that feature completing an album with collectibles (e.g., cards, stickers, etc.).

The Album mechanic has been spreading across the genre and is now at the peak of

its popularity: 50%
of top Puzzle games feature it and regularly use it in seasonal

events.

Initially popularized in the Merge genre, it is now common across all Puzzle types,

including competitive titles like
Match Masters
, where it ties into other events and

supports monetization.

It has become a must-have for Puzzle games, and its inﬂuence is expanding into other

genres like Casino, proving its versatility.

LiveOps in Puzzles |
TRENDING MECHANIC: ALBUM

40%

20%

60%

80%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box / Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Representation of mechanics in H1 2025

Other Mechanics

said month. The chart includes mechanics that appeared at least once in a game between January and June 2025.

In the ﬁrst half of the year,
the Merge mechanic was actively

introduced into other Puzzle games as the core event

gameplay
:

— With its simple, meditative style and no risk of failure, it offers

players a break from the pressure of the main game.

— While leaderboards are usually a separate mode, the main goal

is still to encourage core level progression.

— Monetization typically relies on hard currency and energy, with

some events also featuring leaderboards.

Developers are experimenting with event duration, which

currently ranges from 1–3 days to over 10, suggesting the optimal

length is yet to be deﬁned.

Merge mechanics are not currently featured on the LiveOps &

Updates calendar and are categorized under Other Mechanics as

of this point, since the proportion of Merge events remains small.

The
Merge-2
event mechanic replicates the core gameplay of classic Merge-2 titles.

On a special board, players combine items to complete orders and earn rewards.

Such mergeable items are usually obtained by progressing through levels in the
main

game.

Mechanic to watch: Merge

LiveOps in Puzzles |

MECHANIC TO WATCH: MERGE

80%

60%

40%

20%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box / Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Other Mechanics

Representation of mechanics in H1 2025

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Puzzle category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. The Plinko mechanic is currently not included in the AppMagic

classiﬁcation. Events featuring this mechanic are categorized under Other Mechanics.

User motivation

In the Puzzle segment, most LiveOps events are designed

to deepen player engagement with the core gameplay:

—
Competitive events occur slightly more often than

in the broader Casual genr
e, making up 45% of all events

compared to 37% across the market. This is largely due to

the high frequency of short races and leaderboard

challenges featured in the LiveOps calendars.

— At the same time, there are noticeable differences from

overall Casual trends. For example,
events focused on

creating a sense of novelty appear only 4% of the time in

Puzzle games
, compared to

8% in the general Casual

segment. This is likely because Puzzle games tend to rely

on familiar mechanics with minor variations, adding

diversity to gameplay while reducing the risk of player

rejection.

LiveOps in Puzzles |
USER
MOTIVATION

By Motivation

Collecting

Competitive

Cooperative

Customizing

Gambling

Sense of FOMO

Sense of achievement

Sense of novelty

Unique occasion

By Impacting

K-factor

Long-term retention

Number of sessions

Revenue

Session length

Short-term retention

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

By Goals

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

Main gameplay engagement

Resource depletion

Sense of community

LiveOps engagement

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Puzzle category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. The charts reﬂect the share of a speciﬁc tag relative to all event tags and

do not represent the absolute number of events.

Monetization

With Puzzles, the
majority of event calendars are geared

toward hardcore players
(those with high long-term

retention) and paying users, while events speciﬁcally

targeting whales remain limited, making up only about 3%.

Most events can be completed with minimal spending,

and the most common monetization strategy involves

event-speciﬁc offers and purchases made with hard

currency.

Unlike the broader trend in the Casual genre, Paid Pass

monetization is used more frequently in Puzzles
: that is,

about 1.5 times more often than average. In addition to

being used in long-running events, Paid Passes are also

commonly applied in shorter events lasting 3 to 7 days.

By Monetization

Event Hard Currency Offers

Event Offers

Event Store

Other Monetization

Paid Pass

Sales

By Players

Casual

Hardcore

New

Paying

Whales

Veterans

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

LiveOps in Puzzles |
MONETIZATION

Interested in more monetization insights?

Analyze both persistent and time-limited monetization strategies of competitors using the

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do not represent the absolute number of events.

IP & Holidays

Holidays remain a major driver for LiveOps in the Puzzle

segment, with 90% of games celebrating at least one event in H1

2025:

— Winter Holidays (Christmas, New Year) were the most common,

with 75% of games running their events well into January. On

average, New Year celebrations lasted 42 days per game.

—
Valentine’s Day was the most widely celebrated short holiday,

featured in 65% of games.

— Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter often last up to

three weeks.

— Only 2–3% of games acknowledged national holidays like

Father’s Day or Earth Day, which remain rare.

Holiday-themed events still account for just 2.5% of all LiveOps,

showing the Puzzles' focus on regular, proven formats.

LiveOps in Puzzles |
IP & HOLIDAYS

Most popular holidays in mobile games

20%

40%

60%

80%

Anniversary / Birthday

Chinese NY

Cinco De Mayo

Earth Week

Easter

Father'S Day

Memorial Day

International No Diet Day

International Sushi Day

International Tea Day

International Women'S Day

Mother'S Day

National Space Day

Pride

Spring Holidays

St.Patrick'S Day

Carnival

Mardi Gras

Golden Week

Int. Day Of Human Space Flight

Super Bowl

Valentine'S Day

Winter Holidays

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Puzzle category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. A holiday/collaboration event was included in the chart if at least one day

of its duration fell between January and June 2025.

Most popular holidays in mobile games

8.00

6.00

4.00

2.00

0.00

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

10.00

12.00

Average number of holiday events per game

IP & Holidays

January was the peak month for IP collaborations; however, only 12% of the top Puzzle games launched one at all this year. Here are some of them:

LiveOps in Puzzles |
IP & HOLIDAYS

Triple Match 3D

LINE Bubble 2

April 25 – May 01

Jan 24 – Jan 29

Match Masters

Jan 23 – Jan 29

LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum

Feb 3 – Feb 27

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Puzzle category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool.

LiveOps in Casino

LiveOps Report H1 2025

Casino Games in a nutshell

Casino
refers to games that combine core casino mechanics

with a deeper meta layer typical for Casual games, such as

renovation, town building, etc.

Coin Master

Monopoly GO!

Dice Dreams

Genre deﬁnition is provided according to AppMagic's categorization.

Event schedule density

continues to grow

On average, the number of Daily and Short

events has increased by 33% since the

beginning of the year.

Key Takeaways

Casino is the most

LiveOps-intensive genre

On average, top games run over 10

events simultaneously for effective

retention and monetization.

Emerging mechanics differ

from the overall Casual trend

These have shown the strongest growth

since the start of the year: Pick-a-Box /

Card (+50%), Win Streak (+38%), and

Casual Casino (+36%).

Casual Casino is the top pick

for new events

Casual Casino, including Pinball, Plinko,
Slots,

and other mechanics, is a particularly

popular choice for new events.

Casino games use every possible

occasion for events

The Casino genre celebrates lesser-known

holidays more often than others, such as

Presidents' Day, Father's Day, and Earth

Day.

Casino games are hardly

focused on new players

Over half of the events target active

paying users, while less than 10% are

aimed explicitly at new players.

Casino launches new events

more often than other genres

Nearly 30% of the top games introduced

over 8 new events in the past six

months.

The Monopoly mechanic is not

used in new events

In H1 2025, none of the top games

introduced new events featuring the

Monopoly mechanic.

IP collaborations are especially

popular in the genre

Over 50% of the top games in H1 2025

launched at least one IP collaboration event.

Duration

One-time

Daily

0.3

0.2

0.4

0.2

0.5

0.2

0.6

0.2

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.4

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.4

0.2

0.1

0.0

0.2

0.1

0.4

Short

0.2

0.3

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.6

0.5

0.3

0.2

0.5

0.2

0.4

0.7

0.4

0.1

0.2

0.1

0.3

0.4

0.2

0.1

0.3

0.4

0.3

Medium

0.3

0.4

0.3

0.1

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.6

0.5

0.8

0.4

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.7

Long

0.2

0.3

0.1

Irregular

Hourly

0.1

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.1

0.4

0.2

0.0

0.1

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.0

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.0

0.1

0.3

0.0

0.4

0.2

0.3

Daily

2.7

2.8

2.7

3.1

2.7

3.4

2.1

3.0

2.5

2.7

2.4

2.3

1.6

2.7

1.8

2.4

2.8

2.1

1.9

1.7

2.3

2.4

2.5

2.6

1.8

1.7

1.4

Short

1.4

1.6

1.3

1.8

2.2

2.6

1.7

1.3

1.2

1.8

2.0

2.1

1.6

2.0

1.3

2.0

1.6

1.5

1.2

1.9

2.2

1.5

0.9

1.0

0.9

Medium

1.5

1.4

1.5

1.3

0.9

1.5

1.4

1.1

1.2

1.0

1.5

1.6

1.5

1.4

1.1

1.2

1.5

1.3

1.4

1.6

1.4

1.5

1.2

1.1

Regular

Hourly

0.8

0.5

0.6

0.4

0.6

0.4

0.3

0.7

0.3

0.9

0.5

0.7

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.4

0.7

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.5

0.8

0.7

0.5

0.4

0.8

Daily

0.6

0.9

0.8

0.9

0.6

1.1

0.5

0.6

0.9

0.8

0.9

0.6

1.1

0.5

0.8

0.9

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.8

0.7

0.8

0.9

0.5

0.9

0.6

Short

0.7

0.9

0.7

1.1

0.7

0.8

0.9

1.0

0.8

1.1

0.5

0.6

0.7

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.6

0.5

0.6

0.7

Medium

1.3

1.2

1.4

1.3

1.4

1.3

1.2

1.5

1.4

1.2

1.1

1.0

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.3

Long

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.1

Seasonal

Medium

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.3

Long

1.9

1.8

1.9

2.0

1.9

2.0

1.9

2.0

Standard event schedule

In the Casino segment, there is frequent experimentation with event scheduling: irregular events appear more often in the calendar than the regular ones.

Peaks in activity for Daily and Short events often occur in the middle of the week. Unlike in the Puzzle genre, for example, Saturdays in Casino games often

have lower event density than other days.

Regular Medium-length events maintain a steady presence throughout the entire month, averaging between 1.0 and 1.4 events per day. Long Seasonal events
run

with virtually no interruptions, indicating long-term campaign formats, with around 1.9 events per day.

LiveOps in Casino |

STANDARD EVENT SCHEDULE

Average schedule of events

Duration
types are deﬁned as follows:

Hourly
: up to 1 hour

Daily
: 1 in-game day

Short
: 1–3 days

Medium
: 4–10 days

Long
: more than 10 days

Weekday

Weekend day

within the period from May 1 to May 31, 2025.

The peak of event activity for Casino titles occurs in

April, with Daily events standing out the most:

–
In the Casino genre, the focus on Daily events is

signiﬁcantly higher than in other genres
. On average,

each game currently runs 74 Daily events per month,

which is 2.2 times more than in the Puzzle genre, for

example.

– There is also a clear trend of increasing event
volume

toward the end of Q1 2025: in April, the average

number of Daily events per game rose to 100 in one

month, reaching its peak.

Only
Daily and Short events showed growth

compared to January and February (an average

increase of 33%)
, while
Long and Hourly events

declined by 4% and 7% respectively.

Trends in duration

Average number of started events per game by month

Hourly

Daily

Short

Medium

Long

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Interested in more schedule insights?

Explore competitors' event schedules, updates and LiveOps

features with the LiveOps & Updates tool.

Click here to learn more

LiveOps in Casino |

TRENDS IN DURATION

100

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casino category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. The duration of each event is calculated individually. The data covers the

period from January to June 2025.

In line with the overall trend across the Casual

supergenre,
several mechanics demonstrated

notable and steady relative growth since the

beginning of the year:

●
Pick-a-Box / Card (+50%)

●
Win Streak (+38%)

●
Casual Casino (+36%)

Events featuring the Fishing mechanic were not

observed at all, while the Expedition mechanic showed

some presence but remained limited.

Some mechanics showed inconsistent behavior.
For

example:

– In February, use of Albums increased somewhat,

mainly due to relaunches of existing events rather than

new ones.

– The Collection mechanic was active in January but

declined by 24% after February, likely due to the end of

the New Year holiday season.

Trends in mechanics

Average number of mechanics in monthly schedules per game*

LiveOps in Casino |

TRENDS IN MECHANICS

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casino category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. An event was attributed to a speciﬁc month if it ran for at least one day
on

said month. This chart doesn’t show absolute event numbers, as a single event may include multiple mechanics under the taxonomy and structure of the LiveOps & Updates Calendar.

Pick-a-Box/Card

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization/Decoration

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Casual Casino games actively expanded their LiveOps

in H1 2025:

●
92% of titles launched at least one new event;

over 40% introduced ﬁve or more

●
On average, each game featured 5.3 new events.

February was the most active month (1.6 events
per

game), and March the least (0.6)

Top mechanics:

●
Casual Casino (25%)

●
Pick-a-Box / Card (11%)

●
Core Duplicates (8%)

Mechanics like Expedition, Album, Fishing, and

Monopoly weren’t introduced in new events.

Some rare mechanics appeared in speciﬁc games, for

example:

●
Spin Capital

in
Slotomania
(Renovation and Idle

Tycoon)

●
Coin Café

in
Coin Master
(Cooking)

New events

LiveOps in Casino |

NEW EVENTS

Distribution of mechanics across new events*

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

30%

20%

0 events

1-2 events

3-4 events

5-7 events

8+ events

10%

25.0%

20.0%

10.0%

0.0%

5.0%

15.0%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Project activity across

new events

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box / Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Average number of new events

by month

*excluding events where mechanics are not listed

said month.

Trending mechanics: Casual Casino

The Casual Casino mechanic was featured in 88% of LiveOps

events within the Casual Casino segment
during the ﬁrst half

of the year. Its popularity is primarily driven by the target

audience, as players receive an experience similar to the core

gameplay they are already familiar with.

However, events often introduce mechanics that differ from

the core loop—for example, claw machines (
Slotomania
) or

lottery (
Bingo Bash: Live Bingo Games
), among others.

These mechanics are typically accompanied by event shops or

special offers, and their duration is usually short, ranging from
1

day to 1 week.

Casual

Casino
in our classiﬁcation: Events with simpliﬁed Casino mechanics

excluding real-money gambling that cannot be classiﬁed as Lucky Wheel,

Tabletop, Monopoly, or Gacha (e.g., Slots, Plinko, Lotto, Coin Pushers, etc.).

LiveOps in Casino |

TRENDING MECHANIC: CASUAL CASINO

80%

60%

40%

20%

Representation of mechanics in H1 2025

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box / Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Other Mechanics

100%

said month. The chart includes mechanics that appeared at least once in a game between January and June 2025.

Trending mechanic: Pick-a-Box

The Pick-a-Box mechanic appeared in 70% of popular Casino games in the ﬁrst half
of

2025.
It is often a standalone activity, with attempts earned through core gameplay or

events, but it is also commonly embedded in longer formats like Album events to drive

engagement.

Monetization varies:

●
Some games offer extra attempts via hard currency or battle passes.

●
Many also include a risk element where players open boxes sequentially and may

lose rewards if they hit an empty one.

LiveOps in Casino |

TRENDING MECHANIC: PICK-A-BOX

Pick-a-Box
in our classiﬁcation: Events where players choose one container with random items or rewards from a

set.

40%

20%

60%

80%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box / Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Representation of mechanics in H1 2025

Other Mechanics

said month. The chart includes mechanics that appeared at least once in a game between January and June 2025.

100%

Casual Casino is a genre highly demanding in terms of

currency burn.
Within a single session, the user is expected to

repeatedly win currency, creating the feeling of growing their

wealth, and then lose it all. It's no surprise that the largest

share of event goals is focused on core game retention and

resource depletion, accounting for 23% of all events.

Events in Casual Casino are primarily designed to drive

short-term retention and session length
. They encourage

users to go through multiple cycles of earning and spending

resources within a single session, ultimately increasing the

chance of converting them into payers.

This focus is also reﬂected in the high share of events aimed

at keeping players engaged in the core gameplay.

Unlike the Puzzle genre, which rarely offers new player

experiences,
Casual Casino games tend to experiment more

frequently with formats and mechanics, with around 15% of

events introducing new or unusual gameplay elements.

User motivation

LiveOps in Casino |

USER MOTIVATION

By Motivation

Collecting

Competitive

Cooperative

Customizing

Gambling

Sense of FOMO

Sense of achievement

Sense of novelty

Unique occasion

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

By Impacting

K-factor

Long-term retention

Number of sessions

Revenue

Session length

Short-term retention

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

By Goals

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

Main gameplay engagement

Resource depletion

Sense of community

LiveOps engagement

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casino category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. The charts reﬂect the share of a speciﬁc tag relative to all event tags and

do not represent the absolute number of events.

The largest share of events in Casual Casino titles is aimed at

paying users.
This distribution stands out signiﬁcantly from all

other genres and is more than twice the average share of events

for paying players in the Casual genre overall.

At the same time
, Casino games have virtually no events

targeting Casual users. Instead, the focus is heavily placed on

veterans and hardcore players
, as retaining and monetizing this

audience forms the core of the game's economy.

Monetization is primarily driven by special offers, which are often

triggered dynamically to create a sense of urgency or fear of

missing out, or are available throughout the entire duration of an

event. The share of events using Paid Passes is much lower than in

other genres, largely due to the high number of event offers

featured in LiveOps calendars in this category.

Sales events are also launched more frequently in Casino games

than in other genres.

Altogether, these strategies help accelerate the circulation of

in-game currency and keep users engaged in the core gameplay

loop.

Monetization

LiveOps in Casino |

MONETIZATION

By Monetization

Event Hard Currency Offers

Event Offers

Event Store

Other Monetization

Paid Pass

Sales

By Players

Casual

Hardcore

New

Paying

Whales

Veterans

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

do not represent the absolute number of events.

Casino games are signiﬁcantly more holiday-driven than

other genres
, with over 97% of games featuring holiday

content in some form.

The share of time-limited holiday events is also much higher

than average
, at 8% compared to 2% in other genres.

Games in this genre actively celebrate a wide range of

holidays
, including the Super Bowl, Mother’s Day, International

Women’s Day, and Cinco de Mayo.

Casino games are leading the way in IP collaborations: near

50% of the popular Casino games we track have launched at

least one collaborative event.

The number of collaborations is steadily growing.
Despite a

temporary dip in February, May reached a peak. In January, IP

collaborations accounted for less than 2% of all events, while in

May, the same share exceeded 6%.

Solitaire Grand Harvest recorded the highest number of IP

collaboration events among all analyzed games, with a total of

138 events.

IP & Holidays

LiveOps in Casino |

IP & HOLIDAYS

Most popular holidays in mobile games

20%

40%

60%

80%

Anniversary / Birthday

April'S Fool Day

Chinese NY

Cinco De Mayo

Earth Week

Easter

Father'S Day

Presidents' Day

Int. Women'S Day

Mardi Gras

Memorial Day

Mother'S Day

Pride

St.Patrick'S Day

Super Bowl

Valentine'S Day

Winter Holidays

100%

Carnival

National Astronaut Day

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casino category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. A holiday/collaboration event was included in the chart if at least one day

of its duration fell between January and June 2025.

20.00

15.00

10.00

5.00

0.00

Average number of holiday events per game

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

IP & Holidays

IP collaborations are

signiﬁcantly more common

for Casino games than for

other Casual genres.

May 1 – May 2

Slotomania™ Slots Casino Games

Dec 27, 2024 – Jan 24, 2025

Eggy Party

Feb 27 – Mar 3

Jackpot Party – Casino Slots

May – June

Bingo Blitz™ – Bingo Games

LiveOps in Casino |

IP & HOLIDAYS

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Casino category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool.

LiveOps in

Hybridcasual

LiveOps Report H1 2025

Hybridcasual Games in a nutshell

Hybridcasual
games combine intuitive, easy-to-learn

gameplay with depth added through progression systems,

unlockable content, and monetization features such as ads and

in-app purchases.

Color Block Jam

Survivor.io

Capybara Go!

Genre deﬁnition is provided according to AppMagic's categorization.

Number of events is growing

slowly

The highest growth was recorded in Daily

and Hourly events (around 18%).

Key Takeaways

LiveOps focus is growing,

but schedules stay steady

Few experiments appear in schedules,

with the focus centered on Daily and

Medium-length events.

Race is a top mechanic

in the genre

Over 40% of all events and 60% of

games feature the Race mechanic.

Genre follows overall trends

in mechanics

The most consistent growth was seen in Win

Streak (+13%), Race (+10%), and Lava Quest

(+21%) mechanics.

IP collaborations are extremely

rare in the genre

Only a few top games have participated in

IP collaborations, but these can last up to a

year.

Event complexity is higher

than it seems

Most events can’t be completed within the

given timeframe without active play or

spending.

LiveOps keeps the player

focused on the core game

Over 50% of events are aimed at main

gameplay engagement.

Holiday events remain rare

The genre celebrates only the most

popular holidays, ignoring niche and local

occasions.

Duration

One-time

Daily

0.2

0.0

0.2

0.0

0.2

0.0

0.2

0.0

0.2

Short

0.0

0.2

0.0

0.2

Long

0.2

0.0

Irregular

Daily

0.2

0.0

Short

0.2

0.0

0.2

0.0

0.3

0.5

0.0

0.2

0.3

0.0

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.0

0.2

0.3

0.2

Medium

0.0

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.0

0.2

0.0

0.2

0.3

Long

0.0

0.2

Regular

Hourly

0.2

0.0

0.2

0.0

0.2

Daily

1.2

1.3

1.2

1.5

1.2

1.5

1.3

1.0

1.3

1.0

1.2

1.0

1.2

1.0

1.2

1.0

1.3

1.0

1.2

Short

0.2

0.7

1.0

0.8

0.2

0.5

0.7

0.3

1.0

0.8

0.2

0.5

0.2

0.7

1.0

0.8

0.3

0.5

0.2

0.8

1.0

0.8

0.3

0.5

0.2

0.8

1.0

Medium

1.0

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.7

1.0

0.8

0.7

0.8

1.0

0.8

0.7

0.5

0.7

1.2

1.0

0.8

Seasonal

Long

0.8

0.5

0.7

0.8

Standard event
s
chedule

In a typical Hybrid Casual schedule, Daily and Medium events form the core of the calendar, with a consistent presence of 1.0–1.5 events per day. Event

activity generally peaks at the beginning of the month and ahead of weekends, especially on Fridays.

Short events appear in bursts during high-engagement periods but remain secondary in volume. Long Seasonal events run throughout the entire month and are

likely tied to pass systems or collection-based progression.

Irregular and one-time events contribute minimally, indicating a limited amount of experimentation despite the growing focus on LiveOps in the genre.

Average schedule of events

Duration
types are deﬁned as follows:

Hourly
: up to 1 hour

Daily
: 1 in-game day

Short
: 1–3 days

Medium
: 4–10 days

Long
: more than 10 days

Weekday

Weekend day

within the period from May 1 to May 31, 2025.

LiveOps in Hybridcasual |
STANDARD EVENT SCHEDULE

Although the event calendar i
n Hybridcasual games is

signiﬁcantly less dense than in other genres
, it is also

gradually developing at a comfortable pace:

—
The segment primarily focuses on short-format

events.
On average, each title features 16 Hourly

events per month (about half as many as in the Casino

genre) and 25 Daily events (3.5 times fewer than in

Casino).

— Since the beginning of the year, there
has been

noticeable growth in both Daily and Hourly events

(around 18%).

— The peak for Daily event growth occurred in May,

while Hourly events saw a slight decline over the same

period.

The structure of Long events in Hybridcasual games

is currently the closest to Puzzle and Casino:

— On average, Hybridcasual titles run 3 Long events

per month per game, compared to the Casino’s 4.

Trends in duration

LiveOps in Hybridcasual |
TRENDS IN DURATION

Average number of started events per game by month

Hourly

Daily

Short

Medium

Long

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Hybridcasual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. The duration of each event is calculated individually. The data

covers the period from January to June 2025.

In the Hybridcasual segment,
the most prominent

mechanics are Race
(an average of 13 events with

this mechanic per game per month, making it the

most popular in the segment), Lava Quest (10

events), and Win Streak (4 events).

These mechanics also demonstrated steady growth.

Compared to the beginning of the year, the number

of these events grew convincingly:

— Win Streak (+13%)

— Race (+10%)

— Lava Quest (+21%)

Among the less common mechanics, Digging also

showed consistent growth: the number of events

with it increased by 65% compared to the beginning

of the year.

Some mechanics, such as Collection, Casual

Casino, and Pick-a-Box / Card, which are frequently

used in the Casino and Puzzle genres, are barely

present in the Hybridcasual segment.

Trends in mechanics

LiveOps in Hybridcasual |
TRENDS IN MECHANICS

*excluding events where mechanics are not listed

Average number of mechanics in monthly schedules per game*

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Hybridcasual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. An event was attributed to a speciﬁc month if it ran for at least one

day on said month. This chart doesn’t show absolute event numbers, as a single event may include multiple mechanics under the taxonomy and structure of the LiveOps & Updates Calendar.

Pick-a-Box/Card

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization/Decoration

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Hybridcasual games introduced new events during the

period; however, overall activity remained signiﬁcantly

lower compared to other genres.

June was the most active month, with 0.46 new events per

game. This number was the closest to the Puzzles’ ﬁgure,

which averaged 0.5 events per game per month.

Over 70% of games launched at least one new event,

while most Hybridcasual titles introduced only 1 to 2 new

event
s during the entire period. Unlike other segments,

games rarely released 5 or more events, which also

indicates a slower pace of LiveOps development in the

genre.

The most common mechanics used for new events were

Win Streak
(featured in 27% of new events), Lava Quest

(19%), and Race (19%), which aligns precisely with the

mechanics trend outlined earlier.

New events

LiveOps in Hybridcasual |
NEW EVENTS

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

40%

30%

20%

0 events

1-2 events

3-4 events

5-7 events

8+ events

10%

Project activity across

new events

Average number of new events

by month

*excluding events where mechanics are not listed

Distribution of mechanics across new events*

25.0%

20.0%

10.0%

0.0%

5.0%

15.0%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Renovation

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box / Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

0.4

0.5

50%

day on said month.

At the moment,
the Race mechanic is present in 60% of Hybridcasual games and

continues to be actively used in their LiveOps
. Its popularity comes from easy

monetization and short duration.

Most Race events last just a few hours or up to one day. This makes them a natural ﬁt

for the Hybridcasual genre, where long-term retention is low and monetization often

relies on leaderboards and milestone rewards. Unlike other genres, Hybridcasual

games rarely use special offers to speed up player progress in this event type.

Trending mechanic: Race

Race
in our classiﬁcation: Events that feature leaderboards visualized as a race with a start and a ﬁnish, with

players advancing along by achieving event goals.

LiveOps in Hybridcasual |
TRENDING MECHANIC: RACE

40%

20%

60%

Album

Casual Casino

Collection

Core Duplicates

Customization /

Decoration

Digging

Expedition

Fishing

Gacha

Lava Quest

Lucky Wheel

Monopoly

Pick-a-Box /

Card

Race

Tabletop

Win Streak

Representation of mechanics in H1 2025

day on said month. The chart includes mechanics that appeared at least once in a game between January and June 2025.

Other Mechanics

A large share of events in this genre focuses on competitive

motivation (37%)
, which is often implemented through

short-term events primarily aimed at increasing session
length

and creating a sense of FOMO.

Unlike other genres,
signiﬁcantly fewer events are built

around collection or achievement goals, as the main focus is

on short-term retention.

Most events are designed to support retention within the core

gameplay, since event-based engagement can divert players’

attention from the main game, which serves as the primary

source of monetization in the early stages of user experience.

User motivation

LiveOps in Hybridcasual |
USER MOTIVATION

By Motivation

Collecting

Competitive

Cooperative

Customizing

Gambling

Sense of FOMO

Sense of achievement

Sense of novelty

Unique occasion

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

By Impacting

K-factor

Long-term retention

Number of sessions

Revenue

Session length

Short-term retention

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

By Goals

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

Main gameplay engagement

Resource depletion

Sense of community

LiveOps engagement

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Hybridcasual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. The charts reﬂect the share of a speciﬁc tag relative to all event

tags and do not represent the absolute number of events.

Unlike, for example, the Casino segment, where a large
share

of monetization comes from event offers,
Hybridcasual

monetization is simpler, with the largest portion coming

from hard currency.

Events are usually designed to be accessible to casual

players, but only hardcore players are able to complete

them
. These are users who are willing to spend hours or
even

days progressing through seemingly simple but tightly

balanced events, or users who are ready to pay to speed up

their progress.

The segment features virtually no events targeting whales

(players who spend large amounts), as relatively low

long-term retention makes such events impractical to

implement.

Monetization

LiveOps in Hybridcasual |

MONETIZATION

By Monetization

Event Hard Currency Offers

Event Offers

Event Store

Other Monetization

Paid Pass

Sales

By Players

Casual

Hardcore

New

Paying

Whales

Veterans

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

25%

50%

75%

100%

Total

tags and do not represent the absolute number of events.

Many holidays continue to be overlooked in the

Hybridcasual segment.
Although holidays are celebrated in

97% of its top games, during the ﬁrst half of 2025, games only

acknowledged the most widely celebrated occasions from the

Casual space, such as New Year, Christmas, and Easter.

Unlike the overall trend,
Valentine’s Day is less popular in

Hybridcasual games.
Despite being frequently used for

monetization, it appeared across in-game events in only 29%

of titles.

Overall, the share of holiday-themed events was minimal.
Only

2% of all the events were holiday-related, while the rest

followed a regular LiveOps schedule.

IP & Holidays

LiveOps in Hybridcasual |
IP & HOLIDAYS

Most popular holidays in mobile games

20%

40%

60%

80%

Chinese NY

100%

Easter

St.Patrick'S Day

Valentine'S Day

Winter Holidays

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Hybridcasual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool. A holiday/collaboration event was included in the chart if at least

one day of its duration fell between January and June 2025.

0.5

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

1.0

1.5

2.0

Average number of holiday events per game

IP & Holidays

IP collaborations have also reached the Hypercasual segment, although their share remains limited, with events being rare. Here are a few examples:

Mob Control

Survivor.io

Oct 2024 – May 2025

Feb 11 – Feb 25

LiveOps in Hybridcasual |

IP & HOLIDAYS

Analysis includes events from mobile games in the Hybridcasual category, based on AppMagic’s taxonomy and LiveOps & Updates Calendar tool.

Want to know more about

collaborations?
Explore competitors'

IP collaborations using our LiveOps

Advanced Search tool.

Click here to learn more

Azur Games

For Azur Games, LiveOps is the most effective way

to stay aligned with our players. Tracking trends
like

the rise of Race mechanics or the decline of Fishing

events helps us adjust in real time. It’s not just

about keeping up, but about making smart, timely

decisions. Observing how other studios organize

their events gives us a broader perspective and

turns guesswork into strategy.

Tatiana Kondratyeva

Play Pack

CEO

As a small startup, we don’t have the resources to

conduct thorough market research ourselves.

AppMagic ﬁlls that gap perfectly. It provides us

with fast, reliable insights into trends, genres, and

monetization strategies. This allows us to focus
on

creating great games. From the idea stage to

dealing with LiveOps, AppMagic has helped us

prioritize what truly matters and avoid costly

mistakes.

Our partners on LiveOps

Maxim Kozhnov

CRO

Oleg Nalimov

AppQuantum

Executive Producer

AppMagic addresses our Market and LiveOps

analysis needs by customizing its platform

based on our feedback. Rapid improvements

keep us ahead of market shifts, while the

user-friendly deep research tool streamlines

trend analysis and inspires both the

improvement of our current projects and the

creation of new ones, effectively enhancing

our strategic decisions.

Mike Koh

Google APAC

Principal Analytical Consultant

Our team leverages AppMagic daily to extract actionable insights that fuel growth

for our key customers. Its intuitive interface and efﬁcient workﬂow optimize

productivity, while powerful LiveOps intelligence tools deliver critical insights for

game operations.

Juha Lindell

Play Ventures VC

Director of Platform

AppMagic has been invaluable in helping us master LiveOps by surfacing high
‑
level

patterns – how many overlapping events top games run, how they pace activity

across the week, and the balance between weekday and weekend events so we can

extract proven frameworks without getting bogged down in granular detail.
Without

it, we simply couldn’t manually track and deconstruct every event, capture

recordings, and note precise timings across dozens of games. Instead, AppMagic’s

fast, intuitive tools let us focus our limited time on the most promising event

formats and make data
‑
driven decisions. For anyone outside the top tier that can

afford full internal deconstruction, it levels the playing ﬁeld and empowers smarter,

more impactful LiveOps strategies.

Testimonials

AppMagic is a one-stop shop solution for

analyzing the mobile apps market,

providing access to data on 14 million apps

and 4.6 million publishers to help you stay

ahead of the competition, identify growth

opportunities, and boost your revenue.

A next-gen toolset, it is designed to ﬁnd

actionable, quality insights fast and easy…

as if by magic!

What is AppMagic?

We simplify complex data into actionable

insights with an intuitive interface.

Whether you’re a developer, marketer, or

publisher, AppMagic empowers you to

make informed decisions that drive

success.

Any questions?

We are always happy to chat!

reports@appmagic.rocks

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