Bandai Namco's Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle has achieved over $1 billion in worldwide revenue on iOS and Google Play since its launch three years ago. Japan accounts for about 60% of this revenue, followed by the US at 20%. The newer title, Dragon Ball Legends, has already surpassed $40 million in player spending since its late May release.
In June, Dragon Ball Legends ranked 21st globally in player spending, while Dokkan Battle was 25th. Dokkan Battle was the 11th highest-grossing mobile game in Q2.
September mobile gaming softened overall but delivered clear live-ops wins. Global consumer spending hit $6.13B, down 7% MoM, with the US at 28.7%, China iOS 15.7%, and Japan 12.4%. Downloads reached 3.56B, down 5.2%, led by India at 16.2%. ROBLOX topped downloads and revenue growth; Honor of Kings stayed strong via seasonal content; Candy Crush and Pokémon GO used music, celebrity, and event-driven engagement. For ad ops, prioritize event-aligned UA/retargeting, IP collaborations, seasonal battle passes, and localized creatives for US/India/Brazil. Monitor launch spikes from Bus Fever Party!, Honor of Kings Chess, and Brain Puzzle 3 to time bids and creative refreshes.
Mobile CPI and app store fees are eroding ROAS, making web gaming a viable acquisition channel. Full Unity-to-HTML5 ports now deliver 30-50% lower CAC and avoid 15-30% store revenue cuts via web payments. Measurement parity is here: AppsFlyer enables independent attribution, conversion signals, and unified reporting. Retention can improve; one strategy title jumped from 6-7 minutes mobile to 70+ minutes web. Best fit: deep RPG, strategy, puzzle, story games, not hypercasual. Action: audit catalog, pilot web ports, link accounts cross-platform, and use owned media to drive high-intent web users.
Adjust has expanded store detection and verification across multiple app storefronts, making Store Type the primary dimension for identifying where an install originated rather than relying on platform or OS alone. For ad ops teams, this means campaign performance can now be analyzed at the store level across Huawei AppGallery, Xiaomi GetApps, Samsung Galaxy Store, Vivo Appstore, and Google Play variants, with independent verification of install origin. Newly detected stores are flagged in AppView with a direct route to configuration, and store-level data flows automatically into reporting, raw data, callbacks, and CSV exports, plus Conversion Rules via Store Rule conditions.
Pokémon GO earned $1.8 billion in two years, averaging $2M daily. Top markets: US (34%) and Japan (28%). Google Play leads revenue (58%). Ranks No. 9 in June 2018, with planned China launch.
Global app installs grew 7.6% in Q1 2018 to 25.4B. Netflix led revenue; TikTok topped iOS. PUBG Mobile was the most installed game. Tencent led in revenue and game downloads.
Japan's finance app category is outperforming, with H1 2026 installs up 8% YoY and sessions up 40%—nearly 5x the install growth and well ahead of global figures (5% and 29%). Stock trading is the standout subvertical: installs +90% YoY and average session length climbing to 11.7 minutes, driven by NISA reforms and a retail investor resurgence. Retention is improving across the full 30-day curve (D1 17% to 19%, D30 7% to 8%). For ad ops teams, the takeaway is clear: prioritize measurement depth, re-engagement, and channel-level quality over top-of-funnel volume alone.
Adjust's Halloween 2025 data across six weeks shows the holiday window opens well before October 31 and differs by category and market. Entertainment installs peaked the weekend before Halloween (up 42–44% vs. summer baseline), with OTT/streaming and video content installs up 120% on October 25 and 300% YoY. Photo and video sessions instead spiked on Halloween night itself (+6% global vs. the four prior Fridays; Canada +15%, Germany +13%, U.K. +11%, U.S. +9%, Mexico +7%). Single global send dates miss market-level peaks, so ad ops should time creative, push, and budget shifts per market—especially in Mexico, where activity runs through Día de los Muertos.
Q4 2026 planning should treat peak shopping as a compressed event, not a week. Black Friday/Cyber Monday purchase lift runs 2–3x install lift, so ad ops must schedule by daypart and hour. Singles Day is not global: Brazil, UAE and Spain show real lift, while US/France barely react. CPI spikes hardest in supposedly cheap markets—Spain’s CPI rose nearly 50%. Remarketing already drives 65–92% of non-organic spend and rises during peak. Deep linking is critical: deep-linked users are ~2x more likely to purchase and spend nearly 3x more. Benchmark market CPI, shift budget to remarketing, and connect every entry point.
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