The mobile gaming platform has a rapidly growing user base and has now surpassed both PC and console gaming combined. With the widespread accessibility of mobile devices, it comes as no surprise that a large portion of the global population is engaged in mobile gaming. However, this vast appeal has also led to an incredibly competitive mobile gaming market, as audiences are increasingly looking for their favorite games to be playable across various platforms.
One solution to this is cross-platform gaming, which is not a new concept but is gaining significant popularity and importance among both players and developers. In this guest post, Gijsbert Pols, Director of CTV at Adjust, and Warren Woodward, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Upptic, explore the reasons why the gaming industry is embracing cross-platform gaming and provide insight into how developers can effectively approach user acquisition in this multi-platform landscape.
While mobile gaming has long been considered the dominant gaming platform, recent shifts in the market have led to changing perceptions. The mobile gaming market is approaching saturation, and with the introduction of platform-specific privacy regulations, such as Apple’s app tracking transparency (ATT), user acquisition and monetization have become increasingly challenging. Investors have also shifted their focus from mobile-first to cross-device games, placing a premium on titles with the potential to reach a broader total addressable market (TAM) across multiple platforms.
Google is starting to secure its share of the pie by making the jump from mobile to PC games easy.
Gijsbert Pols and Warren Woodward
To expand their TAM and increase user lifetime value (LTV), mobile game developers are venturing into the PC gaming space. Even new games that may have previously focused solely on mobile are now adopting a cross-platform approach. Notable titles like Among Us, Fortnite, and Diablo Immortal are leading examples of successful cross-platform games.
The technology platforms supporting game development and user acquisition are also adapting to the cross-platform trend. For instance, Google’s Play Games emulator allows Android games to be played on PC, making it easier for Windows computer users to access mobile games on a different platform. As the gaming market transitions beyond mobile, Google is positioning itself to capture a share of the market by facilitating the transition from mobile to PC gaming.
However, the evolution towards cross-platform gaming presents its own set of challenges, particularly regarding user acquisition through performance marketing. While performance marketing is a mature market in the mobile space, the same cannot be said for PC marketing, where measurement technology has been slower to develop. This discrepancy presents difficulties in cross-platform user acquisition and marketing measurement, leading to complex issues around attribution and user journeys.
Challenges in Cross-Platform User Acquisition
The lack of well-developed measurement technology in PC marketing poses major challenges in determining efficient user acquisition in a cross-platform environment. Identifying users across platforms for accurate attribution is a complex issue, as marketers risk treating the same user as two separate individuals without a reliable cross-platform user ID, undermining the integrity of marketing measurement and future efforts.
Furthermore, cross-platform attribution introduces complexities in determining the origin of user installations and the source of conversions, making attribution models less clear and requiring more comprehensive performance marketing strategies.
Despite these challenges, there are opportunities for marketers to gain a clearer understanding of their campaigns’ performance and optimize user acquisition. By implementing technology that allows full-funnel, cross-platform visibility and mapping of user journeys, marketers can achieve greater precision in measuring marketing performance while maintaining simplicity in their approach.
The shift to cross-platform user acquisition and measurement is a challenging, yet essential, progression in the evolving gaming landscape.
Gijsbert Pols and Warren Woodward
It is crucial for marketers to strike a balance between user-based and device-based attribution models, considering the impact of various channels and campaigns on cross-platform user acquisition. Although this shift presents challenges reminiscent of the disruptions caused by mobile app tracking transparency, proactive developers and marketers can overcome these obstacles by adopting innovative solutions and adapting their marketing strategies to the complexities of cross-platform user acquisition and measurement.
Edited by Paige Cook
