AppMagic’s LiveOps Report 2025 frames LiveOps as one of mobile gaming’s main monetization growth engines in a slowing market, as studios shift from launching new mechanics to executing denser, repeatable event schedules.
The summary highlights how revenue remains concentrated in Midcore and long-running titles, while Casual and Hybridcasual lean more heavily into seasonal peaks, competition-driven formats, and proven mechanics to boost short-term retention and monetization.
Global LiveOps Trends
LiveOps in 2025 became one of the primary monetization growth engines in the slowing down mobile games market.
While downloads and revenue growth are decelerating, developers are responding by increasing LiveOps intensity, focusing on deepening monetization of existing audiences rather than relying on new launches. Revenue continues to concentrate around mature, long-running titles, especially in the Midcore genre, and LiveOps has evolved into a core operational capability.
Across the market, LiveOps is shifting from innovation to execution. Growth is driven by denser schedules and the repeated use of proven event formats, rather than the introduction of fundamentally new mechanics. Within socially driven event types, competitive formats continue to dominate across all niches.
Importantly, LiveOps expansion is not directly driven by seasonal spikes. While holidays remain highly visible and widely used as thematic framing, the underlying growth in LiveOps activity and event density is structural and continuous, reflecting a long-term operational strategy rather than short-term calendar effects.
Key takeaways:
Mobile games market growth is slowing down:
- Download growth decelerated from +6.0% to +4.1% YoY
- Revenue growth also weakened significantly, dropping from +3.2% to +0.7% YoY
Revenue remains concentrated in Midcore and legacy titles:
- Midcore games account for 65% of top performers, compared to 34% for Casual and just 1% for Hypercasual
- Games released between 2015 and 2020 generate 49% of total top-grossing revenue
LiveOps activity continues to intensify:
- The average number of LiveOps events increased from 73 early in the year to 89 per month by the end of 2025
- This reflects steady growth throughout the year, with a seasonal peak in October (91 events per game per month), driven by holiday activity and the return of LiveOps following the traditional “quiet” season
New event launches peak in spring:
- The highest volume of new events occurs in March and April, averaging 0.8–0.9 new events per project per month
- Spring emerges as a key experimentation window, allowing teams to actively monetize an already acquired audience ahead of the typically slower summer period
LiveOps growth is not driven by holidays alone:
- The overall increase in LiveOps activity is not directly tied to holiday periods, despite their seasonal clustering
- The average number of holiday-themed events per game during October, November, and December—the most holiday-heavy months—has remained largely stable
Casual LiveOps Trends
Casual LiveOps increasingly focus on monetizing a growing audience amid slowing revenue growth, with event intensity peaking around seasonal holidays.
Collection-driven and digging mechanics dominate, while competition-based formats continue to drive session length and short-term retention.
A small number of high-intensity titles are setting new benchmarks by scaling LiveOps through iteration rather than innovation.
Key takeaways:
Casual downloads are accelerating, while revenue growth remains volatile:
- Downloads growth increased from +6% to +7% YoY
- Revenue growth, however, weakened sharply, slipping from +5.6% to −1% YoY
Puzzle remains the leading Casual genre as Casino monetization weakens:
- Puzzle continues to expand across both revenue (+8.1%) and downloads (+8.5%)
- Casino shows strong install growth (+11.8%) but a significant revenue decline (−7.7%)
- Most other Casual genres are experiencing decline
Casual LiveOps growth is more seasonal than in other segments:
- Casual games intensify LiveOps activity much more aggressively around fall and winter holidays compared to other niches
- Overall event density grows by about 15%
Casual events target paying and hardcore users:
- Approximately 70% of Casual LiveOps events are aimed at payers and hardcore players
- Monetization is primarily driven by event-based offers, hard currency, and paid passes
Gossip Harbor emerges as the leading Merge-2 title and a new trendsetter:
- The game continues to grow YoY and has surpassed $770 million in revenue
- In 2025, Gossip Harbor significantly expanded its LiveOps cadence, running nearly 100 events per month in Q3 alone
- As a result, many top-grossing titles are already adopting LiveOps and monetization strategies inspired by Gossip Harbor
Midcore LiveOps Trends
Midcore LiveOps show stable, sustainable growth over the years in both downloads and revenue. Strategy has overtaken RPG—previously the segment leader—to become the top subgenre, driven by strong growth.
Events are more heavily focused on payers and whales, emphasizing structured progression, short-term retention, and monetization efficiency.
Compared to other segments, Midcore demonstrates a stronger community effect, reflected in a higher virality (K-factor) impact.
Key takeaways:
Midcore growth remains stable, but revenue momentum is slowing:
- Download growth remains strong, easing slightly from +9% to +8% YoY
- Revenue growth is slowing down from +3.7% to +2.3% YoY
Strategy overtakes RPG as the leading Midcore subgenre:
- Strategy delivers the strongest performance, with +18% revenue growth and +19% download growth
- RPG declines to second place, posting −15.3% in revenue and −8.1% in downloads
LiveOps growth in Midcore remains steady:
- Event density increases consistently throughout the year
- Adoption is expanding beyond core formats, with notable growth in Fishing, Digging, and Album mechanics
Co-op mechanics are accelerating faster in Midcore:
- Cooperative activities are scaling more rapidly than competitive ones, with LiveOps increasingly focused on short-term retention and monetization
- Usage increased +16% compared to January 2025 and +36% versus December 2024
Hybridcasual LiveOps Trends
Hybridcasual LiveOps are expanding rapidly, with revenue growth outpacing user growth—signaling deeper monetization of a shrinking audience.
Puzzle has now become the leading Hybridcasual genre thanks to explosive revenue growth, overtaking Arcade.
Event schedules rely heavily on competitive mechanics such as Lava Quest, while also borrowing Digging, Gacha, and Casino-style systems from Casual games.
Activity remains highly seasonal, with LiveOps primarily optimized for session length and short-term retention rather than long-term engagement.
Key takeaways:
Hybridcasual revenue continues to outpace user growth:
- Revenue growth remained exceptionally strong over the past two years, easing slightly in 2025 from +82% to +75% YoY
- Download growth stalled and then turned negative, declining from +3.5% to −4% YoY
Puzzle becomes the leading Hybridcasual genre:
- Puzzle has emerged as the top-performing genre, posting explosive +136% revenue growth despite a modest decline in downloads (−3.3%)
- Arcade shows more moderate gains, falling to second place with +36.8% revenue growth and stable download performance (+2%)
Hybridcasual LiveOps is expanding:
- Event density rose by 19%, with Core Duplicates (72% of events) and Race (63% of events) standing out as the most common mechanics
- On average, a Hybridcasual game runs 64 events
Hybridcasual LiveOps is heavily competition-driven:
- The majority of events are competitive, with Lava Quest as the dominant format
- LiveOps is primarily focused on extending session length and boosting short-term retention
Hybridcasual events are highly seasonal:
- Event activity peaks during the fall and winter holiday period, with relatively low activity across the rest of the year
- Smaller spikes are also observed around Valentine’s Day and Easter
- Overall, Hybridcasual games run significantly fewer events per month than Casual and Midcore titles
Access to the full report
Interested readers can access to the full report here.
About the report
AppMagic’s report relies on the data for the period of 2022 to 2025 for the Market Overview, and from December 2024 to November 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.
Year-over-year comparisons of major genre segments in this summary reflect data from December 2023–November 2024 compared with December 2024–November 2025.
