ARBS Nearly Doubles Revenue With MAS Optimization

This is part two of a four-part series about mobile game growth featuring Animal Revolt Battle Simulator (ARBS). In part one, follow along with Lam Trinh Hoang’s journey from the financial services industry to a full-time game developer, establishing his company VDimension Studios, and launching ARBS.

Welcome to the second installment of our four-part series on Animal Revolt Battle Simulator, In part 2, find out how Lam nearly doubled his game’s ad revenue after a little help optimizing his use of MAS by Mijiba for mobile game monetization. As we heard previously, Lam discovered Mijiba’s MAS through YouTube and integrated its easy-to-use SDK into ARBS all on his own, and began to watch his earnings climb… what he didn’t know was that this was just the beginning.

Adjustments Based on Personalized Guidance

After integrating ARBS with MAS, Lam contacted Mijiba to learn a little more about its capabilities and his earning potential, and that’s when he got connected with Customer Success Manager Ismael Jorge, who began sharing industry best practices and (more importantly) specific, actionable steps Lam could take to introduce new ad-injection points, and that’s when things took off!

As an indie developer (and even more so as a one-man dev team), having someone by your side with expert knowledge, who is dedicated to helping you understand the bigger picture of your game’s monetization, is one of the main reasons thousands of developers worldwide choose to grow—and rapidly scale—their mobile games with Mijiba and the MAS platform.

“For us, when we’re working with developers, you’re more than just a number,” said Ismael. “We truly care about seeing your games grow just as much as you do and we’re always looking for new ways to make each one more successful.”

To help Lam scale ARBS, the MAS team focused heavily on improving its average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU) and impressions per daily active user (IMPDAU). Implementing new ad types and injection points focused mainly on reward-based videos, helped Lam create a smooth and enjoyable gaming experience while providing players with a little something extra for watching an ad. With this move, revenue skyrocketed as ARBS’ ARPDAU climbed from $0.0346 to $0.0451, and IMPDAU from 5.652 to 7.828—nearly doubling the game’s overall revenue without disrupting gameplay, which helped mitigate reviews about ‘too many ads’ and avoid harm to future downloads or player retention.

“Big props to the Mijiba team for being so hands-on with developers when it comes to maximizing ad revenue because, honestly, I doubt I’d get this kind of personal touch anywhere else,” said Lam.

ARBS’ Success Opens the Door to Publishing Opportunity

With such dramatic increases in ARBS’ monetization through MAS optimization, Lam was able to catch the attention of Mijiba’s publishing team, which is always on the lookout for great games to help developers take their games to that next level. There are countless games released every year, but only a handful are able to make the jump and secure a publishing deal.

So, what makes a game attractive to publishers like Mijiba?

It must be unique. It’s not just based on metrics or genre, but the core gameplay is something original that makes it stand out from all of the other games in the app stores.
Revenue per Install (RPI). How much money the game makes per install over a certain period of time? This helps publishers to know whether an investment in user acquisition (UA) will be profitable for you and for them over the long term.
User Retention. Publishers will look at how many players the game can retain on day one and day seven—with ARBS this was 40% on day one and 15% on day seven, which is a typical industry benchmark for this type of game.

At Mijiba, we’re on a mission to find and support memorable indie games so they can ride the top of the charts for years to come—creating long-lasting IPs able to evolve, integrate exciting new content, and build thriving and engaged communities.

“While ARBS’ popularity was a key factor in our decision to partner with Lam and VDimension, it certainly wasn’t the only factor,” said Marina Espin, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Mijiba. “The strong communication between him and our team as they worked to optimize his use of MAS was equally important, as we knew it would be key to the partnership’s success. Offering him a publishing deal was the natural next step in our relationship, and we saw there was solid potential for ARBS’ revenue to skyrocket by five or even ten times, and we couldn’t be happier to have played a role in making that happen.”

“When I meet developers who need a game growth partner, I always recommend Mijiba! By far, MAS is the best choice to generate more revenue versus a network or mediator, and the support is truly top-notch. They've been a real game-changer for me so, if you want to earn more money from your mobile games, check them out."

Lam Trinh Hoang
Founder, VDimension Studios

Want to Know How Much YOUR Mobile Game Could Be Making?

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Get started right now with our Game Revenue Predictor to see how much you could be making by integrating with MAS.

And don’t forget to check back soon for part three of our series to learn about Lam’s publishing deal with Mijiba and how it took ARBS even further with custom UA and marketing programs.