Background
Onarlar Games is a game development studio based in Turkey. It was founded in 2021 when two rock musician brothers decided to leave their music careers and start making games. The studio has developed five games so far, the most successful of which is Idle Mining Company with over 300,000 downloads. This idle tycoon title successfully navigates the hybrid-casual market, standing out with its simple and addictive gameplay.
Challenge
Today’s mobile gaming market isn’t exactly rock n’ roll. Developers all over the world understand the struggle — the market is extremely saturated, and the costs of acquiring new users have gotten extremely high.
Getting quality users via standard ad networks has become quite difficult, especially for smaller studios.
Besides UA struggles, smaller studios like Onarlar Games are also facing monetization challenges. Many strategies from the old monetization playbook are no longer effective. To stay competitive (and profitable), developers need to adapt their strategies to market trends and ever-changing player preferences.
Solution
In response to today’s UA and monetization challenges, Onarlar Games studio started exploring new approaches. They came across an enticing publishing offer from Ciao Games, MAF’s publishing branch.
The main reason they selected Ciao Games over other options is their unique approach to user acquisition.
While most publishers continue to rely on traditional UA methods, Ciao Games uses an in-house user acquisition solution — MyChips powered by MAF. MyChips is a discovery-based advertising solution known for driving high-value app users.
Some other factors that made the developer choose Ciao Games are its revenue sharing model, studio-oriented approach, international team, and most of all — sincerity. At Onarlar Games, they emphasize the importance of having transparent and honest business partners.
Results
Ciao Games played a major role in boosting Onarlar Games’ user base and game revenues. With the help of Ciao Games, the developer’s biggest game, Idle Mining Company became even bigger.
Previously, this game monetized with in-app purchases only, missing out on potential revenue. Ciao Games suggested modifying the game’s monetization strategy and introducing ad placements. As a result, Onarlar Games saw a 5x increase in IAP revenue.
But, it’s not just new monetization tweaks that boosted the game’s revenues. Another important factor for this was acquiring high-value players with impressive short and long-term retention rates through MyChips
Promoting the game via MAF’s ad network, Idle Mining Company’s D1 retention rates averaged at 46%. This is a significant boost compared to the D1 retention average from other UA sources like Facebook (40%) and organic (35%). The game’s long-term retention rates via MAF are equally impressive, averaging at 14% on D7 and 8% on D14.
Where do all these quality users come from?
The game’s user acquisition campaigns were particularly successful in Japan, the US, and South Korea. Making it in these strong mobile gaming markets is tough, but it’s very much possible with the right partner.
Looking Ahead
As described by Onarlar Games, by partnering with Ciao Games, they “discovered new earning opportunities from places they never imagined.”
Fueled by great results and teamwork, the collaboration between Ciao Games and Onarlar continues.
In a world where user acquisition costs are sky-high, having well-optimized games and acquiring quality players is more important than ever.
Ciao Games helps game studios transform their games and discover new audiences. If you need help with growing your games, reach out to Ciao Games. If you’re interested in new UA opportunities for your app, explore what MyChips can do for you.
