Mobile game conversion rates can tell you a lot about the industry, but, alone, they don’t give you the complete picture.
This guide breaks down three critical benchmarks for every mobile game marketer: conversion rates, IPM (installs per mille from ads), and IAP performance.
We analyzed benchmarks across genres and regions to understand what kind of games are growing right now and whether there are recurrent patterns to watch out for.
What Do We Mean by “Conversion Rate”?
In general, a conversion rate is the percentage of users who performed a specific action.
The action can vary depending on our goals: downloads, IAPs, reaching a certain level in a game and more.
Let’s say that 1000 users viewed your page on the app store, but only 60 actually downloaded your game.
Your conversion rate would be: (60/1000) x 100 = 6%
For this article, we will focus on three main benchmarks, called as follows:
- Conversion rate: the number of installs that come from your App Store or Google Play page.
- IPM rate: IPM (installs per mille) is the number of installs that come from 1000 ad impressions.
- IAP rate: the percentage of people who make an IAP.
Let’s dive right in.
Mobile Game Conversion Rates 2026
The first difference we notice is that users coming from the App Store or Google Play show different rates.
By making an average of the different conversion rates by mobile game genres, we see that Android users tend to convert better:
- Average App Store conversion rate: 8.7%
- Average Google Play conversion rate: 17.9%
Why Do Android Users Convert Better?
This may seem counterintuitive: it’s well-known that iOS users are usually of higher quality.
However, conversion rate isn’t directly tied to monetization, but it measures how many people downloaded a game from the app stores. So, it’s more of an ASO metric.
Google Play offers a smoother install experience than the App Store. You can download a game with just one tap, while on iOS it’s a two-step process.
The discovery process is also more intuitive, which naturally brings in more downloads.
Then, there’s also a difference in behavior.
iOS users tend to be more selective with the apps they install on their phones, but they also show higher retention rates and in-app spending.
Conversion Rates for Mobile Game Genres
In particular, the average conversion rates in iOS for each category of mobile games are:
| Category | Average conversion rate |
|---|---|
| Racing | 20.6% |
| Music | 20.5% |
| Adventure | 18.2% |
| Action | 10.9% |
| Sports | 10.3% |
| Simulation | 9.4% |
| Trivia | 8.2% |
| Card | 7.8% |
| Role Playing | 7.4% |
| Casino | 6.5% |
| Strategy | 6% |
| Word | 5.1% |
| Casual | 3.2% |
| Puzzle | 2% |
| Family | 1.5% |
| Board | 1.2% |
On the other hand, in Google Play:
| Category | Average conversion rate |
|---|---|
| Music | 45% |
| Educational | 40.6% |
| Sports | 23.1% |
| Racing | 20.6% |
| Trivia | 20.4% |
| Casino | 19.3% |
| Action | 18.3% |
| Puzzle | 16.7% |
| Simulation | 16.7% |
| Arcade | 15.9% |
| Role Playing | 15.3% |
| Casual | 14.3% |
| Adventure | 13.7% |
| Word | 10.5% |
| Strategy | 10% |
| Card | 8.3% |
| Board | 7.3% |
Looking at the mobile game genres with the lowest conversion rates, both charts show Board, Card and Word games as the bottom genres.
It isn’t difficult to understand why: there are many of these games available in the app stores, so each title faces stronger competition compared to other genres.
The data in this section was taken from the Business of Apps.
Mobile Game IPM Rates 2026
IPM rates measure how effective your ad is in bringing in downloads.
Specifically, it measures how many downloads you get from 1000 ad impressions.
According to the latest Adjust’s gaming apps report, the average global IPM for 2025 was 8.62.
Below you can find the average IPM for each mobile gaming category:
| Category | Average IPM |
|---|---|
| Racing | 16 |
| Arcade | 15.1 |
| Music | 13.9 |
| Action | 13.2 |
| Hyper-casual | 12.8 |
| Trivia | 10.3 |
| Casual | 9.7 |
| Sports | 9.4 |
| Puzzle | 8.4 |
| Swap | 7.9 |
| Board | 7.7 |
| Word | 7.4 |
| Hybrid-casual | 7.1 |
| Adventure | 6.5 |
| Family | 5.9 |
| Card | 5.2 |
| Strategy | 5.1 |
| Casino | 5 |
| RPG | 3.9 |
| Simulation | 3.9 |
| Slots | 2.6 |
| Idle RPG | 2 |
The chart shows slightly different data from the conversion rates for mobile games, but Racing and Music games are still in the top 3 positions.
IPM Rates by Region
Of course, regions also have an impact on IPM rates.
Here are the average IPM rates, according to Adjust:
| Europe | 10 |
| MENA | 9.8 |
| North America | 9.4 |
| LATAM | 9.3 |
| APAC | 8 |
Overall, we notice minimal differences across regions.
Looking at the top countries for IPM rates, these are the five that stand out:
| India | 10.5 |
| Brazil | 10.4 |
| Saudi Arabia | 9.9 |
| US | 9.5 |
| Mexico | 9.3 |
The data in the section was taken from Adjust.
Mobile Game IAP Rates 2026
Lastly, let’s take a look at the average rate for in-app purchases.
While downloads can be a volatile metric – after all, your players can uninstall your game shortly after – IAP rates give a better understanding of performance and revenue potential.
According to Sensor Tower, the total IAP revenue in 2025 was $81.7 billion, a +1.3% increase from 2024.
So, the trend is overall positive across the whole industry.
This is how the different categories performed in 2025:
| Strategy | +$3.44B |
| Puzzle | +$1.79B |
| Shooter | +$826M |
| Tabletop | +$146M |
| Sports | +$22M |
| Arcade | -$69M |
| Racing | -$63M |
| Simulation | -$723M |
| Casino | -$828M |
| Action | -$1.4B |
| RPG | -$1.7B |
The mobile game genres that experienced the highest growth in terms of IAP were Strategy, Puzzle and Shooter games.
This growth is mostly led by top-performing games, such as Last War Survival, Royal Match or Delta Force.
On the other hand, RPG, Action and Casino earned way less than in 2024.
The data in the section was taken from Sensor Tower.
Let’s Bring This Data Together
Ok, now that we have all the numbers, what do they actually mean?
You May Need a Different Strategy for iOS and Android
Platform performance is more nuanced than it appears.
Android has higher conversion rates for mobile games, but iOS users bring higher retention and spending.
From a UA perspective, this means that you may need to implement two different strategies based on the platform and your goals.
A Quality Audience Is More Valuable Than a Huge One
Conversion rates and IAP don’t always match.
- Racing is the top genre for conversion rates, but it showed a negative IAP growth.
- On the other hand, Strategy has a much lower conversion rate, but it was the genre with the highest IAP growth.
In general, midcore titles are the ones with the best IAP performance, suggesting that it’s become more important to acquire a loyal audience rather than a huge one.
Emerging Markets Are an Opportunity
While countries like the United States, Japan or Korea are still the main goals of UA managers, you shouldn’t overlook emerging markets like India, Brazil or Mexico.
With their high IPM rates, these countries are more receptive to game discovery through ads.
Combining this with lower customer acquisition costs, it’s the perfect opportunity to run tests with different ad creatives.
Mobile Game Conversion Rates: Final Thoughts
Overall, the shift is clear: relying on downloads alone isn’t enough. The real revenue lies in finding the right users and retaining them.
As acquisition channels change and competition increases, this often requires rethinking how to find new, high-quality players.
At MAF, we help hundreds of studios and UA teams find the right audience through rewarded advertising.
If you’re exploring ways to improve user acquisition without sacrificing player quality, we’re always happy to share insights or walk through real use cases.
