Background
Mystery Tag is an international mobile game developer and publisher with headquarters in Cyprus. The company’s most successful game is Harvest Land, a farming title from 2015 with over 30 million downloads. The company initially focused on the farming genre, but later expanded its portfolio with over 10 titles from different genres. Mystery Tag aims to develop unique games that combine original ideas, addictive gameplay, and a compelling visual style. Guided by this, they have recently reached a milestone of 60 million worldwide downloads.
Challenge
Like most mobile game developers today, Mystery Tag faces market challenges caused by dense competition and rising UA costs. One of their key goals is scaling their games while securing a positive ROI (return on investment).
Another important goal Mystery Tag aims to achieve through its UA efforts is acquiring engaged, loyal players who will demonstrate long-term retention.
Over time, the studio has tested numerous ad networks and faced a persistent issue — their retention rates have been below expectations. Even when the ad networks were able to provide them with a decent scale, they didn’t shine so bright when it came to user retention. This highlighted the need for a strategy that can balance scale with strong retention rates.
Solution
Mystery Tag takes a diverse approach to user acquisition, always looking for new and effective UA channels.
This led them to discover MyChips, MAF’s rewarded advertising solution. MyChips is known for its engaging ad formats and the ability to drive high-quality users.
At Mystery Tag, they put it like this: “The traffic from MyChips is a good combination of reasonable CPI and high enough LTV.”
The most notable ad format on the MyChips platform is P2E (Play2Earn), which rewards users for their engagement and playstyle, leading to positive retention, LTVs, and ROAS. Mystery Tag has leveraged P2E campaigns in Tier 1 markets and saw significant growth.
Results
Mystery Tag and MAF have been working together for over a year. Thanks to the strong campaign performance throughout this period, the studio increased its ad spend on the MyChips platform by 10x.
Given the positive performance, it was a logical move for Mystery Tag to increase their investment in ad spend.
MAF also helped Mystery Tag expand its presence in Tier 1 markets like Korea and Japan. Specifically, with P2E campaigns, the number of game installs in Korea increased by 2x, and by 1.5x in Japan. This made MyChips the top-performing channel in Korea, and the second-best in Japan.
In another Tier 1 market, the US, the advertiser observed strong retention results.
Specifically, they found that MyChips significantly outperformed other ad channels in terms of retention rates for their top games. Their hit farming title, Harvest Land, saw a 25% higher average retention, while their idle game, Crypto Miner Tycoon, saw a 20% higher retention average.
At the studio, they attribute this success to MAF’s expert campaign management: “Our account manager, Kumar, has played a key role in our campaign success by providing recommendations for GEOs, campaign types, and bids. Also, our communication is structured, which helps us manage our numerous campaigns effectively.”
Thanks to all this, MyChips ranks high on the list of the top-performing ad channels for Mystery Tag. The studio works with over 20 ad networks, and MyChips has made the top 5, surpassing many renowned ad networks.
Looking Ahead
As Mystery Tag and MAF proceed with their collaboration, they are committed to further boosting retention, ROI, and performance in Tier 1 markets.
Are you pursuing similar UA goals for your games? Get in touch and let’s start writing your own success story together.
