The cost of user acquisition is often one of the biggest challenges that game developers and publishing studios face.
Competition is intense and players have more choice than ever, but you need to think of UA as an investment that leads to long-term value.
In fact, studios with a clear UA strategy can grow more steadily and predictably than those relying on chance.
In this article, we go over the cost of user acquisition in 2026 and analyze how much big companies are spending to acquire their players.
What Is CAC, Customer Acquisition Cost?
Customer Acquisition Cost (also called CAC or cost of user acquisition) refers to the cost of acquiring new users for your app or players for your game.
User acquisition expenses typically include all those costs associated with sales, marketing and advertising.
For example, a few things to consider when you calculate your CAC are:
- Paid ads (Meta, TikTok, Google).
- Rewarded advertising networks.
- The production of ad creatives.
- UA tools (analytics, CRM systems, automation tools, etc.).
- Influencer marketing.
- Agencies or staff salaries.
To determine how much you spend on acquiring new users, you can use this formula:
Let’s say that you spent $2000 and you acquired 500 users. Your CAC here would be $4.
Average Cost of User Acquisition for Mobile Games
In 2025, the gaming industry spent $25 billion on user acquisition (AppsFlyer, The State of Gaming for Marketers – 2026 Edition).
In general, it’s not possible to calculate an average CAC, since expenses vary from studio to studio.
For example, costs vary widely depending on where you advertise, which platform you’re on, and what kind of game you’re promoting.
A metric that can give us an idea of an average user acquisition cost is the CPI (cost per install). CPIs are a major component of UA and refer to the price you pay for each new install.
Let’s take a look at average CPIs for different categories.
Average CPI by Platform
Platform differences still play a major role in UA costs:
- iOS: ~$4.70 per install
- Android: ~$3.40 per install
iOS continues to attract the majority of UA budgets in Western markets, but the difference with Android is thinning.
Average CPI by Region
| North America | $5.28 |
| EMEA | $1.03 |
| APAC | $0.93 |
| Latin America | $0.34 |
It’s no surprise that CPIs in North America are way higher than the rest of the world. According to AppsFlyer, in 2025, 50% of total UA budgets were allocated to the US.
Average CPI by Mobile Game Genre
Even the game genre has an impact on the CPI:
| Genre | iOS | Android |
|---|---|---|
| Casual | $2.5 | $1.5 |
| Midcore | $4.5 | $3.25 |
| Hardcore | $6 | $4.5 |
| Puzzle | $3 | $2 |
| Strategy | $5.5 | $4 |
| Action | $4.5 | $3 |
| RPG | $6 | $4.5 |
| Sport | $3.5 | $2.5 |
| Simulation | $3.75 | $2.5 |
| Arcade | $3 | $2 |
From this table, we understand two things:
- iOS users are more expensive to acquire across all genres, and that’s because they are often associated with higher spending. So advertisers are willing to pay more for them.
- It is more expensive to acquire players for games that require a greater time investment, such as hardcore, RPG or midcore. Generally, the audience for these games is smaller but has a greater LTV, and this increases the competition.
Average CPI by Advertising Platform
Finally, let’s take a look at the average CPIs by advertising platforms. Below, you can find the data for the most popular advertising platforms, Facebook, TikTok and Google.
| Platform | Min. | Max. |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook Ads | $2 | $5.5 |
| TikTok Ads | $1.5 | $4 |
| Google Ads | $1.5 | $4.5 |
All the data on CPIs comes from the Business of Apps.
What Top Mobile Gaming Companies Spend on UA (Real Examples)
Playtika
In its financial report for 2024, Playtika did not have a standalone user acquisition voice, but its UA costs were included within the Sales and Marketing expenses.
The total of these expenses was around $1.64 billion, and the company also states that user acquisition is a large component of that category.
Take-Two Interactive & Zynga
Take-Two Interactive is a video games company that publishes video games for different platforms.
In 2022, it acquired Zynga, which focuses only on mobile games.
In its financial report, Take-Two doesn’t break UA spend separately, and the cost of mobile UA is included in the overall operating expenses. In 2024, these expenses amounted to $5.83 billion.
However, looking at the latest financial report for Zynga that we could find, the one for 2021, we see that expenses for Sales and Marketing amount to $955 million.
Scopely – Monopoly Go
There aren’t public financial statements for Scopely, but their CEO stated that the company spent around $1 billion on marketing for Monopoly GO! alone.
And the investment seemed to be worth it.
The game has become one of the fastest-growing mobile games ever, and in 2025, it reached over $6 billion in lifetime in-app purchase revenue.
As you see, big gaming companies spend billions every year on UA.
Of course, if you’re a small studio or an indie developer, this isn’t something you can do.
But it shows you the importance of allocating part of your budget to UA campaigns.
What Is a Good Cost of User Acquisition?
So now that you have the full picture, let’s try and answer the most important question: how much should you spend on user acquisition?
To give you a clear answer, we asked our Demand Partnership Manager, Milky Dapon.
User acquisition for mobile gaming usually splits into two phases.
The first is a test phase. At this stage, advertisers usually spend $500-$1,000 per day, per region and platform. The goal of this phase is to validate CPI, retention and early ROAS.
Then, once the performance is proven, the campaign is ready to scale. In this phase, the budget is higher, ranging from $3,000-$5,000 per day to $10,000-$15,000 per day for bigger advertisers.
Overall, there’s no “right” budget on its own.
The right spend level depends on how efficiently a campaign turns ad spend into long-term value. In other words, successful UA focuses less on volume and more on profitability and stability over time.
Cost of User Acquisition: Final Thoughts
We’ve seen that the cost of user acquisition varies based on platform, region and genre, and what works for one studio may not work for another.
At the end of the day, what matters most is understanding how user acquisition fits into your broader growth strategy.
The examples from large gaming companies show how central UA is to mobile gaming success. But you don’t need billion-dollar budgets to apply the same principles.
So keep testing and remember to aim at long-term value: you’ll find the perfect UA strategy for your game!
