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Twice a year, AppsFlyer - one of the leading mobile attribution companies - releases their industry standard Performance Index, which ranks different mobile media sources according to volume and quality. The 10th edition of the Performance Index covers the second half of 2019, and covers 38B app installs across 20K different apps.

In Appsflyer’s latest performance index covering H2 2019 ironSource’s ad network was ranked third in the world in volume for games globally, across both Android and iOS. ironSource is also ranked the third best network driving quality across operating systems for all categories of apps globally, and top third in quality for iOS games in the global Power Ranking. Following only Google and Facebook, this makes ironSource the largest independent network in the world serving game and app developers and helping them scale their businesses

This is borne out by a more in-depth look at the report, which shows ironSource dominating the top 3 spots across different game categories and geos, including top-grossing categories which are focused on sourcing high-paying users:

  • ironSource is the top network for both volume and quality for casual games on iOS globally
  • ironSource is the second largest network for hardcore games on iOS globally in terms of volume 
  • ironSource is a top 3 network for volume for midcore games on iOS in North America, Western Europe, Japan & Korea, SEA and Australia & New Zealand 
  • ironSource is the second largest network for both volume and quality for arcade games on Android in North America 

We are also the fastest-growing network in Latin America and third-fastest in India, two of the fastest-growing game markets in the world. 

This recognition is a direct result of our consistent focus on the game industry over the last few years. It has enabled us to outgrow our competitors to become the leading solution for game developers today outside of Google and Facebook, and to become the single most impactful network in terms of quality and volume for casual games, which make up the bulk of mobile games. 

Our approach is simple but effective - to consistently focus our efforts on understanding the specific problems faced by game developers of all sizes today, and developing innovative products to solve them. As Appsflyer points out in their report:

ironSource continued its upward climb thanks to a significant investment in product, leading the network to 3rd place in the universal gaming volume ranking.”

By doing that we’ve been able to be first to market with revolutionary products like impression level revenue, A/B testing for ad monetization, ad-revenue based ROAS optimizer, and cross promotion. It also means we’ve invested a huge amount in our creative production and optimization resources. In today’s hyper competitive and increasingly automated UA market, we know that creative is one of the last levers available to user acquisition managers at game companies looking to gain an edge, and we make sure our creative products and services empower them to do that. 

This approach differs from that of larger companies that are looking to support the widest variety of advertisers and publishers with one-size-fits all solutions. While they are able to achieve massive scale, their focus simply isn’t on solving problems like how to optimize ad monetization implementation in a game so that key metrics like retention and LTV are maximized, or how to automate and visualize in-ad data collected from interactive ads like playables. 

Gaming is one of the most exciting fields to operate in today. Mobile gaming revenue overtook revenue from films in 2019, and games are consistently in the top categories of consumer time spent - now more than ever as people look for ways to pass the time while on lockdown. Moving forward, our goal is to continue working towards our mission to help game developers turn their games into successful businesses, with a wider breadth of tools and products designed to help them do just that.

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