2025 Casual Gaming Apps Report

Traditional ad formats lock you into a simple video plus playable combination. Liftoff Exclusive Ads Formats(LXAF) redefine ad experiences by assembling content into a wide range of engaging and unique ad experiences.

Drawing from Liftoff’s extensive experience optimizing over 600,000 creatives, these formats use first-party user behavior signals from the Vungle SDK to serve dynamic, highly personalized user experiences that drive engagement.

Liftoff Exclusive Ad Formats currently include: 

• Triple page, a format that provides users with a video ad followed by two end cards, creating three distinct opportunities for user engagement.
• Page Turner, an interactive creative that adapts based on user behavior

You can read more about Liftoff Exclusive Ad Formats here.

What trends are propelling new casual games toward success? To find out, we looked at GameRefinery data from new casual games released in the past two years. Below are the top games on iOS in the US market that have stayed consistently in the top-grossing 200.

(Source: GameRefinery SaaS, data extracted in March 2025, bold titles indicate games released in 2024 or later.)

Looking at high-grossing titles, we found a few trends that have successfully captured audience attention and user spend.

Midcore-leaning casual games are an ongoing trend in the casual game market. In 2024, we’ve seen more games feature innovative mash-up gameplay, usually combining unique hybrid-core mechanics with meta layers. Some notable examples include Love and Deepspace, which blends interactive story elements with a deep action RPG layer. The newest hit, Capybara Go! from HABBY, combines roguelite, casual casino, and idle RPG mechanics.

Match 3 games are showing signs of revival after a long period of market saturation dominated by existing giants. In 2024, new releases gained traction and became consistently some of the category’s highest-grossing games. Top titles include Royal Kingdom (featuring fight-level mechanics), Truck Star (introducing a truck-themed renovation meta), and Matching Story (blending Merge3 with match 3 puzzles).

More generally, hypercasual and hybrid puzzle gameplay trends that emerged in 2023 continued to gain momentum in 2024, and more new titles entered the top-grossing charts.

Two spiritual successors to hit titles—Royal Kingdom and Archero 2—also gained significant attention in 2024. While staying true to their original essence, both games introduce new mechanics and features, distinguishing themselves and quickly breaking into the top-grossing charts after launch.

GameRefinery data shows that the combined market share for hypercasual and other puzzle games in the US iOS top-grossing 500 rose collectively from $4.12 million to $13.99 million between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024.

Building on the success of Twisted Tangle, Hexa Sort, and Block Jam 3D in the past year, many new titles have adopted similarly simple yet addictive puzzle gameplay formats, incorporating unique twists to stand out. Some of these titles have successfully entered the top-grossing charts and maintained strong rankings.

Notable sorting puzzle games include Magic Sort!, Goods Puzzle: Sort Challenge, and Blossom Sort, while other puzzle-solving titles include Color Block Jam, Screw Jam, and Seat Away.

Color Block Jam has demonstrated consistent revenue growth since December 2024, breaking into the top-grossing 200 charts in January 2025 and sustaining a strong upward trend—revenue & downloads data (US market, iOS) from GameRefinery.

These games typically feature minimal to no meta elements, combining IAA and IAP monetization through session-length restriction bypasses and purchasable boosters. They also frequently integrate straightforward live events aligned with trending casual game event types to enhance player retention.

Magic Sort is the first successful hybrid-casual adaptation of the water-sorting puzzle format (previous ones were purely hypercasual). As a first-mover, it blends IAA with IAP-focused monetization, featuring a steep difficulty curve designed to drive player investment and spending. The game also follows a light liveops framework for player retention.

Sorting puzzle games are also growing in popularity. These focus on simple, puzzle-solving mechanics that combine ad monetization with in-app purchases (IAPs). They adopt trending event types from top-grossing games to improve player retention.

The popularity of live events is growing. Nearly all event types are seeing higher adoption rates, indicating the increasingly essential role events play in engagement and monetization.

Tracked puzzle games, board games, tycoon/crafting games, and casual casino games in the top 200 grossing chart at the end of 2024. (Data from GameRefinery Live Event Tracker tool)

Some notable event trends in the past year have included collectible albums, co-op missions, minigames, and win-streak events, each of which has seen significant growth. Limited-time meta-progression elements, particularly through collectible album events, are also gaining popularity.

We’ve also seen social live events shift from guild-based activities to short-term co-op missions, making them more accessible and frequent.

Over the past two years, partner events—evens where players partner with one or more other people—have expanded beyond casual casino games. First popularized by Monopoly GO!, these events are now common in match 3 (the most popular type), time management, tycoon, slots, and Solitaire games.

Monopoly Go!’s original version of its partner event lets players pair up with multiple partners to play the event. Players collect event currency through core gameplay and use it in minigames or randomized mechanics to gain points and progress. A key feature of this format is having separate event progress with each partnership, often with visual indicators tracking individual and overall event milestones.

Almost all games follow the same core structure of partner events originally introduced by Monopoly GO!. However recently, we have seen more variations and innovations from the trend-starter. Royal Match focused on leveraging social engagement even further.

Train Journey is a new variation on the partner event in Royal Match. Players form three partnerships instead of four. The event features a board game instead of Plinko (as in Dragon Nest) for its randomized progression mechanic. Rewards distribution emphasizes progression across all partnerships.

There are a few reasons why partner events are so effective:

1. They boost core gameplay engagement by encouraging players to return and collect event currency.
2. Partner events create shared goals and accountability through one-on-one partnerships.
3. They add excitement with minigames, introducing randomness and consistent small wins.

Truck Star adopts competitive elements in its partner event. Players form a team of four (instead of multiple pairs) and collect event currency through core gameplay/other events. The currency can be used in the randomized minigame to gain points and progress. Milestones rewards are handed out based on shared progression across teammates, and ultimate rewards are earned through multiple-phased competition between different teams.

An umbrella event is an overarching event in which players progress by participating in multiple smaller, concurrent events. They are among the fastest-growing event types, evolving from longer, season-based formats into more dynamic, short-term variations.

Umbrella events can act as progression frameworks, often incorporating collectible sets, encouraging participation across multiple events. Recently, short-term umbrellas have begun appearing within longer seasonal events, creating additional layers of engagement.

As part of these seasonal events, short-term collections are added to larger collectible album events to strengthen performance during weaker periods. Multi-staged “short-term task umbrellas” also introduce sequential unlocking missions, adding to the sense of progression.

Shorter-term mission events encourage players to engage with other events and in-game activities. They are often presented as multi-stage missions that unlock sequentially, creating a fresh way to communicate tasks or quests to the player. They also drive engagement among ‘taskmaster’ player archetypes by emphasizing task completion as a key motivational factor. (From left to right: short-term task umbrellas in Royal Match, Match Factory, and Gossip Harbor)

Umbrella Events are effective for clear reasons:

• Interconnected events make the gameplay loop feel cohesive rather than isolated
• They create a limited-time progression vector, encouraging higher engagement
• They also add depth to the in-game economy with new reward types (e.g., collectible cards)

Short-term collection sets have been introduced on top of core collection events to complement traditional, longer collectible album events, enhancing engagement throughout the event cycle. (From left to right: short-term collections in Coin Master and Dice Dreams)

In general, minigames serve as a secondary engagement loop, providing an alternative way to progress and earn rewards while reinforcing core gameplay monetization. In the past 12 months, minigame events have continued to expand. In particular, “thinking” minigames that feature varied mechanics have seen the highest adoption rates.

Minigames gaining popularity include:

• Digging minigames
• “Find the right formula” or Wordle-like minigames
• Physics-based minigames (e.g. “Drop & Merge”, Shooting, Plinko)
• Tetris-like block puzzle minigames
• Board game-inspired minigames

Only two distinct types—Digging and Wordle-like minigames—have achieved widespread adoption among core support minigames. (From left to right: digging minigame in Angry Birds Dream Blast and Wordle-like minigames in Hexa Sort and Gossip Harbor)

Minigames continue to be very effective for a number of reasons:

• They extend gameplay variety, making reward distribution more engaging than simple point-based event structures
• They encourage player investment in the core gameplay loop, creating indirect incentives for monetization
• Minigames can also be intertwined with UA activities, increasing player retention and engagement

The growing variety of minigame categories has diversified gameplay experiences. (From left to right: physics-based minigames in Merge Mansion and Match Factory, a Tetris-like block puzzle minigame in Royal Kingdom, and a board game minigame in Chapters: Interactive Stories)

Streak events feature a series of tasks or challenges that enable a player to stack up wins, pushing them to continue engaging to keep the streak going. Recently, we have seen streak events expand beyond level-based puzzle games to merge 2, bingo, slots, and casual casino subgenres.

There are two key formats for streak events: 

• “Social win streaks” where players are matched against “other players” to complete target streaks and share the main prize 
• “Win streaks” are defined by multipliers, where event progression scales based on consecutive wins

Social Win Streak, first introduced in Royal Match, is one of the trendiest event types in level-based puzzle games. This event type now expands to non-traditional “fail state” games, using fake matchmaking, competitive structures, and time-based tasks to maintain player investment. (From left to right: Social Win Streaks in Gossip Harbor and Coin Master)

Streak events are becoming a staple for many reasons: 

• They leverage loss aversion, a strong psychological motivator, to encourage engagement and spending
• Continued wins offer high returns for sustained effort, boosting player confidence and engagement
• They heighten event stakes, particularly in competitive formats, increasing urgency and investment in maintaining streaks

Win streak multipliers increase event score accumulation based on consecutive wins in level-based games. While more common in competitive leaderboard events, they also appear in 1v1 events, minigames, battle passes, etc. (From left to right: event multipliers in Royal Match, Tile Busters, and Toy Blast)

As the casual gaming market evolves, developers are continuously experimenting with innovative monetization formats to enhance player experience and revenue potential. Over the past year, several emerging monetization models have gained traction.

Customizable IAP bundles have become more popular in top casual titles, while pick-one bundles are seeing wider adoption. We’ve also seen new variations that introduce unique twists to make them more attractive.

Additionally, some titles have adopted more player-friendly IAA models, with innovations such as audio ads and temporary “remove ads” offers. The latter typically allows players to disable ads using in-game currency.

Audio ads are a nonintrusive ad format in which players passively listen to ads while playing, creating a less disruptive ad and gameplay experience.

Unlike video ads, audio ads allow gameplay to remain active, enhancing engagement. With proper implementation, this ad format can also create a podcast-like experience or a “radio-like” nostalgic feel for players.

Audio ads in Pocket Land

A key example is the audio ads in Pocket Land. The player receives a notification when an audio ad starts, avoiding sudden audio surprises. They must increase volume to earn rewards, but there are no visual interruptions, and players can continue playing while listening.

Temporary “remove ads” offers in “Yahtzee with Buddies Dice” and “Block Heads.”

This offer allows players to disable ads for a set duration (e.g., 24 or 48 hours.) Players can spend in-game currency (earned through gameplay or purchases) to temporarily disable ads. This provides greater flexibility and accessibility than traditional one-time ad removal purchases or subscriptions, which typically require real money.

Customizable IAP bundles, or build-your-own IAP bundles, are generally more popular in midcore games and more complex casual titles since they require a wider game economy. Lately, however, they have been gaining traction in top casual titles.

The core idea of this bundle type is to allow players to personalize their purchases by selecting items that best suit their needs. This can increase conversion rates and give players more “player agency” in the purchase.

Some variations of customizable IAP bundles include:

• Partially customizable: Where players can choose items within a fixed bundle structure, where certain slots are pre-determined
• Fully customizable with fixed-price selection: Where players pick a set number of items for a fixed price, regardless of content
• Fully customizable with adjustable pricing: Where players select a varying number of items, and the price adjusts accordingly
• Fully customizable with randomized selection: Where players interact with a slot-like or randomized revealing mechanic before selecting items, adding an element of surprise and exclusivity

Merge Mansion’s build-your-own bundle includes six item slots, with three pre-determined by the game, and the rest being customizable. Players can purchase up to five bundles.

Match Masters‘ customizable bundles allow players to pick three items for a fixed price.

Triple Match 3D allows players to select up to 9 items, and pricing adjusts dynamically based on the chosen content.

Coin Master’s customizable bundles use a randomized selection mechanic. Items are revealed in a slot-like system before selection, adding a feel of exclusivity.

Pick-one bundles have gained tremendous popularity in 2024, with many high-performing casual games incorporating them into their bundle selection. The most common pick-one bundle format presents players with a small selection of bundles at different price points. These often include a special discount for purchasing all bundles together, encouraging players to opt for the more valuable offer.

A common pick-one bundle format in Monopoly GO! and a limited opportunity in Merge Mansion

Additionally, we’ve seen unique variations of the pick-one bundle that introduce elements like limited quantity offers or real-life event tie-ins. These add-ons can increase urgency and enhance perceived value.

Merge Mansion uses limited opportunity, a type of scarcity mechanics to limit the quantity of each bundle, creating urgency and encouraging quick purchases before bundles sell out. This approach leverages Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) to drive conversions.

A “Choose Your Winner!” interactive option in Grand Solitaire Harvest

“Choose Your Winner!” in Grand Solitaire Harvest mimics a betting-like experience by tying into the real-life Super Bowl event, creating a timely and interactive purchase option. Players choose one of two themed bundles, each representing a Super Bowl finalist team. Those who pick the winning bundle receive additional rewards the next day.