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KPIs That Matter: What Metrics to Track in Hybrid Casual Games

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Vladislava Stukacheva – May 6, 2025

Summary

  • Ads alone aren’t enough — hybrid casual games need data-driven monetization to scale.
  • Tracking the right KPIs helps you grow sustainably, improve retention, and maximize LTV.
  • In its publishing approach, TapNation tracks many metrics (CPI, RPM, ROAS, ARPDAU, etc.) to gain insights and optimize better.
  • Success isn’t about one number — it’s about how these metrics work together across UA, engagement, and monetization.

You Can’t Grow What You Don’t Measure

 

In the fast-paced mobile gaming world, the shift from hyper-casual to hybrid casual games is changing the way we define success. Success isn’t just about creative gameplay — it’s about performance. And performance is driven by the right metrics.

The rules of user acquisition are changing. In the past, it was enough to drive massive install volumes and rely solely on ad revenue. But with hybrid games — where monetization depends more on in-app purchases — you need quality users, not just quantity. That means moving beyond surface-level metrics and using KPIs that measure deeper engagement and monetization potential.

Here’s what every hybrid casual developer needs to track:

Key Metrics for User Acquisition

 

You can’t build a profitable game if you’re overpaying for users — or worse, bringing in the wrong ones. Here are the KPIs we track to spot friction, understand user behavior, and scale what works in our mobile games.

  • Cost Per Install (CPI) – Measures how much you’re spending to acquire each user.→ This KPI helps measure how efficiently your ad spend brings in new users across channels like TikTok, Google Ads, and Unity Ads. At TapNation, Tippy Toe proved that even a hyper casual title can crush acquisition costs — with early tests hitting a CPI as low as $0.20 on TikTok. The key? Fast creative iteration and picking the right UA platforms from the start.
  • Revenue per Mille (RPM) – Ad revenue per 1,000 impressions.→ Helps optimize your ad placements and frequency. High RPM means you’re monetizing ad views efficiently without flooding the user experience.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR) – The percentage of users who click on your ad after seeing it.→ A strong CTR means your creatives are catching attention. It’s an early indicator of ad effectiveness and helps optimize spend.
  • Conversion Rate (CVR) – The percentage of users who install the game after clicking the ad.→ Measures how well your store page and onboarding funnel convert interest into action. It highlights the effectiveness of your user journey from ad to install.
  • Install-to-Registration Rate (IRR) – Tracks how many users actually engage post-download.→ Signals the quality of onboarding and the first-session hook.
  • Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) – Tells you how much revenue you’re generating per dollar spent.→ UA managers at TapNation use ROAS to decide what campaigns to scale and what to cut. Thus Hero Making Tycoon reached over 7M downloads globally, with strong performance in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea — proving that tuning UA by region can drive both reach and revenue.
  • Cohorted Retention (D0, D1, D7, D30) – Shows whether players stick around beyond the install.→ For example, Giant Rush boosted D1 retention by 4% just by tweaking in-game animations. And similarly, Wordling increased its overall retention by 6% following strategic product updates, proving how small changes to the user experience can lead to significant retention improvements.

Monetization Metrics

 

Hybrid monetization means balancing IAPs and ads without hurting retention.

  • Ad Revenue Per Daily Active User (ARPDAU) – Tracks how much daily revenue you’re earning per user via ads.→ This includes all ad formats (rewarded, interstitial, banner) and can be broken down by type to identify what’s performing. TapNation boosted ad revenue views by 14% in Giant Rush by adjusting ad mechanics.
  • Lifetime Value (LTV) – Your north star. It tells you if your UA strategy is scalable, and it’s a key indicator of whether your game will thrive long-term.→ TapNation’s monetization team aligns LTV with UA teams in real time to ensure growth loops are sustainable. The higher the Lifetime Value, the higher overall profitability of your game.
  • Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) – Measures total earnings from users (ad + IAP combined).→ A healthy ARPU indicates that monetization is well-integrated into the player experience, as demonstrated by Hero Making Tycoon, which earned over $5M from 7M players. This success illustrates how a balanced hybrid monetization approach — combining IAP bundles, time-savers, and rewarded ads — can drive a strong ARPU.
  • IAP Conversion Rate – Shows the percentage of players making in-app purchases.→ Combine this with offer timing and bundle design tests to push performance further.
  • eCPM (Effective Cost Per Mille) – Revenue earned per 1,000 ad impressions.→ eCPM is a key driver of ARPDAU, and — just like ARPDAU — it changes depending on the ad network and format. Higher eCPM means every ad impression works harder. We track this closely across networks and formats, continuously testing creatives, placements, and formats to maximize value without harming UX.
  • Impressions per Daily User – How many ad impressions each active player generates per day.→ This metric links monetization with Live Ops and Publishing strategies. Too few impressions? You’re leaving money on the table. Too many? You risk churn. Finding that balance is key, especially for hybrid casual games that rely on both IAPs and ad revenue to scale. A balance in ad frequency is crucial — if it’s too high, you risk ad fatigue or player churn, which can hurt retention and long-term growth.

 

Testing new ad partners or networks plays a vital role in optimizing monetization for hybrid games. When a test yields positive results, such as a higher eCPM or improved fill rates, it directly enhances revenue. If the test doesn’t perform as expected, you can make adjustments and continue monitoring key metrics to refine your strategy.

Bonus from TapNation’s Monet Team

 

Monetization Myths to Watch Out for

More Ads ≠ More Revenue: One common myth is that simply showing more ads will generate more revenue. In fact, if ads are overdone, they can negatively impact retention and eCPM, as players might get annoyed and churn. A balance of ad frequency and relevance is key to effective monetization.

Misunderstanding eCPM and Fill Rate: While these metrics are important, they don’t provide the full picture on their own. It’s important to evaluate them in the context of other metrics like retention and ARPDAU, as too many ads or low-quality ads can harm the overall player experience and mess up your monetization efforts.

Engagement Metrics

Great acquisition means nothing if users don’t stick around. Attracting players is just the start — the real challenge is keeping them engaged. So how do you do that?

  • Session Length – Measures how long users are playing.→ Short sessions are common and essential in hyper casual games, but in hybrid casual games, they may signal weak gameplay loops or poor progression pacing. Make sure to closely monitor these patterns.
  • Sessions per DAU – Reveals how often users return in a day.→ It is a critical KPI in games with layered content, meta-loops, or daily challenges. Take Wordling, a word puzzle game by Joyglitch and TapNation, which offers multiple game modes (not just one word per day). This approach increased daily session count by giving users more reasons to return.
  • Playtime & Interaction Depth – Combined with qualitative feedback, this helps refine mechanics and level design.

Technical Performance Metrics

 

Even a perfectly monetized game will fail if it doesn’t run smoothly.

  • Crash Rate – The percentage of sessions that end due to the game crashing.→ Unstable games kill retention instantly. Monitor crash logs closely.
  • Load Times & Device Compatibility – Crucial for hybrid casual games targeting mass markets.→ Test extensively on both high-end and low-end devices during soft launch. With TapNation Hero Making Tycoon performed well on both high-end and low-end devices, ensuring global reach and smooth performance across various device types during its soft launch.

Why These Metrics Must Work Together

Our teams know that metrics don’t live in silos. They’re part of a continuous feedback loop:

  1. UA tests CPI and ROAS across networks.
  2. Monetization fine-tunes ad placement, IAP offers, and tests hypotheses.
  3. Performance data (LTV, retention, revenue spikes) is tracked and analyzed to guide decisions.
  4. Games are either scaled — or refined — based on performance.

 

“It’s all interconnected. UA informs Monet. Monet feeds back to Product. Everyone aligns around performance.” – Andrei Luzan, Monetization Manager at TapNation

This loop helped TapNation improve LTV by 100% in 30 days in Giant Rush, scale Ice Cream Inc. with a 35% increase in SDK spend, and push multiple games into multi-million-download territory.

Final Word: Metrics Are the Strategy

TapNation’s transition to hybrid casual games shows that relying solely on ads or creative gameplay won’t make your game profitable — and it certainly won’t scale. TapNation’s publishing model proves that hybrid games success depends on more than just surface-level tactics. It’s about finding the right balance between user engagement and monetization. Metrics now guide every decision, from campaign testing to in-game monetization setups.

Tracking the right KPIs isn’t optional — it’s how you build profitable, scalable games in a crowded market. Hybrid casual success comes from knowing what works, what doesn’t, and what to tweak.

At TapNation, this mindset powers everything — from UA campaigns to creative testing, ad stack optimization to retention design.

Want to Create a Hybrid Casual Mobile Game that’s Fun to Play & Scales Profitably?

We’ve partnered with studios and developers around the world to transform bold ideas into global million-download mobile hits. If you’re looking to scale smarter, monetize more effectively, and build a game that stands out in today’s crowded market, we’re here to help.

Submit your game and partner with TapNation to take it to the next level!

 

References

[1] – https://www.tap-nation.io/blog/hero-making-tycoon-a-hybrid-casual-idle-mobile-game-case-study/
[2] – https://www.tap-nation.io/blog/the-tapnation-growth-model-for-user-acquisition-monetization/ 
[3] – https://www.tap-nation.io/blog/wordling-a-hybrid-casual-word-puzzle-mobile-game-case-study/
[4] – https://www.tap-nation.io/blog/the-tapnation-growth-model-for-user-acquisition-monetization/
[5] – https://www.tap-nation.io/games/ice-cream-inc/
[6] – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hypercarrot.giantrush&hl=en
[7] – https://www.tap-nation.io/blog/tippy-toe-reach-the-top-2-months-after-launch/