Industry Insights

What'sactuallyworkinginmobilegamingcreativein2026

Three angles that are scaling across casual and midcore right now, and one that's quietly dying.

Rhys·March 28, 2026·6 min read

Across the gaming accounts we run, three creative patterns are scaling. One pattern that printed money last year is now a CPA tax.

What's scaling

Fake-fail puzzle hooks. POV streamer reactions. AI-generated character lore reveals.

What's dying

Pure gameplay UI screen recordings. CPM is up, hook rate is down, and players are increasingly skeptical of anything that looks like an ad in their first second.

Rhys

Founder of The Social Outline. 8 years running performance creative for mobile apps.

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